Somax Power Hip Trainer

The Somax Power Hip Trainer (PHT) is the first exercise machine designed specifically to advance the timing and increase the range, strength, stamina and speed of hip rotation during the golf swing.

The Power Hip Trainer was featured in an article on increasing swing speed in the June 2004 issue of Golf Digest. It also received the coveted PGA Tour Partner's Club Member Tested and Recommended Seal of Approval. Tested by single-digit handicappers who described it as "awesome", "dropped 5 strokes in the past 6 weeks", "increased my distance by about 25 yards", "as a life-long slicer, the Power Hip Trainer has saved my game", "more distance, less effort, more control", "adds the power you need to blow away the competition", "helped me become more flexible" and "so easy to set up".

We all know that the power in golf comes from the rotation of the hips, and that we should begin our downswing with the lower body, but it is easier said than done.

The reason it is difficult to start the downswing with the lower body is that muscles learn best by resistance. The only resistance during the downswing occurs with the muscles of the arms as they work against the inertia of the golf club. Unfortunately, there is no resistance to the rotation of the hips.

But now there is. The Power Hip Trainer not only supplies resistance to hip rotation, making it easier to learn, but it will also accelerate your hips for you.

At the top of the backswing, the best professional golfers have rotated their hips back 60º. At impact, their hips are 60 º open. This means you have to rotate your hips a total of 120º before impact. While the backswing takes a leisurely 25/30ths of a second, it takes just 12/30ths of a second to return the club to impact with the ball.

Actually, you have less time than this. Most professional golfers have reached 45º open well before impact, at what we call the Cast Point, when the lead arm is 45º below horizontal, or when your hands are at the level of your hips. You only have 10/30ths of a second to get to this point, or just 1/3^rd of a second!

We have found that a player's handicap is closely linked to the timing of their hip rotation. Double-digit handicappers tend to start their downswing with their left arm 1/30^th to 4/30ths of a second before they begin to rotate their hips. As a result, their hips are not open at the Cast Point or at impact. Most golfers waste precious time during their downswing sliding their hips instead of turning them. As a result, their hips are square at the Cast Point, and even at impact. The legs and hips are not contributing much power to the golf swing.

Since they are firing their arm muscles first, they depend primarily on the muscles of the upper body to both guide and power the club. This makes for weak, inconsistent shots, as the muscles of the body can provide guidance or power, but not both at the same time.

Scratch players tend to fire the muscles of the upper and lower body simultaneously. As a result, their hips are usually not open at the Cast Point, and are only 20-30 degrees open at impact.

The top professional players, on the other hand, initiate their downswing with the lower body. The hips start their rotation 1/30^th to 4/30ths of a second before the arm moves. The better the player, the earlier they rotate their hips. They power the club with the large muscles of the lower body, and use the smaller muscles of the arm to guide the club. Thus they have both power and accuracy.

Just 8/30ths of second in hip rotation timing separates the top professionals and double-digit handicappers. This fact illustrates the critical importance of the speed and timing of hip rotation to success in golf.

As we help golfers at our clinic near San Francisco advance the timing and increase the speed of their hip rotation, they play better golf. Their drives and irons are longer and more accurate.

If you are not lucky enough to rotate your hips early on your downswing naturally , you need to learn how to do it. If you have tried, you know it is not easy.

With the Somax Power Hip Trainer, you can work the muscles of the legs and hips in exactly the motion used during your swing.

Once you have adjusted the center column so that the hip cinch fits around your hips, you tighten the heavy-duty nylon belt. The padded, curved metal plates of the hip cinch fit snugly and comfortably around your hips. As you turn your hips left and right, the motion is transmitted down the center tube to the heavy-duty steel spring at the bottom. The spring provides resistance in both directions. You fold your arms across your chest, or hold onto the hip cinch, stand in the center of the non-slip base with your feet shoulder width apart, feet turned out slightly, and turn your hips left and right for 2-10 minutes to warm up the muscles of your hips and legs.

Since most golfers do not actively use these muscles during their downswing, the movement at first seems awkward, but you find in a few minutes it becomes easy and enjoyable.

Now you undo the cinch belt, remove the pin connecting the cinch to the connecting column and turn the hip cinch 90º to the closed (strength) position.

Once you have tightened the cinch belt around your hips, you now turn to a neutral position and again practice your hip movement (60º closed, 45º open).

You will feel a much greater resistance. As you overcome this resistance, you will be building up the strength of the muscles of your legs and hips. You will also want to practice a full turn (60º closed, 90º open). We recommend you do three sets of 10 reps of each movement, with a short rest between each set. Do it both for the short turn and full turn.

After a short rest, you can work on speed. Set a timer for 10 seconds and see how many turns you can do. Do three sets. Try increasing the number with each set.

As you demand more from the muscles of your legs and hips, you will recruit more muscle fibers. You brain will remember this, and when you go to swing a club, you will use more of your hip and leg muscles.

Because you are working against resistance, your leg muscles will learn to stabilize you better. This will bring more consistency to your drives and irons.

