Muscles used

[saevel25]

After a playing 18 holes a day from last thursday to sunday. I found that my right tricep muscle is sore. This is wierd because i am right handed and that is the stronger than my left tricep. I would think the weaker of the two would be sorer. My question is that what muscles are used in the golf swing, i don't suspect the triceps are one of them. I am thinking i am using the wrong muscles, which might be the cause of me hacking at the ball.

[tsajjad]

i think the tricep would be used as the arms straighten put durin the downswing dont they?

[mattttt25]

Big muscles should move the little muscles, right? If not, the tail is wagging the dog...

[motteler621]

o yea the triceps are used.

[jonwil]

  saevel25 said:

After a playing 18 holes a day from last thursday to sunday. I found that my right tricep muscle is sore. This is wierd because i am right handed and that is the stronger than my left tricep. I would think the weaker of the two would be sorer. My question is that what muscles are used in the golf swing, i don't suspect the triceps are one of them. I am thinking i am using the wrong muscles, which might be the cause of me hacking at the ball.

That is a lot of golf with that right tricep straightening your right arm under load. I think if you play with a fairly straight left arm the left triceps gets an easier task.

[Gibby]

Many muscles are used in the golf swing, all throughout the body. To answer your question, yes, the triceps are used in the golf swing. In general, for all sports, the triceps are one of the most important muscles, while the biceps are near a useless muscle (it's funny how lots of people will curl in front of a mirror though, and never work out their triceps =P). For the most part, I would say the deltoids, pectorals, triceps, all core muscles, obliques, and various back muscles are used. Also your legs do quite a bit of work, as shown by Tiger's leg problems. I don't think there is one specific muscle that does a majority of work in the swing however, if anything, I would lean towards the core in general, but not a specific muscle.

If your triceps are noticably sore, I would guess to say you're doing something wrong, unless you haven't played golf for a long while. I used to have a problem when starting up tennis after several months off, where my right deltoid would hurt like heck for a month or so from serving, probably because I wasn't used to using the deltoid in that particular way. But in a tennis serve, the deltoid should play a large role. I wouldn't think the tricep plays a large enough role to become sore after a round of golf. Either way, if it goes away after a couple more rounds, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I would say you are over-extending your right arm too quickly on the downswing, but I can't be sure, we can't have perfect swings.