Golf fitness has become a pretty big topic over the past few years, and not just for the guys and ladies on the professional tours. There are plenty of articles, blogs, podcasts and products totally focused on getting your body golf-ready.

As we all age, of course, we naturally lose muscle tone and strength, but also flexibility. For the most part, our culture puts most of us in jobs that are relatively “movement-free” in that much of our days are spent behind a desk and sitting. Neither are very good for your golf game.

If your best golf is important to you, there is no question that improving your flexibility and building stronger, faster muscles can help you become a better player, but there is definitely a right and wrong way to do that. In golf, we don’t really care about conventional muscle strength, such as that required to lift heavy weights. After all, a golf club weights much less than a pound. What we are after in golf conditioning is S-P-E-E-D and endurance. We want our muscles to be of a quick-fire capability and we must do that within a framework of flexibility and range of motion. A strong and powerful golf swing requires a full range of motion and very precise and coordinated movements of the body core, arms and hands/wrists. The faster you can do this, the more clubhead speed you develop – it’s really THAT simple.

Let me begin by stating my opinion on distance. Unless you are playing a driver that’s over 4-5 years old, significantly more distance is not likely for sale in the driver rack. The same goes for the iron selection.

The secret to more distance lies in improving your quality of contact and strength training. The simple fact is that better fundamentals come through instruction and practice. And here are my top five workouts to help you build more clubhead speed:

• Stretching. This applies to all golfers but particularly, but us older guys and girls would benefit greatly by daily stretching to improve our golf power. Of particular importance are the torso muscles and the large muscles in the legs and shoulders. Read up on this subject and you’ll find a wealth of information on stretching exercises specifically designed for the golf swing. A few minutes a day can make a world of difference pretty quickly.

• Core Training. Strengthening the big muscles of the body core is hugely beneficial to golf swing power. But, as I mentioned, what you are after is S-P-E-E-D, not brute strength. And again, there are a number of published exercise routines and techniques for achieving a stronger body core. An internet search will keep you reading and learning for hours.

• “Off Side” Strength. The golf swing has to be led by a strong “front side” pull, and that means we have to rely on our “off” hand for power. For right handed people, that means you should bias your strength training to your left side so that it can achieve more of a balance. I like to do this with a weighted club (there are many on the market), and swing it left side only to build that pull-through power.

• Release Strength. The “secret” power move in the golf swing is a strong rotation of the hands and forearms through the impact zone. The wrists do not create power in the swing by unhinging – they do it by rotating the club through impact in sync with the rotation of the body core. It does no good to develop core rotational speed if your hand rotation cannot keep up. Conversely, of course, fast hands with a slow body core will be limited in power as well. You can keep a light dumbbell in your office and/or living room to do simple rotation exercises while you are on the phone or watching TV. It WILL pay off.

• Golf Swing Speed. This has become a hot topic in golf fitness and there are several very good speed trainers out there. As I mentioned, there is no better golf swing strengthening exercise than to swing a weighted club. But go with the lighter ones and make your workout one of more and faster reps with less weight. Heavier weights and less reps build big muscles and lead to more fatigue and post-workout soreness and recovery. You don’t want that. Fifty to a hundred swings every afternoon/morning with one of these speed trainers will work wonders. And while you’re doing those, focus on your fundamentals – posture, grip, extension back and through, rotation through impact – the things that will build power and distance.

So, there you have my top five ways to improve your distance through the bag, while also actively combatting the natural effects of getting older. If golf is important to you, isn’t it worth giving your “golf health” a few minutes a day?