Almost every amateur golfer will have watched a Bryson DeChambeau drive in the last 12 months and started drooling at the prospect of driving the green on a par 4.
You can’t help but imagine the power and distance you could add to your game if you hit the gym hard for the next few months.
And it’s true, shoulder strength will help you hit the ball longer. But only if you have the mobility to run through your full range of motion to power up your shot with more shoulder rotation.
Unfortunately, weights, bulk, and muscle won’t help you in isolation. You need a sport-specific golf shoulder workout to add strength and stability to your joint.
If you don’t practice exercising through the full range of the rather unnatural movement required for your golf swing, you’ll end up subconsciously compensating for your lack of mobility.
- Mobility is like strength – you either use it or lose it
- You can’t keep your mobility level without regular exercise
- Better mobility will allow you to use a more consistent, smooth swing
- Flexibility and mobility keep you on the course longer, reducing your risk of injury and minimising soreness during and after play
Any golfer wants to find new ways to shave a few strokes off their scorecard, and we have developed a simple golf shoulder workout you can use a few times a week that should help you shave 5-10 shots a round off your score.
Golfers who practice shoulder strength exercises consistently will be able to hit the ball further and more accurately. By improving strength and mobility through your shoulder joint, you help to prevent injury, keep yourself on the course for longer, and hit the ball consistently further.
The Role of Shoulders in Your Golf Swing
You don’t need Bryson DeChambeau guns to get maximum distance out of your game. Barbells, bench pressing, and bicep curls will help. But maximising your controlled range of motion through the shoulder joint is the smartest approach to finding more distance and control with your shots.
Shoulder mobility is one of the most critical components of a quality golf swing.
Golf is a dynamic, ballistic sport. Each swing requires sudden, unnatural movements of multiple joints at high speeds. Your swing is also predominantly one-sided. Depending on your ability, you’ll be swinging at speed around 55 to 85 times a game for your drives and iron shots from one side of the body.
Your shoulder muscles allow your arms to turn and extend behind the head through the backswing. Strong, stable, and relaxed shoulders in your golf swing will allow you to hit with a solid follow-through.
Because the range and speed of rotation of your shoulder joint can determine the distance of your shots – that’s exactly what you need to focus on in any golf-specific shoulder strength program.
Mobility and Shoulder Alignment Trump Bulk
For right-handed golfers, it’s the right shoulder rotation in your golf swing that tends to be inhibited with shoulder weakness or immobility (and for left-handers vice versa). This has a direct impact on the maximum power you can impart on the golf ball.
Weakness in the shoulder leads to a habit of holding in the left arm across the chest during the backswing. This movement also compromises the power and accuracy of your shots.
Without the correct golf shoulder turn in your golf swing – you’ll find yourself restricted with every shot outside of a chip or a putt.
Lucky for you – the solution is simple.
You just need a sport-specific shoulder workout program to add to your weekly routine. This will help you relax your shoulders during your golf swing, and allow you to maintain the correct shoulder alignment and shoulder plane each and every golf shot.
We want to take you through a simple program that includes 7 sport-specific exercises to improve your golf shoulder turn and strengthen the muscles you need for a full, controlled swing.
A Consistent Golf Shoulder Workout = Longer Shots
If you’re trying to find more distance in your game, your technique can only get you so far.
You have probably been through a YouTube spiral looking for golf swing shoulder turn tips. You might have even started to fork out good cash for lessons in the hopes you can perfect your game with top-notch coaching.
The options are definitely worth pursuing and can often help you find some gains. However, improving shoulder strength gives you a fast, dependable, and direct way to consistently hit the ball further.
But – you can’t just pick any old golf shoulder exercises if your goal is specifically to improve your golf game. Lifting plenty of big dumbbells and slugging it out on the bench press will undoubtedly make you stronger. But you need to improve your shoulder mobility as well.
The dynamic movements in the shoulder strength program we are about to share are designed to replicate the range of motion required in your drives, fairway woods, and iron shots. You’ll be able to improve the energy transfer in your swing, which will translate into more distance in your shots.
Build Your Shoulder Mobility Before Tinkering With Your Swing
Most casual golfers who experience pain, or even just have a few bad games, assume there’s something wrong with their swing. But while poor swing mechanics might be the cause, it’s much more likely that your pain or discomfort stems from weakness or a lack of mobility.
Without strong and mobile shoulder joints, you leave yourself prone to injury. So before you start tinkering with your swing or consulting a pro to work with your technique, take a close look at your physical fitness.
The mental aspect of shoulder weakness can also hurt your game. Your brain is designed to avoid pain, so if you do have pain, discomfort, or weakness in your shoulder joint, you will find your range of motion restricted. That’s because your brain sends a message to your nervous system to avoid the dangers of the golf swing action and keeps your movement to a minimum.
This happens subconsciously, but the restriction has a real impact on your game. Less rotation, less range of motion simply means less distance on your shots. The knock-on effects of this process often lead to golfers trying to compromise and tweak their swing technique in order to find more consistency and distance.
