The Reverse Woodchop Exercise is great for increasing and maintaining rotational mobility in your core.
The Reverse Woodchop Exercise forms part of the Golf Mobility series of innovative and dynamic exercises that will help to improve your joint and muscle mobility, improving your range of motion while increasing functional strength within the entire range of that motion – thus helping to prevent injuries and building the foundation for a consistent, accurate, and powerful golf swing.
Equipment
This exercise requires a medicine ball.
This is a not a dedicated strength training exercise, so use a moderate weight makes the movement challenging, but enables you to maintain full control and complete all of your repetitions (reps) with proper form.
Quality of movement is much more important than how heavy a ball you are lifting.
See How Much Weight Should I Lift? for more information.
Figure 1. Reverse Woodchop Exercise Video.
Steps
- Start by standing, holding a medicine ball in front of you with both hands, your feel shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent.
- Reach down with the ball away from your body, outside your left thigh just above the knee.
- Slowly lift the ball diagonally up, rotating your torso and reaching overhead to your right.
- Slowly return to the starting position and repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
- Repeat in the other direction.
Keep your chest up, your back straight and your abdominal muscles engaged. Keep your shoulder blades pulled down and back throughout.
You should feel it working your abdominal muscles, obliques and shoulders (deltoids).
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