The Squat (1 Leg, Reaching) Exercise is great for building functional strength and stability in your legs while challenging your balance, helping you to gain more power and consistency in your golf swing, especially when playing from difficult lies.
The Squat (1 Leg, Reaching) Exercise forms part of the Golf Stability series of innovative and dynamic exercises that will build stability in your joints and core for better consistency and ball-striking.
Equipment
This exercise requires a dumbbell.
This is not a dedicated strength exercise, and the amount of weight you lift isn’t so important. Choose a weight that makes the movement challenging, but enables you to complete all of your repetitions (reps) with proper form.
If you are performing this exercise as part of a Golf Loopy Train like a Champion System programme workout, you should be able to complete the prescribed number of reps in the allotted time with proper form – adjust your tempo accordingly.
See How Much Weight Should I Lift? for more information.
Figure 1. Squat (1 Leg, Reaching) Exercise Video.
Steps
- Start by standing on your left foot, holding a dumbbell in front of your body with both hands, with your right ankle crossed behind your left calf.
- Squat by pushing your hips back and down until your thighs are parallel to the ground, extending your arms out in front of your shoulders as you do so.
- Slowly push through your hips to stand up, returning to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
- Switch legs and repeat.
Do not let your standing knee slide forwards past your toes during this exercise.
Maintain perfect posture, keeping your back straight, chest up, shoulder blades pulled back and down, and abdominal muscles engaged throughout.
You should feel it working your glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings.
Variation
If you find this exercise difficult at first, try it without the dumbbell, and instead hold onto a chair or rail for support. As you get more proficient, try to use the support less and less.
There are a number of other squat exercises in the Golf Loopy Train like a Champion System that offer a variety of challenges, you can see them all by clicking here.
If you have any questions or comments about this or other articles on Golf Loopy, please send us an email.
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