Roughly four weeks before the start of the golf season is a good time to transition into a Pre Season Golf Specific conditioning program where the program will lead from general to specific, and the exercises and intensities move closer to the actual demands of in season play. In other words, the time is now to get yourself in “golf shape.”
In addition to resistance and flexibility training, you will want to concentrate heavily on cardiovascular routines as well.
After building a base over the last 6-8 weeks during the off season with low to medium intensity sessions of 20–40 minutes in duration of aerobic activity, there should have been an increase in our baseline fitness and heart rate response to the effort making it more possible to increase the level of frequency, intensity and duration with golf specific modes of exercise in mind.
Do consider moving into a steady state training mode with more intensity and an interval based training mode with varying levels of intensity using a heart rate monitor. Remember to use the formula for computing your max heart rate while predicting a safe level of intensity.
Don’t combine your high intensity cardio days with weight training routines. This can be a compromise to the weight training and make it less effective and unsafe as you are possibly more fatigued than usual lacking good form and energy.
Do start to become more specific with your cardiovascular training mode such as using a treadmill walking at various inclines. If training outdoors use elevation gains of walking hills to vary intensity.
Don’t use cardiovascular training as the sole means for getting into shape this spring for golf. While aerobic conditioning is good for endurance and weight loss, we risk losing a lot of lean muscle tissue, strength and power if we don’t include resistance training exercises with it.
Most importantly DO consult your physician before attempting any new exercise programs.
Using a smart pre-season program of training will help maximize each fitness component of resistance training, cardiovascular and flexibility, allowing us to transfer these gains into golf specific performance when the season arrives.