Spring will soon be here. For golfers who are not lucky enough to live in southern climes, this means that golf will also be here soon.

That means it’s time to get back in shape after a hard winter of watching The Golf Channel.

Be careful, though. Just swinging the club a few times on the first tee in March will not help. If anything, that kind of preparation often leads to injuries, especially for seniors and middle-aged players.

Few people would recommend that golfers should maintain a workout regimen that would keep an NBA player in shape for a season of professional basketball. Nonetheless, several books are available to guide golfers to better conditioning.

Golf Flex is among the newest, and it’s a good one. The author, Paul Frediani, is a certified fitness trainer and educator. His book stresses the value of flexibility exercises, and he does a good job of describing the hows and whys of the various routines illustrated in this little paperback.

Frediani explains that the golf swing uses all the major muscle groups, and several small muscle groups as well. Better flexibility increases the body’s range of motion. The wider the range of motion, the more likely that the golf swing will produce good results. It’s that simple.

The book details just over two dozen basic stretches. The description for each exercise explains how to do the routine, the muscles used, how it benefits golfing, and adds a short tip for maximizing the gain from each drill.

Frediani writes that golfers will benefit from a flexibility training commitment of as little as 10 minutes per day.

He also includes a short chapter on how to incorporate several of the stretches into a daily routine, such as while sitting in the car or working at a desk job.

Another good section is a series of injury prevention exercises to help ward off problems for weekend golfers. As one might expect, this part emphasizes the arms, shoulders, back, and hip, as well as feet and ankles.

Former athletes from other sports will find these exercises very familiar. For others, the routines may seem novel.

Frediani’s best contribution is that he writes easily understood descriptions showing how this training helps with specific golf muscle needs. The photographs and drawings are also very well done.

Golf Flex is an inexpensive way to improve one’s golf game. For the price of a sleeve of golf balls, players will improve their games and the way they feel before, during, and after a round. Not a bad bargain.

Review Date: March 6, 2000

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