What if the secret to moving better was to stop moving?

Sounds backward, doesn't it?

Most golfers associate strength training with movement. Squats, presses, rotational exercises, and lifting weights all involve moving through different positions.

But here's something many golfers overlook.

Your muscles don't have to create movement to produce force.

You can develop significant muscular force while maintaining a position without meaningful joint movement.

That's the power of isometric training.

And at Golf MATchanics, isometrics are one of the foundational tools we use to develop muscular strength, improve active mobility, and build a stronger body for golf.

Our belief is the better isolated function you have the better integrated performance you can develop.

Because sometimes...

​Better movement starts by not moving at all.

Today's Golf Nerd Ninja Myth

"If you're not moving, you're not building strength."

False!

Think about pushing against a wall.

Your muscles are contracting. You're generating force. But the wall isn't moving.

Or imagine holding yourself in a squat.

Your leg muscles are working to maintain that position even though you're not repeatedly moving up and down.

Both are examples of isometric contractions.

But isometric training goes far beyond planks, wall sits, and static holds.

We can challenge muscles at different joint angles, in different body positions, and in different directions.

And that's where isometrics become particularly valuable for golfers.

The Top 10 Benefits of Isometrics for Golfers

Before getting into the science, let's count down my Top 10 Benefits of Isometrics for Golfers, starting with number ten!

10. Golf Performance Preparation
Isometrics help develop muscular strength in specific positions that we can progressively build upon through rotational training, speed, power, and control.

They aren't a replacement for practicing your golf swing, but they can be part of preparing your body for its physical demands.

9. Measurable Strength
Here's what I love.

By using isometrics, we don't have to guess how strong somebody is.
With tools such as dynamometers, we can measure isometric force production in specific positions and track progress over time.

8. Tendon Adaptations
It's not just muscles that respond to isometric training.

With appropriately progressive loading, isometric exercises can contribute to improvements in tendon mechanical properties and load tolerance.

7. Muscular Endurance
Isometrics don't just challenge how much force a muscle produces.

They can also challenge how long a muscle maintains a contraction.

6. Adjustable Intensity
One of the best things about isometric training is our ability to adjust the effort.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced athlete, contraction intensity can be selected based on your capabilities and goals.

5. Joint-Specific Training
Isometrics allow us to select specific joint angles and directions of force to challenge different muscular actions around a joint.

Change the position or direction, and you can change the muscular demands.

4. Positional Strength
Your muscles don't work at only one length.

With isometrics, we can challenge muscular strength in shortened, midrange, and lengthened positions.

This is particularly important because strength developed at one joint angle doesn't automatically transfer equally to every other position.

3. Active Mobility
Now we're getting into one of my favorites!

Shortened-position isometrics allow us to develop muscular strength near the end of our available range.

As that strength improves, we may also improve our ability to actively move farther into those positions.

2. Neural Adaptations
Isometric training can improve how the nervous system contributes to muscular activation and force production.

Getting stronger isn't simply about the muscles themselves.

It's also about how effectively the nervous system contributes to generating muscular force.

1. Muscular Strength
This is the big one!

Isometrics allow us to develop muscular strength without requiring movement at the joint.

And by challenging those contractions in different positions, we can progressively develop strength throughout our available range of motion.

​Not bad for something that doesn't require you to move an inch.

What Exactly Is an Isometric Contraction?

An isometric contraction occurs when a muscle produces force while its length remains approximately constant, without meaningful movement at the joint being challenged.

The muscle is working, even though the joint position remains relatively stationary.

But here's what makes isometric training so versatile.

We can change the exercise by adjusting:

The position of the body.
The joint angle being challenged.
The muscles we're targeting.
The direction we're applying force.
The intensity and duration of the contraction.

The goal isn't simply to hold still.

It's to develop muscular force in the position we've chosen to challenge.

And when we consider how many positions the body experiences during a golf swing, the value of positional strength becomes much more apparent.

Why the Golf Swing Needs Positional Strength

Think about what happens when you transition from your backswing into your downswing.

For a right-handed golfer, your pelvis begins rotating toward the target while your rib cage may still be completing its backswing rotation.

