You play golf two, three, maybe four times a week. You love the game. But your back is stiff after every round. Your shoulder aches when you drive. Your hips feel locked up by the back nine. And every year it seems like you lose a little more distance off the tee no matter how many swing lessons you take.
Here's what most golfers over 50 don't realize: the problem isn't your swing. It's your body. When your muscles are weak, your joints are tight, and your core can't stabilize your spine through rotation, your swing breaks down because your body can't physically do what your brain is telling it to do. No amount of lessons fixes that. Only training does.
If you play the courses around Indian Wells, whether it's the Indian Wells Golf Resort, Eldorado, The Vintage Club, The Reserve, or any of the other clubs in the area, and you want to keep playing well into your 60s, 70s, and beyond, this is what you need to know about golf fitness.
Why Golfers Over 50 Lose Distance and Gain Pain
Two things happen to your body as you age that directly hurt your golf game. First, you lose muscle mass. Starting around 30 and accelerating after 50, your muscles shrink if you don't actively train them. Weaker muscles mean less club head speed, less power, and less distance. No new driver is going to fix that.
Second, you lose mobility. Your hips, thoracic spine, and shoulders all stiffen with age, especially if you spend a lot of time sitting. Golf demands rotation. Your backswing requires your hips and thoracic spine to separate. Your downswing requires explosive rotation through the ball. When those areas are stiff, your body compensates by overusing your lower back, your elbows, or your wrists. That's where the pain comes from.
The golfers who play the best and hurt the least after 50 are the ones who train their bodies off the course. Not with more golf. Not with cardio. With targeted strength training and mobility work that addresses the specific demands of the golf swing.
The Five Things Every Golfer Over 50 Should Train
Hip mobility. Your hips are the engine of your golf swing. If they can't rotate fully, everything upstream breaks down. Hip mobility work includes controlled rotations, 90/90 stretches, hip flexor lengthening, and deep squat holds. Your trainer should assess your hip rotation range and build a plan to improve it. Most golfers over 50 are shockingly tight through the hips and don't even realize it until someone tests them.
Thoracic spine rotation. This is the mid-back area between your shoulder blades. It's supposed to rotate freely, but years of sitting, driving, and poor posture lock it up. When your thoracic spine can't rotate, your lower back picks up the slack. Thoracic mobility drills like open books, seated rotations, and foam rolling are essential for any golfer. Combined with stretch therapy, this can make a noticeable difference in your swing within a few weeks.
Core stability. Not crunches. Nobody needs crunches. Golf demands anti-rotation stability, meaning your core has to resist unwanted movement while your upper and lower body rotate around it. Planks, Pallof presses, chops, and dead bugs train this. A stable core protects your spine and transfers power from your legs through your trunk to the club. It's the connection point of the entire swing.
Glute and leg strength. Your legs generate the ground force that powers your swing. Squats, lunges, step-ups, and single-leg work build the strength you need to drive through the ball. Weak glutes are also one of the biggest contributors to lower back pain in golfers because the back compensates for what the glutes can't do.
Shoulder health and scapular stability. Your shoulders go through a massive range of motion in a golf swing, and they absorb a lot of force at impact. Weak rotator cuffs and unstable shoulder blades lead to impingement, tendinitis, and the kind of nagging shoulder pain that makes you dread every drive. Targeted rotator cuff strengthening and scapular stability exercises keep your shoulders healthy and mobile.
Important: These aren't exercises you do once and forget about. Golf fitness is ongoing maintenance, just like maintaining your clubs or taking lessons. Two to three sessions per week keeps your body performing well on the course.
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What a Typical Training Session Looks Like
We don't run a separate "golf program." What we do is strength train your body to be stronger, more mobile, and more stable. And if you're a golfer, those are the same qualities that make your golf game better. That's the point. A strong body is a better body on the course.
A typical session at Strong Republic runs about 45 minutes. You start with a dynamic warm-up that gets your hips, spine, and shoulders moving. Then you move into strength work: compound exercises like goblet squats, single-leg Romanian deadlifts, rows, and pressing movements that build total body strength. Your trainer includes core stability work and mobility drills throughout. You finish with cooldown stretching or assisted stretch therapy to keep you loose for your next round.
Every program is individualized to your body. If your left hip is tighter than your right, your trainer programs more mobility work on that side. If your lower back flares up after rounds, they focus on strengthening your glutes and core to take the load off your spine. If you've had a shoulder surgery, everything is modified around your restrictions. You don't need a "golf program." You need a strong, mobile, well-balanced body. That's what we build.
How Quickly Will I See Results on the Course?
Most golfers notice improvements within 4 to 6 weeks of consistent training. The first thing you'll feel is less stiffness after rounds. Your back won't lock up on the drive home. Your shoulders won't ache at dinner. Then you'll notice your rotation improves. Your backswing feels fuller. Your hips move more freely. By the 2 to 3 month mark, many of our members report gaining 5 to 15 yards off the tee without changing anything about their swing. The body just works better.
The other thing golfers notice is that they can play more rounds per week without accumulating pain. If you used to play three times a week and needed two days to recover, you might find that recovery time drops to one day or even disappears entirely. That's the difference between playing with a body that's breaking down and a body that's built to handle the demands of the game.
Why the Driving Range Doesn't Replace the Gym
Hitting balls on the range reinforces your swing pattern, but it doesn't build the physical capacity to execute that pattern well. It's also one of the most repetitive motions in sports. Hundreds of rotations in one direction without any counterbalancing work. That's a recipe for overuse injuries, especially in the lower back, elbows, and wrists.
Strength training does the opposite. It builds the muscles that power your swing, corrects the imbalances that the game creates, and protects the joints that take the most abuse. The best golfers in the world all strength train. They don't just practice their swing. They build the body that makes the swing possible. The same principle applies to recreational golfers over 50, maybe even more so because the margin for error is smaller when your body is older.
Where Indian Wells Golfers Train
If you play in or around Indian Wells and you want a body that performs better on the course, our La Quinta studio on Highway 111 is about 5 minutes away. We work with golfers from Indian Wells Golf Resort, Eldorado, Vintage Club, The Reserve, Indian Wells Country Club, PGA West, and courses throughout the valley. Our training builds the strength, mobility, and stability that every golfer needs, whether that's your main goal or just one of many reasons you want to get stronger.
Our programs cover everything: senior fitness with balance and fall prevention, strength training, mobility work, and stretch therapy. For women dealing with bone density and menopause alongside their active lifestyle, we have a dedicated training program for women.
Interested in how to stay active and independent beyond golf? Read our guide on staying active after retirement in Indian Wells.
Our 14-Day Jump Start is $149 for 4 sessions or $199 for 6. Come in, tell your trainer about your body and your goals, and see what getting stronger does for every part of your life, including your game. Call (760) 508-1993 or fill out the form below.