The simple, sustainable solution is to improve your shoulder strength and mobility!
The Crossover Symmetry AMPD Golf Exercise Program
Crossover Symmetry provides equipment, education, and training for athletes who want to end shoulder pain and increase strength.
Former professional baseball pitcher, Duggan Moran created the Crossover Symmetry Shoulder Strength system with his father, Jim – a respected physical therapist with a specialty in the shoulder. With Duggan’s baseball passion and Jim’s expertise in shoulder health, the father-son team set out to develop a revolutionary shoulder system.
By the end of 2009, Crossover Symmetry was considered the ‘Gold Standard’ for shoulder care in the baseball community. Trainers and medical staff from high-performance teams began to use the Crossover Symmetry shoulder system for other sports.
Over half of MLB organizations, several teams in the NFL, NBA and NHL, and about 75% of NCAA Division-1 teams were all using the Crossover Symmetry System with their athletes.
The success of the program began to filter into other sports dependent on shoulder strength, including golf. When AMPD Golf Performance Co-founder Damon Goddard found Crossover Symmetry, he immediately saw the benefits for his stable of PGA tour pro’s, college athletes, and amateur golfers.
“Our goal is to help golfers perform their best while keeping them injury-free. After testing the Crossover Symmetry bands for a few months, we immediately saw the results that the high-quality bands and medically designed programs had on improving mobility, stability and the overall game of golf.”
Damon and AMPD Golf formed a partnership with Crossover Symmetry to develop a golf-specific version of the existing shoulder matrix strength program.
The marriage of the Crossover Symmetry system with AMPD’s unparalleled golf knowledge and experience means that golfers now have a proven, sport-specific program to eliminate shoulder pain and improve performance on the course.
The Crossover Symmetry AMPD golf shoulder system is the culmination of over a decade of research and development. The system meets the criteria of any successful athletic strength or rehab program:
- Research-supported
- Easy-to-use
- Repeatable structure
- Fast and efficient
What started as a project between a college baseball player who had a dream to play in the Big Leagues, and his dad who is a physical therapist has grown into a company that serves golfers and other athletes in all walks of life.
From the pros to those who want to keep kicking butt well into their twilight years – the Crossover shoulder strength program will have you hitting straighter and longer within just a few weeks.
Why the Crossover Symmetry System is the Best Golf Shoulder Workout
The Golf Performance Track is a pairing of the Crossover Symmetry Shoulder training and equipment with Golf-specific training from AMPD Golf Fitness.
This is a functional training program designed to help you strengthen all of the important joints and muscles required for the sport of golf, so the workouts are more full-body in nature.
Mobility and strength training for the sport of golf works best when you program your brain to move through your full range of motion with confidence. Crossover allows you to replicate the muscle movements of your golf swing in a controlled environment so you can build the muscle memory required to perform under pressure.
The Crossover Symmetry Shoulder programs were developed using the most current exercise and medical research to identify the best way to functionally train movement patterns, not specific muscle groups.
By training muscle groups in this way you will be developing the coordination among these muscle groups to be able to move pain-free whilst being able to accomplish more complex movement tasks – like hitting your first drive, ripping a long iron off a brutal lie, or blasting a sand wedge out of a bunker.
That means you’ll be working on improving your swing mechanics and developing a strong foundation for your game while you focus on building more power in your shoulder joint.
The full-scale program even gives you access to dedicated golf-specific workouts for the hip and core as well. You also get access to the entire Crossover Symmetry Training Zone that includes so many more programs designed to help you with rehab, mobility, warm-ups, and more advanced strengthening goals.
The Training Zone also has a collection of explainer videos that walk you through each and every exercise with advice on the correct resistance level, form, and volume to use.
The shoulder program will help golfers of all levels with a range of different goals:
- Rehabilitating a shoulder injury
- Preventing future injury
- Improving mobility to pay more often
- Building strength to hit longer
- Increasing control to hit more accurately
Feel free to add any other exercises to this training program. If you already have a workout program, this will only make it even better.
What You’ll Get With The Crossover Symmetry Shoulder Workout Program
The Crossover Symmetry Individual Package comes with everything you need to bulletproof your shoulders, improve your shoulder rotation, and add an extra 20-30 metres to your drives.
The Crossover Symmetry Golf Shoulder program has been developed with the highest quality equipment and designed with everything you need to implement right out of the box.
The cords are super easy to set up, and you can get a bunch of different attachments that allow you to take your workout wherever you like. You might want to whip through a workout at your golf course, in the locker room, in a hotel room, or down at your local park. Crossover can be attached to a door, wall, fence, or squat rack in seconds.
The Crossover package includes five different workout programs along with the equipment and training to rehab shoulder pain and injuries, enhance sports performance and improve posture. You’ll get:
- 4 Crossover cords (heavy and a light set)
- Access to the Online Training Zone
- PDF and printable training manuals
- A portable exercise chart
- Cord attachment for your walls, doors, or gym equipment
- Drawstring bag to carry your gear
The golf shoulder strength program will improve both the stability and mobility of the shoulder, hips, and core. The complete training program is built out for you with a detailed training calendar, downloadable training guide, and how-to instructional videos to walk you through each exercise.