This can increase the rotational separation between your pelvis and rib cage.

In golf biomechanics, we call this X-factor stretch.

That separation is one component of how the body coordinates and transfers rotational forces during the swing.

Now, here's where I connect this to isometric strength.

Think about your obliques.

At the top of your backswing, certain oblique muscles are positioned in a more shortened state while others are positioned in a more lengthened state.

As your pelvis begins rotating toward the target, those muscular relationships change.

Some muscles contribute to producing rotational movement, while others are challenged to manage force in lengthened positions as the rib cage remains rotated back.

Think about what's happening.

Your body needs muscular force in different positions throughout that rotational sequence.

And that's exactly why I emphasize isometric training.

We can specifically challenge muscular strength in three general positions:

Shortened.
Midrange.
Lengthened.

We might challenge the muscles involved in pelvic rotation with isometrics in shortened positions.

Then we can challenge the obliques with isometrics in lengthened positions.

Why?

Because I want those muscles to be capable of producing force in the different positions the golf swing demands.

Being strong at one joint angle doesn't automatically mean you're equally strong at another.

And when we progressively integrate that positional strength into dynamic rotational training, we're working toward developing greater rotational force and speed.

We're not trying to recreate the golf swing with isometrics.

​We're building muscular strength in the positions that help prepare the body for a powerful golf swing.

Why Isometrics Are Foundational at Golf MATchanics

Here's my confession.

I hate stretching!

Seriously.

I've never been naturally very mobile, and the more I stretched, the worse I often felt.

That's one of the reasons I fell in love with isometric training.

Instead of trying to force my body—or my clients' bodies—farther into positions, I started emphasizing muscular contractions.

Building strength.
Reassessing movement.
And working with the muscular system instead of forcing it.

I think of it as negotiating with the system.

But there's a bigger reason I emphasize isometrics.

I want to build a stronger body and make better use of my training time.

If we can develop muscular strength while also working toward better active mobility, that's a win-win.

Because what's the point of having all this range of motion if your muscles struggle to actively move you into those positions?

Before I'm concerned about how much weight you lift, how fast you rotate, or how much power you produce, I want to understand how well your muscles can contract.

Then I want to make them stronger.

​Because mobility isn't just about how far a joint can move. It's about your ability to actively create and control that movement.

Shortened-Position Isometrics: Building Strength to Create Mobility

One of my favorite approaches involves challenging muscles near their shortened positions.

The process begins with three questions.

Can you actively move into that position?
Can you create a strong muscular contraction there?
Can you maintain that contraction without compensating?

As we develop the muscle's ability to produce force near its shortened position, we're building strength toward the end of its available range.

And as muscular strength improves, active range of motion may improve along with it.

We're not just trying to increase range of motion. We're building the muscular strength to actively create that range of motion.

That's the goal.

What Does the Research Say?

A study published in January 2025 in the Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness investigated voluntary isometric contractions at maximal muscle shortening, often called VICAMS.

Researchers studied 60 healthy, recreationally active adults divided into three groups:

Shortened-position isometric training.
Ballistic stretching.
A control group.

Over eight weeks, researchers evaluated muscular strength, active range of motion, and jumping performance.

The results were particularly interesting.
The shortened-position isometric group improved:

47.63% in measured isometric muscular strength.
19.15% in measured flexibility.

The ballistic stretching group also improved, but the average gains in these measures were smaller under the study's specific conditions.

What caught my attention wasn't simply the increase in strength.

It was that muscular strength and flexibility improved together.

The participants were challenging their muscles through contractions in shortened positions, and their available movement improved.

Now, it's important to recognize that this was one study involving healthy adults, not specifically golfers.

These results don't mean everybody will experience the same improvements or that isometrics are universally better than stretching.

But the findings support the potential of shortened-position isometric training as another tool for developing muscular strength and active mobility.

And when additional active range becomes available, we can challenge that new position with another isometric contraction.

That's how we're using strength to progressively develop active mobility.

Research Reference: Voluntary isometric contractions at maximal shortening as a new technique to achieve neuromuscular re-education in healthy subjects. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness (2025).

