Medicine Ball Golf Exercises for More Power

THE QATSPY® Yankee Performance Sports Training Athletic Quarter

By: Charles W. Boatright

My main focus working out with a Medicine Ball, resistance tubing, and free weights is to improve Power and Distance in my golf game. Fitness has become a power factor in the golfer’s performance. The Medicine Ball is a major part of my golf fitness program for core strength and flexibility. But fitness is also key for gaining stability, range of motion, and even more important, mental health. What is good for the heart and body is good for the mind as well.

Fitness is key for avoiding injuries, especially in the lower lumbar area. A lot of my exercise elements works my abdominal muscles. Good abdominal muscles translates into good back strength and health. The golfer’s lower back is where most of the injuries occur, regardless of the golfer’s age. If the golfer doesn’t maintain their core strength and flexibility, injuries will plague the golfer, decreasing their stability, range of motion, and ability to enjoy the game.

 

In my article Golf Trainer Home Gym, I describe how the golfer can set up their own home gym for both their convenience and fitness, especially when they can’t go or get to the gym. In this article, I listed the equipment that I use in my CASPER (Cardiovascular, Aerobic, Strength, Plyometrics, Exercise Regimen) Workout Program and FREE YouTube Videos in 3-Parts. This workout program is detailed in Section 20 of my book, The ESPY Golf Swing Coach. This workout is a simple but very effective means for the golfer to improve their performance, not just on the golf course but in general. I’m 63 years old in the image above, and I still do the work around my farm and walk 18-holes, three to four times per week. As a matter of fact, I feel as good, if not better, than I did at age 35. I have been following my CASPER Workout Program since I was 12 years old.

In the photograph above is me in my Home GYM with the only equipment I use to workout with for 45- minutes to One hour. If you are just setting up your gym and want to purchase just the essential equipment at first, I would suggest the following:

• Exercise Tubing (10, 15, 25, 50, 100 Lbs)
• Dumbbells (15, 25, 30, and 35 Lbs)
• Medicine Ball (15 and 20 Lbs)
• Ab Roller
• Punching Bag (80 Lbs) and gloves
• Exercise Bike (Mountain and stationary)
• Kickball
• Box for a seat with a 18″ x 48″ 3/4″ piece of plywood (Leg lifts and bench presses)
• Exercise Mat or a stadium cushion. 

The two big ticket items are the programmable stationary bicycle and the punching bag. If I had to choose between the two, I would choose the punching bag first than add the bicycle later.  

With this essential equipment above, the golfer can start working on their core and extremities muscles to build strength, stability, and increase range of motion. that also includes stability and flexibility that are just as important as strength training. To accomplish this, I have included in this article- three Medicine Ball golf exercises that incorporates three (3) -Yoga components that the golfer can start performing. These are a part of the CASPER Fitness Program.

A little background on Hybrid-Yoga that is essentially Amplify Yoga, using a Medicine Ball in three of the Yoga poses I perform before starting my strength routines. I would recommend a light-to-medium weighted Medicine Ball for AMP- Yoga to help the golfer with core strength, stability, and flexibility. The importance of including Hybrid-Yoga is, if you are like me, stretching is not one of the most glamorous or one of my favorite activities to perform in my exercise regimen. Yoga helps make stretching a little more tolerable and interesting. With Hybrid-Yoga or AMP-Yoga, you are building strength, stability, and increasing your range of motion at the same time. I call this my Cross Training Technique component.

For your connivance, I have attached my complete CASPER Fitness Program on YouTube Video for you to follow. In the photograph below there are two term (1) Palmer and (2) BRACH, pronounced like the candy company’s name. Presetting these two muscles make the golfer’s swing more consistent, instinctive, and simpler. 

The following are the 3- CASPER Videos:

CASPER Fitness PART No. 1

CASPER Fitness PART No. 2

CASPER Fitness PART No. 3

 

What you can do with some of your Yoga poses like the Chair Pose and the Warrior Pose 1, 2, or 3 is to modify these by using a light weighted Medicine Ball and perform with your Yoga.

