Today we're going to leave the golf clubs in the bag. Instead of swing drills, we're going to tackle a question that comes up frequently in our online and in-person lessons, as well as on the web forums — how to engage the golf muscles used in the golf swing.
Many golfers are unsure what we mean when we ask them to engage or activate certain muscles in the golf swing. We're going to clear that up with some targeted exercises that will help you identify where these muscle groups are and what it actually feels like to use them.
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You'll gain muscular awareness of areas that are vital to the Rotary Swing Tour model, and you'll also learn the critical difference between engaging a muscle and tensing or locking it up.
The lat muscles are in the middle of your back, on each side
Learn to Identify Your Lats (Major Golf Muscles)
The first group of golf muscles we're going to address are the Latissimus dorsi, or lat muscles. The lats cover the largest surface area in the back, located on each side of your mid-back.
We reference engaging the lat muscles extensively in "The Takeaway Made Simple" and the lessons on posture.
This muscle group is critical in getting your trail shoulder blade to glide properly behind you, and in keeping your shoulders depressed. When improper elevation occurs and you shrug your shoulders upward, you're allowing the lat muscles to disengage — so learning how to engage the lats and maintain that engagement throughout the golf swing is essential. For a complete data-driven assessment of how your swing mechanics measure up, try a free AI swing analysis.
Engaging Muscles vs. Locking Them Up
We're going to use two sets of weights to help you distinguish the feeling of engaging a muscle group versus tensing it. First, we'll work with a five-pound pair of dumbbells. These are ideal because the weight is light enough to activate the golf muscles without straining them.
Heavier weights force you to tense up when lifting
Holding a five-pound weight in each hand, shrug your shoulders up toward your ears. You will feel the trap (trapezius) muscles engage in your neck, shoulders, and upper back. Since the weights are fairly light, you will be activating the golf muscles without overloading them.
Now for contrast, pick up a 20-pound weight in each hand and perform the same shrugging motion. This will produce a very different sensation. Lifting your shoulders against 20 pounds of resistance requires significant muscular effort, and you will feel your trap muscles working hard, becoming very tense and rigid.
You use the same set of muscles to lift each set of weights, but with the heavier load the muscles tense up considerably; your traps become tight and locked. This is the feeling you want to avoid in the golf swing. This is creating harmful tension in the muscles.
The sensation you get when shrugging the heavier weights is the exact opposite of what you want in the golf swing. You want the feeling you had with the five-pound weights — using the muscles, but not straining them.
Back to the Lats
Shrug and depress your shoulders to engage the lats
We've established that the lats are the muscles that span a large area of your back on both sides. Now let's identify exactly what they feel like when properly engaged.
Pick up the five-pound weights again, set your feet about waist-width apart, and shrug your shoulders as you did before. Feel all those muscles in your neck and back engage, and then depress your shoulders. You will feel the lat muscles engage as your shoulders pull downward.
This feeling of having your lat muscles engaged is what you want to maintain throughout the entire golf swing. That's what keeps the shoulders down and keeps you "in the box." It keeps you connected to your core muscles and all the muscles in the torso, allowing you to harness the big muscles in the golf swing effectively.
Tension is the Enemy!
By contrast, if you shrug and then depress your shoulders while holding the 20-pound weights, you will feel tension building in your lats. This is precisely what you want to avoid in the golf swing.
Some golfers try so hard to stay "in the box" that they overdo the engagement, tensing the lats instead. If you allow all that tension to accumulate, you may feel a pulling or wrenching sensation in your lats when you try to perform the shoulder blade glide. If you experience that kind of discomfort, it means you're creating tension rather than simply engaging the muscles.
Tension is the enemy of the golf swing. It ruins your rhythm, destroys your flow, disrupts your timing and tempo, and robs you of your speed. Tense muscles are never fast muscles. That's why you want to engage your muscles while never allowing tension to build up over the course of the swing.
Shoulder Blade Glide Drill
Now that you've learned where the lat muscles are and how to engage them, try this simple drill to practice the shoulder blade glide:
Shoulder blade glide drill
Sit up straight in a chair with your feet flat on the floor, about waist-width apart. Cross your arms and place your hands on your chest. Shrug and depress your shoulders to engage your lat muscles. Now simply allow your trail shoulder blade to work in toward your spine. Allow it to turn, making sure to keep the lat muscle engaged throughout.
