What muscles rotate the arms?

[barnum1]

Hi!

I have a pretty laid back golf swing, I'm "a swinger, not a hitter".
My pro thinks that I should get my arms swinging faster, and slow down the lower body.
(I am fighting a spin-out, so it does make sense; I need to synch my arms with my lower body.)

So the question is: what muscles rotates the arms? Are there exercises to strengthen them?
I understand that the lower body muscles contribute (a lot), but I imagine that there are muscles in the upper body that are important?
(The muscles in the arms themselves do not contribute to club head speed, except for the underarms?)

I'm grateful for any insight!

[iacas]

"Rotate" in what direction? Around your body/the arc of the swing? Over each other to "release" the clubhead?

Or something else?

[barnum1]

I am thinking about rotating the arms around my body in the downswing.
The goal is to increase the speed of the "compounded arms" towards impact.

[boogielicious]

5 hours ago, barnum1 said:

I am thinking about rotating the arms around my body in the downswing.
The goal is to increase the speed of the "compounded arms" towards impact.

Programs like Golf Strong and Joey D are designed for that. Check them out.  My review of Golf Strong is below as well. I have done both programs and do Golf Strong primarily now with some of the Joey D work on other days.

https://www.sklz.com/golf-strong-program.html

https://joeydgolf.com

https://thesandtrap.com/b/training/sklz_golf_strong_video_program_review

[barnum1]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[Patch]

Not an expert by any means, but what I think from my own swing, the fore arm muscles are the one's responsible for a lot of what the club does, including rotation. 

I say this because it is my belief that other body muscles ( back, chest, core, and butt) generate a lot of power, and it's up to the fore arm muscles, through the hands,  to deliver that power to the to the club. I don't feel much flexing sensation in my upper arm muscles, so,  It has to be the fore arm muscles. Actually I don't feel much flexing the my fore arms, but definately more than the upper arm. Plus if you hold your arm straight out, and rotate your hand, most of that rotation takes place in the lower arm. 

Of course, too much flexing of the fore arm muscles (tension) can cause a golfer swing grief, so caution needs to be taken. 

[barnum1]

Yep, I agree, the forearms are important to get the power from the arms rotation to the club-head. But my question was what happens before, what gets the power to the arms rotation?

[iacas]

On August 13, 2016 at 4:01 PM, barnum1 said:

Yep, I agree, the forearms are important to get the power from the arms rotation to the club-head. But my question was what happens before, what gets the power to the arms rotation?

Which form of rotation? What we call "pulling the arms down"? Surely you can look at the motion and deduce which muscles must contract to pull the arm in that direction. No?

[barnum1]

Pulling down, yes. 

To be honest, I can't deduce what muscles are used. I can guess that the left upper body is important, but I'd like to know more exact. And find exercises for those muscles! 

[woodzie264]

The internal/external obliques, lats, glutes & hip rotators, tricep make weak contribution. Iacas can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd focus more on core/torso strengthening/flexibility, and proper weight shift technique.

lots of medicine ball ex's would help, sledge hammering the tire, oblique cable crunches, etc. Having said all of that, I'd encourage you to focus more on speed rather than strength. Intuitively we tend to assume these go hand in hand (with some truth to it), but they are trained differently.

Edited August 16, 2016 by woodzie264