As the golfer starts to establish their exercise routine, they will want to increase the intensity and reps of their workout program and equipment gradually and build up reps and sets from there. REMEMBER it isn’t the amount of weight that is used as it is the reps with a 10- second Rest Intermediate Period between sets, or RIP. Including RIP in the exercise program, will increase your stamina and endurance by increasing the number of sets.

The key is to perform as many reps first until you feel fatigued and gradually build from that point to increase reps and start sets. I usually perform 3-to-4 sets with each element in my CASPER Fitness Program.

I have listed the entire equipment that I use in the CASPER Workout Program above. If you notice in the list of equipment is an 80 lb boxing bag and gloves. One of the best cardio workouts is a punching bag workout. I have two (2) three (3)-minute punching bag workouts that I have in my normal routine at the start and conclusion of my workout session. The golfer is essentially trading in their golf bag and golf glove for a different type of bag and gloves. The boxing workout strengthens two of the most important pairs of muscles in the golf swing. These muscles are the Palmaris Longus tendon/muscle and Brachio-Radialis muscles.

These are actually the golfer’s missing link in Syncing and Presetting the wrists in the golf swing to the Lock Position. The golfer should be able to look down and see their wrists in the Lock Position shown below:

 

These two pairs of muscles are so important in how I use them to initiate the muscle memory in my golf swing. These are like the keys to start the chain reaction to engage the other 318 pairs of muscles in the human body. If the golfer can feel these two pairs of muscles, their golf swing just got 90 percent easier to establish and execute for power, distance, and control. I cover this in two of my Golf Training Videos below with a putting Video that I call TICK-N-TOCK:

The Bunt-Type Chip Shot

The Rap-Type Pitch Shot

TICK-N-TOCK Putting Technique

Below is a Download that will allow you to hit more fairways-&-Greens and Sinks more putts to achieve a single-digit handicap by just taking your golf swing from the batter’s box to the tee box:

 

QATR-411- The Palmer SYNC-IT Golf Coach APP (the Wrist Action in the Golf Swing)

 

Before you think that you are going to get into shape and lose weight, let me let you know that Fitness is ONLY 80% of your ability to lose weight and inches. To lose weight and inches you’re going to have to address your nutrition of diet and life style that is the other 80% of your total health/fitness.

I developed a very effective diet plan that allowed me to go from having a 37.75″ on November 28, 2014 down to 33.00″ on December 31, 2014. That is just about 4-weeks. But I didn’t stop there by March 28, 2015, I had lost a total of 6.50″. I lost a total of 8.50″ by September 05, 2015 with a waistline of 29.25″. These inches in my waistline that I lost was equivalent to 52-pounds that I lost.

HERE MY 925-MET DIET PLAN (This is FREE until November 30, 2020):

QATR-704- 925-MET Diet- How I Achieved My Health/Fitness Objective of Losing 52 Lbs.

The reason I needed to lose the weight and got myself into shape in the final photograph below was that I was starting my own business, THE QATSPY® (The Yankee Personal-Style Traditional Apparel Quarters), that was an Online apparel store and the Yankee Performance Sports Training Athletic Quarters. I was going to do my own modeling and instructional videos that also included golf training at age 57 when I retired.

During the months of September and October of 2020, I was called back in from retirement to help out with transmission line restoration work from damage caused by Hurricanes Laura and Delta. The linemen that I used to work with couldn’t believe the weight that I lost. On a dare from them, I posed for this photograph at age 63.

The modeling that I doing for my Yankee Personal-Style Traditional Apparel Quarters is below where I’m modeling our A-2 Leather Flight Jacket, this is the same one we supply to the U.S. Military. Please visit THE QATSPY Online Store:

 

 

For more information on the CASPER Workout Program and how to develop your muscle memory based golf swing, purchase your copy of The ESPY Golf Swing Coach:

 

 

A little background information on my Home GYM:, In January of 2019, I decided to convert the area over my golf training area into a personal GYM. I used to build houses and worked in heavy construction so I was able to do my work might self. I completed the work in spring of 2019. With the COVID-19 in March of 2020, this was the best investment not only for monetary value, but more important my health and fitness that has a 600% return on your investment in time and money.