How One Fitness Center Is Perfectly Suited to Match Fitness with Golf

Peak Performance Fitness Center in Hilton Head, South Carolina is a state-of-the-art facility that offers skilled personal training and vibrant small group training classes. Owner Christina Lindstedt is big on functional training and has outfitted her gym with equipment like a SYNRGY360 System, TRX suspension straps, free weights, racks and cable machines. According to Lindstedt it’s mostly equipment that you “don’t sit down” on.

The facility is geared toward the general fitness community, and because it’s located in an area where golf is hugely popular, Peak Performance also has a robust golf fitness program.

Lindstedt earned Titleist Performance Institute certification 13 years ago, and strength and conditioning coach Chris Noss (also TPI certified) has a long history with the game. Noss has spent more than 16 years working on the PGA Tour and 25 years total in golf. The pair works with everyone from junior golfers to seniors who just want to stay in the game.

“The biggest thing is to keep players injury free,” said Lindstedt. “We make sure everything we do is geared toward form, safety and keeping your body able to continuously repeat a motion over and over again.”

Injury prevention is essential regardless of the age of the golfer, but varying age groups present different challenges. The junior golfer likely wants to improve strength, power and club head speed. Senior golfers may be dealing with knee or hip replacements and are there to improve overall mobility and leg strength, which help both on and off the golf course.

“Before, if you weren’t in some kind of organized sport you didn’t have a trainer,” explained Noss. “You just went out and hit balls. It’s become more of a mainstream thing. Everybody wants to have a trainer to help them get better with their golf game or whatever sport they’re in.”

Added Lindstedt: “I think people’s knowledge of golf fitness is a lot different than other general sports fitness. The muscle groups that you need to be working, sequencing body movements. It’s different from other sports—the way you turn, the way you coil.”

Noss provides clients with a biomechanics assessment and uses a pressure mat to gain insights into how a golfer is using his/her weight. Noss may provide insights into what happens during a swing, but he’s quick to point out that he’s not a swing coach.

“We have them hit balls on a pressure mat that shows how their weight shifts and where their center of mass is,” Noss said. “That’s where fitness connects with the swing. We want to see what’s going on while they’re swing the club. We break it down and give them a program that works.”