The Straight-Leg Heel Touch Exercise is a more challenging version of the Heel Touch exercise, requiring much more strength and control from the same muscles.
The muscles used to perform heel touches help you to maintain correct golf posture, holding your pelvis and lower spine in the proper address position, and maintaining proper angles throughout the golf swing.
The Straight-Leg Heel Touch Exercise forms part of the Golf Injury Prevention series of innovative and dynamic exercises that will help to protect you from pain and injury by building strength and stability around your most vulnerable areas, while improving mobility, balance and joint function.
Figure 1. Straight-Leg Heel Touch Exercise Video.
Steps
- Start by lying on your back, with both legs in the air, your hips and knees bent 90 degrees.
- Slowly lower your left leg while straightening your knee completely, until your heel touches the ground with a straight leg.
- Return to the start position and repeat with your right leg.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions with each leg.
Do not allow your lower back to move during this exercise.
Variation
For an easier version of this exercise, see the Heel Touch exercise.
How Will It Benefit Your Golf Swing?
This exercise will increase your ability to maintain proper lower back and pelvic posture, both at address and throughout the entire golf swing.
Correct pelvis and lower torso posture enables your body to rotate with much greater efficiency, and maintaining proper angles greatly reduces the stress applied to various joints and muscles during the golf swing.
For more information on the perfect golf posture, see Golf Swing 101 – Setup: Basic Posture and Golf Swing 103 – Setup: The Perfect Golf Spine Angle.
Target Muscles
This exercise mainly involves your psoas major and transversus abdominis.
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Golf Performance Programmes – the most effective golf-specific fitness regimens on the planet, guaranteed to make you a better golfer!
There are a number of other golf-specific injury prevention exercises in the Golf Loopy Train like a Champion System.
Introduction to the Swing like a Champion System.
Golf Swing 101 – Setup: Basic Posture.
Golf Swing 103 – Setup: The Perfect Golf Spine Angle.
Golf Anatomy and Kinesiology, a collection of articles describing the roles of the muscles involved in the golf swing.