Read the research on PubMed

Harder Isn't Always Better

There's one more important consideration.

Simply pushing harder doesn't automatically produce a better contraction in the muscles we're trying to challenge.

If someone starts compensating, changes positions, or loses the intended contraction, we adjust.

Maybe we reduce the intensity.
Maybe we change the joint position.

The goal is to develop stronger, more effective muscular contractions—not simply to push as hard as possible.

And that brings us to an important question.

How do we actually design an isometric exercise with a purpose?

Five Steps to Build Your Own Isometric Exercise
Not all isometric exercises are created equal.

The body position, muscle group, joint position, and direction of force can all influence what we're challenging.

At Golf MATchanics, I consider five main decisions when designing an isometric exercise.

Step 1: Pick Your Goal
What are we trying to accomplish?

Improve active mobility?
Build muscular strength?
Develop greater force for the downswing or better control between the pelvis and rib cage?

Your goal determines the exercise.

Step 2: Pick Your Body Position
Where are we performing the contraction?

Are we standing in a golf posture?
Sitting to reduce lower-body involvement?
Or lying down to focus on a more isolated muscular contraction?

Body position changes the demands placed on the muscles.

Step 3: Pick Your Muscle Group
Which muscles are we trying to strengthen?

The hips?
The trunk?
The shoulders?

Or a more specific muscle within one of those groups?

Know what you're trying to strengthen before selecting the exercise.

Step 4: Pick Your Joint Position
Where do we want the muscle to produce force?

Shortened: Challenge strength near the shortened end of the available range.
Midrange: Develop force production in an intermediate position.
Lengthened: Challenge strength near the lengthened end of the available range.

Remember, being strong in one position doesn't guarantee strength everywhere else.

Step 5: Pick Your Direction
This is important.
The direction you push changes which muscles you're challenging.
Consider your hip, a ball-and-socket joint.

Different directions can emphasize different muscular actions.

Direction                                       Muscular action
Up                                                  Hip flexion
Down                                             Hip extension
Out                                                 Hip abduction
In                                                    Hip adduction
Up and out                                    Flexion + abduction
Down and out                               Extension + abduction
Up and in                                       Flexion + adduction
Down and in                                  Extension + adduction

These directions describe the intended muscular actions.
The specific muscles challenged depend on the position of the body and joint.

Once we've established those five decisions, we can determine the appropriate intensity, duration, resistance, and progression.

Goal. Body position. Muscle group. Joint position. Direction.

​That's how we build an isometric contraction with purpose rather than simply holding a position and hoping to get stronger.

Why Isometrics Matter for Aging Golfers

For golfers in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond, strength training should account for individual abilities and physical limitations.

Some golfers have arthritis.

Others have previous back injuries,
movement restrictions,
or reduced physical conditioning.

That doesn't mean they should stop moving.

But it does mean we need to consider what their bodies can tolerate.

With isometrics, we can select a joint position, introduce a controlled muscular contraction, adjust the intensity, and progressively increase the challenge.

And we can do this without requiring repeated joint movement during that contraction.

For some golfers, this makes appropriately selected isometrics a practical starting point.

Pick a position.
Pick a direction.
Produce force.

Of course, the position, effort, and exercise still need to be appropriate for the individual.

Isometrics aren't automatically safer than every dynamic exercise, and they aren't a replacement for movement-based strength training.

But they give us another way to develop muscular strength.
And for golfers dealing with movement limitations or reduced conditioning, that's a valuable option.

For me, this comes back to golf longevity.

We're trying to build a stronger body that continues to perform as we get older.

Three Takeaways for Golfers

1. Don't Just Chase More Range
Understand what your muscles can actually do.

Developing strength in positions you can actively reach may also help improve your active mobility.

2. Strengthen Different Positions
Your golf swing challenges muscles throughout different positions and joint angles.
Don't limit your strength training to one position.
Shortened. Midrange. Lengthened.

3. Make Your Isometrics Purposeful
Know what you're trying to accomplish.
Choose your goal, body position, muscle group, joint position, and direction.
Then build the exercise around those decisions.

The goal isn't simply to stop moving. It's to get stronger so you can move better.