This is an excellent drill because not only are you practicing good posture — nice and erect while engaging the lat muscles — but it will also help those of you who have written in saying, "Every time I perform the trail shoulder blade glide, my hip turns with my torso."
This drill is a great way to learn how to separate your upper body from your lower body. Simply shrug, depress, and allow that trail shoulder blade to glide behind you. Keep the lat engaged — not all tense and wound up.
The Glutes Add Stability
Let's move on to the next muscle group — the gluteal or "glute" muscles. These are among the most powerful golf muscles in the body.
You should feel these muscles engage on both the backswing and the downswing. If you don't, you're probably not transferring your weight correctly. When used properly, the glute muscles — especially the lead glute — act as stabilizers on the downswing.
As you will recall, after the backswing your first move on the way back down is to transfer your weight into your lead heel. If you do this correctly, you'll feel your lead glute engage and stabilize.
We won't go into all the specifics of the weight transfer here. If you'd like a more thorough review, this is a great time to revisit the Weight Transfer lessons. Once you review that material and try the drill below, you may experience an "aha" moment as you understand what we're really asking you to do.
A lot of people attempt the weight transfer but say they can't feel the glute engage. Generally what's happening is that they shift their weight but actually engage the quad instead of the glute because they're transferring the weight onto the ball of the lead foot instead of the heel. As a result, they never truly experience what it feels like to engage the glute. To practice with real-time AI coaching, check out a free AI golf lesson that gives you instant feedback on your weight transfer.
You Know Where the Glute Is - Now Feel it Engage
Feeling the glute engage
This drill will allow you to identify your glute muscles and experience what proper engagement feels like.
Place your trail hand on a chair back for support and take the posture you would use at setup. Make sure your weight is centered over your ankle joints, then lift your trail foot off the ground and push your weight down onto your lead heel. Bend the knee of your weight-bearing leg and allow your hips to drop behind you slightly. Pushing all your weight into your lead heel, hold that position for a count of three — you should really feel your lead glute working hard.
After the three-second count, push back up slowly through that lead heel. If you're doing it correctly, you should feel it in your glute. If you're not, it will be your quad that is burning. If you feel it in your quad, that means you've got your weight out on the ball of your lead foot instead of the heel.
Try it again: Take the posture you would have at setup, lift one foot off the ground, and push down through the other heel. Let your hips drop back and your weight-bearing knee bend slightly while continuing to push your weight into the heel. Hold that position for a count of three, then push back up through the heel. That's what it should feel like to properly engage that glute muscle.
Again, this is an excellent time to revisit the lesson on weight transfer. We discuss making your first downward move, transferring back into your lead side and feeling that glute muscle engage to provide stability. The sensation you get from this drill is exactly what we're describing. Now that you know the feeling, you know which muscles to engage as you initiate the downswing.
The Obliques Provide Rotation
This final drill will teach you how to engage your oblique muscles. These are the large muscles that run from below your pectoral region to the top of your hip bone. The obliques are what allow you to rotate your hips.
Obviously, hip rotation is a vital part of the downswing, and something we covered in the weight transfer lesson. After your backswing, you transfer your weight into your lead heel. You will be pulling with your lead oblique to initiate hip rotation, so if you don't know how to engage that muscle, you're at a significant disadvantage.
A Crunch With a Twist
The following drill is an excellent way to learn how to identify and engage the lead oblique. You can do this either lying on the floor or on an exercise ball.
Lie down — either flat on the floor or on an exercise ball — and put your hands behind your head. Keeping your hips and lower body completely still, bring your shoulder blades about halfway up into a crunch. You'll feel your abdominal muscles engage.
Now you're going to add a twist to get the obliques involved. Twist your upper body to one side and hold it for a count of two. At this point, you should really feel the muscles on both sides of your torso fire.
Oblique crunch
Try it again: Come up into a crunch, twist, hold for a count of two, and go back down. You should feel both obliques working as you perform that twisting motion. Now you have golf muscular awareness of exactly where those muscles are.
Once you have that awareness, you can stand up and activate the obliques simply by tensing your midsection and concentrating on activating the oblique specifically. Once the oblique is activated, you can practice pulling with the obliques to rotate your hips. You should be able to keep your torso very still while rotating your hips using the obliques.
These simple exercises should help if you've been struggling to understand how to engage certain muscle groups that we discuss in the Rotary Swing model.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
