Now that you have broken the ice with your golf fitness program and exercise routine, let’s begin to add the next ingredient… endurance.

Like any physical attribute, endurance doesn’t just happen. And it doesn’t just happen for your golf game by hitting massive amounts of range balls either.

When I speak of endurance, I refer to actual aerobic fitness for you golf game.

Endurance or more precisely, the lack of it is probably the single most prevalent factor in one’s game losing its edge through the course of the day.

Even if you ride in the cart! Don’t kid yourself.

Golf is such a precise game and requires such precise timing and contact, that any deterioration in muscular execution can and will add strokes to your round. Even if you perceive yourself to be ‘tired’ or not. When your muscular strength begins to wane, so will your focus. So, endurance is a double edged sword. Without it your muscular execution begins to change and so does your focus and mental toughness.

The best golf exercise there is for the endurance piece of your golf fitness routine is to get out and walk. It’s free, it’s actually quite relaxing, and it works. And I don’t mean a leisurely stroll for a few minutes around your local mall. Get outside. You golf outside.

You have to work your way up to where you are walking up and down some hills. Maybe not initially, but eventually.

If you can, walk across real terrain as part of your fitness routine, not just down the sidewalk.

Get your muscles used to the ups the downs and the shifting of the footing underneath you. These types of golf exercises are invaluable!

If you walk only at the mall for example, then get out on the golf course where your muscles begin to experience, and have to adjust to hills, the bumps and clumps of grass, sand, and all the other terrain, you will find that this will bring other muscles into play… muscles that won’t be in shape and will tire and get sore.

Remember, the goal of (and by definition) endurance equates to aerobic fitness or cardiovascular fitness so; you’re going to have to work up a bit of a sweat to achieve this. But think long term.

Do not try to elevate your endurance over a short period of time. We’re not going into ‘training’ here. We are talking about a consistent golf exercise and fitness routine that you can manage and enjoy for the long haul. Your endurance will come literally one step at a time. So let it.

O.K… back from your walk already!

Great!

Let’s finish up with complementing your golf fitness with proper nutrition and how all this ties together to improving your golf game from the inside out.

Play Good Golf!

Jeff O'Brien