Shape Up for Golf Season: 5 Fitness Products to Get Golf Ready

The beginning of spring brings the beginning of golf season. While that’s welcomed news for golfers, a long winter typically means our bodies and our golf swings are out of shape. 

If you usually spend your first rounds of the year making excuses because you haven’t worked your body or touched a club in months, it’s time to change your tune in 2025.

Here are five great ways to get back in shape for golf season so you can hit the ground running this golf season.

Fitness, strength, and nutrition are so interconnected that it just makes sense there would be an app that addresses all three simultaneously. Caliber, the science-based training app that delivers 1-to-1 coaching and a personalized plan that incorporates all three, is one of the best solutions for getting your overall fitness up to par. 

Your Caliber plan will not only help you lose weight, build strength, and improve your cardiovascular fitness, but teaches you how those gains work, so you can take total control of your health.

Caliber users enjoy 34% faster progress than people who go it alone, and the average Caliber member reaches at least a 20% body composition improvement in their first three months. That’s because, in addition to providing a plan for success, Caliber’s coaches, combined with the ability to track progress in the app, keep you motivated and accountable, resulting in greater consistency throughout the program.

Those are significant gains, and if you’re looking to play your best golf, improving your fitness is a great way to do it. Improved core strength is one of the quickest ways to eliminate back pain from golf, and improving lower and upper body strength can lead to distance gains. Meanwhile, over an 18-hole round of golf, losing weight and improving cardio fitness is the difference between limping to the finish and finishing strong.

Here’s why I love the Speed Toad for speed training heading into (and throughout) the golf season. First, it’s quick and easy. Training sessions take about 20 minutes, including the prescribed stretches and warm up, and it’s only twice a week.

Second, it works incredibly well. I’ve only been using it for six weeks, and I’ve gained 8 mph of clubhead speed, going from 107 during my first session to 115 in my most recent training. If I’m striking the ball somewhere near the center, that should be worth 20-plus extra yards off the tee.

Lastly, because of a couple unique elements of Speed Toad (compared to competitors), I get to train with my own driver shaft, and I never have to swing anything heavier than my actual driver, so I’m never sore afterwards.

For the last few years, I’ve started a speed training program around the start of my golf season, or a little earlier if I happen to have my ducks in a row coming out of the winter.

In addition to building up my swing speeds, speed training ensures I get plenty of reps swinging a club before I head to the first tee for opening day. Both of those things help me start off the season strong rather than wasting a month of the precious golf season in “preseason” mode. 

GolfForever is one of the most versatile training systems you can use to improve your golf, your fitness, and your golf-specific fitness.

The system is complete with resistance bands, a training club, and an app to focus on balance, flexibility, rotational power, and strength. When you use it, you’ll also gain speed and notice increased distances. 

Since many of the moves replicate the golf swing, and the muscles used in golf, it’s a great way to improve your golf fitness over the off-season or heading into the season, and it’s also a great tool for warming up before rounds.

Using the app, you can pick whichever workouts and training programs suit you best.

In one training session with GolfForever I quickly learned just how much my balance needed to improve, and which muscles I should really be using during the golf swing.

One of the beauties of GolfForever is that you can clip it to a door or beam at home, attach it to a golf cart for a pre-round warmup, or use it at the gym. Did we mention it's versatile?

Whether it’s your golf stats – like greens in regulation or driving distance – or your health stats, the first step to improving it is tracking it. If you’re trying to get back in shape for golf season, Whoop is one of the best fitness tracking tools out there to help guide that improvement. 

From optimizing sleep to tracking strain, and guiding recovery, Whoop has you covered all day long. And since it’s made to be worn 24/7, the helpful wireless battery charging pack that allows you to charge your Whoop without actually taking it off, is a nice bonus.

Whoop invaded the golf world with its unique ability to help players pinpoint their recovery rate, and therefore optimize their training to their bodies needs. Translation? Using Whoop data, you can train hard on the days your body can handle it, and train lighter when your body needs to recover. Compared to sticking to a rigid, pre-set training schedule, Whoop helps you get way more out of your workouts. 

Whoop insights also help you optimize sleep, reduce stress, and track your overall fitness. It’s amazing how much difference you can make by optimizing your training rather than simply ramping it up.

Golf is a rotational game, and if you’re going to improve your fitness to prepare for golf season, your time will be well spent if you incorporate some rotational exercises.

Medicine balls are one of the best tools for rotational power exercises, and if you have a sturdy wall and floor to slam them into, you can make some serious strides with a couple medicine balls.

Here are two medicine ball exercises for golf that I love. 

First is a medicine ball slam. Take an athletic stance and let your arms hang down, holding the medicine ball in something that resembles your golf posture. Take the ball up back like a backswing, then explode down and slam the ball into the ground behind your trail foot with force.

Next is a medicine ball side wall throw. Again, take a position with the medicine ball similar to your golf posture, with a wall down the imaginary target line a few feet. Again, take the ball back like a backswing, then explode through and slam the ball into the wall.

Do both of these exercises with both sides to make sure you get a balanced workout.