Fitness & Warmup

Building Disc Golf Strength

Train the strength that transfers to throws.

Why it matters

The strength that matters for throwing is rotational and explosive, not maximal. Being able to lift a heavy weight slowly has little to do with how fast you can rotate, which is why a lot of general gym work transfers poorly while a small amount of specific work transfers well.

How to do it

Train rotation explosively: medicine-ball throws against a wall, rotating from the hips rather than the arms.
Train the legs, which generate the force everything else transmits. Squats, lunges and single-leg work.
Train the core to resist rotation as well as produce it — the brace depends on stiffness.
Train for speed rather than load on the rotational work. Light and fast beats heavy and slow for this.
Keep it to two or three sessions a week and leave recovery time before a throwing session.

Common mistakes

Heavy, slow lifting and expecting distance.Throwing is a speed event. Explosive and light transfers; grinding heavy singles mostly does not.

Training arms and shoulders for distance.Distance comes from the legs and the rotation. Train the shoulder for durability, not for power.

Lifting hard the day before a tournament.Leave a clear gap. Fatigue costs more than the session gains at that point.

Adding strength work on top of an already full throwing week.Total load is what injures people. Add it in place of something, not on top of everything.

Key points

Rotational power: medicine-ball throws.
Legs and core drive distance.
Train explosively, not just heavy.

The drill

Drill · Rotational throws — 3 x 8 medicine-ball rotational throws per side, 2 days a week. Three sets of eight each side against a wall, as fast as you can while staying controlled, rotating from the hips. Two sessions a week with recovery before your throwing days. This is the single most transferable gym exercise for a disc golf throw.

Watch: TOP 3 Disc Golf Exercises — 7th Street Wellness Club