Twice this week, high school students came back to my gym after working out on their own this winter. They both complained of hitting the ball worse this week than they did in the fall – which in the DC area was the first good golf weather week this year. They had hit plenty of golf balls to keep their swings sharp. They did hit off of mats and not grass, but why would a swing get progressively worse while working out? One was shanking the ball, the other was hitting lots of fat shots – but both of them were frustrated and confused.

I did my normal quarterly assessment to see what kind of physical changes had taken place and what we need to do to get the ready for summer tournaments. In both cases, I found a decreased amount of shoulder movement – specifically in external range of motion. I questioned each of them individually to find out what exercises they were doing the last couple months. Each of them confessed to working out with a friend – non golfers of course – who was trying to bulk up and did lots of chest exercises.

Yes, the chest is an important muscle group in the golf swing, but arbitrarily strengthening any one area – they way they did – is a bad idea. As a result, we are going to have to do some work to undo what was done and regain shoulder motion. A tight right shoulder for a right handed golfer can cause the club to release too soon (can cause contact problems – specifically fat shots) or cause the golfer to side bend too much to compensate for the shoulder (can cause shanks – a lot of shanks for better players).

If you are going to do isolation exercises, do glute exercises. Hip hikers and bridges are great isolation exercises that will actually help your golf swing – you can find links at www.mytpi.com.

I know that a big chest is cool in high school, but elite golfers just say no to the bench and so should you.