We built the program knowing that each exercise had to be as practical, structured, and efficient as possible to make sure golfers using Crossover would commit to consistent workouts.
Consistency is the most important training tool, particularly for the sport of golf and the mechanics of your swing! That’s why we made sure the Crossover Shoulder program is short, punchy and easy-to-follow.
Start your workout with golf-specific mobility work
Ideally, every golf workout should allow for up to 10 minutes of sport-specific mobility training before you start strength work.
This type of movement provides the perfect warm-up for your shoulder joint – allowing you to replicate the range of motion you’ll need in your workout without any added pressure.
If you are short on time, this is probably something that can be moved to another time during your day, but as any athlete knows, consistency is the key to any sustainable improvement.
Even the pro’s (like Masters winner Jordan Speith) pair mobility and activation exercises with the rest of their training as you can see from this Golf Channel Fitness Friday clip, so make sure you prioritise this little 10-minute mobility session instead of cutting corners.
Hip, core, and glute control is just as important as shoulder strength
Every exercise of this program requires balance and stability. Much of this comes from the glute muscles, which also happen to be key pieces for generating power as well as eliminating back and knee pain. A key indicator of poor glute engagement is a collapse of the knee or excessive bend in the low back.
If you can prevent these things you are on the road to success. Many of the Crossover Symmetry exercises require rotation around the spine, which is obviously an important part of the golf swing.
However, it’s important to rotate effectively to get the most out of these exercises. The spine is built much like a tree, with a solid trunk at the base, and becoming more mobile as you go up higher.
This means that much of your rotation should come from the middle and upper back, rather than the low back and hips to help you prevent the risk of injury.
The Best Golf Shoulder Strength Program
This shoulder workout will improve your swing, and have you feeling better and moving better too. Practicing shoulder mobility through your full range of motion will improve the energy transfer in your golf swing.
Your brain builds up trust and understanding of this movement pattern so you can translate this newfound muscle memory into performance at full speed.
For lasting results, try to perform the shoulder workout twice per week. If you are new to exercise, limited by time in your week, or involved in other activities feel free to scale each workout back to 1x per week.
Use Smooth, Controlled Shoulder Movements to Replicate Your Swing
Each exercise is dynamic and requires effective movement from the hips, shoulder, and core – much like the golf swing.
Many of the exercises demand smooth rotation around the spine, which is obviously an important part of the golf swing. However, it’s important to rotate effectively to get the most out of these exercises.
If you are having trouble following the proper execution for any exercise, first be sure you are using the correct form.
Then try to correct things by slowing down, and decrease the reps if you feel that muscle fatigue is your primary issue. Finally, make sure you are using the lower resistance Crossover cord if you can’t complete the movement successfully with the higher resistance cord.
The Optimal Starting Position for Shoulder Strength Exercises
For each exercise make sure you start far enough back so there is sufficient resistance throughout the range of motion. Create a stable athletic posture for each exercise.
Each exercise is dynamic and requires effective movement from the hips, shoulder, and core, much like the golf swing.
If you are having trouble with any exercise, first be sure you are following the correct technique. Then try to correct things by slowing down, and decrease the reps if you feel that muscle fatigue is your primary issue. Next, try decreasing the resistance to the point you can complete the movement successfully.
- Athletic Posture
- Feet Flat
- Slight bend in the knees, in-line over the toes
- Slight tuck of the tailbone
- Rib cage pulled down with moderate tension in the midsection
- Shoulders rolled back
- Chin pulled in.
For any exercises that require a single leg stance, simply lift one knee to 90 degrees in front of you. In this position it becomes important to keep the stance leg strong and stable, meaning not caving inward.
Some exercises require a golf stance. Use the setup you would use when setting up with your driver.
Super Simple 7-exercise Golf Shoulder Workout
Each workout begins with the same focus: optimizing movement. So remember to use the Crossover Symmetry Golf Mobility Workout first to tune your body to perform and to help eliminate any aches and pains from holding you back.
- ARCHER Cord: H Reps: 20
- PULLDOWN Cord: H Reps: 10
- TIGER WALK Cord: H Reps: 40
- WY NEGATIVE Cord: L Reps: 10
- SNOW ANGEL Cord: L Reps: 10
- BEAR HUG Cord: H Reps: 10
- ATYT Cord: L Reps: 10
Get Your Crossover Symmetry Golf Performance Package Now
You’ll get access to the educational materials, the training program PDFs, the printable exercise guides, and all the equipment you need for your workout. That includes your Crossover cords and the attachment of your choice.
Remember – the most important piece of any training program is staying consistent.
So make sure you block out time in your schedule every week to work on your shoulder strength and mobility.
You’ll prevent injury, extend your golfing career, and take your game to the next level.
