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Golf core exercises. You hear that phrase quite often on the television by the commentators referring to the area a lot of the touring pros focus on to improve their power output and prevent low back injuries.

Vijay Singh for example uses weighted medicine balls to work his golf core muscles throughout the whole week of the tournament. In fact his caddie is his rainier. How convenient! The best of both worlds!

But hearing the phrase golf core exercises and knowing what your core is are two different things entirely. As a fitness professional it's easy for me to throw out that phrase often to impress would-be clients or customers to my golf fitness training products.

But that's not the case. Understanding what your core is and how it plays a critical role in producing maximum power; injury prevention and even stability is very important. Once you know'you'll soon realize this may be your missing link to a great game.

This area (core) starts roughly at your belly button and goes up to the bottom of your sternum. It is the engine of your body and awareness of your core affects golf the most. Think of it as the link in the chain that needs to be the strongest, not the weakest.

Two simple golf core exercises that will quickly strengthen your core is ab crunches and back extensions. These would be your initial exercises to give you the strength to move onto rotational exercises that put a little more stress on your spine if the muscles aren't conditioned enough.

Once you've accomplished the above exercises, you can move on to a crunch with a twist and a back extension with a twist. This will hit your rotational strength right away...which will quickly equate to greater power output and distance.

You can then progress up to standing on your feet doing several different variations of rotational movements with a single dumbbell, standing upright and also in your golf posture.

Now that you have a basic understanding of golf core exercises'you hopefully will see how important it is in your overall golf improvement plan.

So next time you hear the phrase on the television'you'll know what golf core exercises are.