Now that you have developed some strength with you leg and hip muscles, you can move onto the next step: building speed.

Remember, you only have 1/3^rd of a second to get your hips from 60º closed to 45º open.

Unfortunately, we all have a built-in speed governor. There is a part of our brain that says we will move our hips so fast, and not one bit faster. For most of us, that speed is too slow for the downswing. Fortunately, with the Power Hip Trainer we can override our internal governor and make our hips go faster—fast enough for a powerful, effortless golf swing.

After releasing your cinch belt, you just turn the cinch 180º to an open (speed) position.

You re-attach the cinch belt to your hips, and move to a neutral position on the non-slip base. Now turn your hips back 60º and feel how the steel spring accelerates your hips to the open position.

At first it will, again, feel uncomfortable. After all, your hips are now breaking the speed limit!

But will some repetition you will get used to it. Fortunately, you won’t get a ticket for speeding, but you will get more distance on your drives and irons.

Again, we recommend 3 sets of 10 repetitions each, both for the short turn and long turn.

Finally, we want to train our upper and lower body to move separately. Separation is what separates the pros from everyone else. Until now, this independent movement of the upper and lower body has been almost impossible for most golfers to learn.

Turn the cinch back 180º to the strength (closed) position, and now repeat the first drills, but this time keep your arms out to the side. This will help keep your head, arms and shoulders still while you rotate your lower body. This will teach you to keep the upper body quiet while you initiate your downswing with your lower body. Again, do 3 sets of the short and long rotations.

Now, turn the cinch 180º to the speed position, and repeat your speed drills while keeping the head, arms and shoulders as still as possible.

Remember, what makes the Somax Power Hip Trainer unique is that you are not only building strength, you are also building skills. You could build up the strength of your legs by doing squats with weights, but how many times do you squat on the golf course? And squats do not build up the rotator muscles of the hips. Only the Power Hip Trainer does that.

So, now that you have completed your exercises with your Power Hip Trainer it’s time to go to the range and swing a club. We recommend you start with a five iron. You will notice right away that your swing feels different. Even though it feels like you are not swinging as hard, the club head is going faster. In tests we have done with our clients using the Power Hip Trainer, golfers increased their club head speed by 30% or more.

While there will be some increase in club head speed after your first session, the biggest change comes with practice. On the average, we find it takes about 12 sessions with the Power Hip Trainer to get the full increase in club head speed. Since we recommend three sessions a week, in just four weeks you will see a significant increase in distance.

Not only will your club head speed increase, but you will find that your shotmaking will be more accurate and more consistent as well. You will experience less fatigue playing 18-36 holes. As a result, you will feel more confident. And golf will be more enjoyable.

The Power Hip Trainer is exercise for life. As your muscles get stronger you can increase the number of sets and the number of repetitions. As you master the drills and are able to go through your workout quickly, your workout will become aerobic, giving your heart the exercise it needs to stay healthy. As you increase the length of your workout beyond 30 minutes, you will start to burn fat. Training with the Power Hip Trainer is an enjoyable way to improve your golf game, reduce your waistline, and help your heart.

The Power Hip Trainer is portable. You can set it up on the back deck or out in the back yard when the weather is good, and bring it inside when the weather is bad. Your exercises can be done while watching the news or your favorite golf tournament.

Since it is adjustable for different heights and hip sizes, other members of your family can use it as well. Our female golfers have increased their drives by as much as 50 yards, enabling them to better enjoy playing with their husbands. Kids use it to improve soccer, baseball and basketball.

The Somax Power Hip Trainer comes complete with a 90 minute instructional DVD (VHS tape also available) and a detailed manual for assembly and use. Assembly is easy. You slip the spring tube into the retainer cup on the non-slip base, slide the connecting pin in and secure it with the safety clip.

Then you attach the connecting tube to the hip cinch with a connecting pin and safety clip.

Finally you adjust the height for your hips and secure the connecting tube and spring tube together with the third connecting pin.

The manual will also show you how to position the hip cinch for strength and acceleration.

Because flexibility is so important to the golf swing, we also include directions in the manual for measuring your flexibility with our exclusive Somax Flexometer, included with your Power Hip Trainer.

Your Somax Power Hip Trainer is manufactured with top grade steel throughout. You will appreciate the craftsmanship in the construction and welding of the parts, and the smooth, glossy baked-on enamel finish. It is an exercise machine you will be proud to show your friends and family. The quality is backed up with a thirty-day money back guarantee. If, for any reason, you are not satisfied, just return it within 30 days and your money will be cheerfully refunded, less shipping and handling. All parts are guaranteed against defects for one year.

It will be difficult to turn your hips fast if you are stiff. If you have tried stretching but find that it does not improve your flexibility, please read about Microfiber Reduction (MR), our program of connective tissue massage that improves flexibility far beyond what stretching alone can do. Before and After photos of golfers who have completed our program can be found at Clients and Testimonials. If you are interested in Microfiber Reduction (MR), consider ordering our demonstration videotape.

Customers have been using their Power Hip Trainers for more than a year now. We include some of their comments here:

"I have been playing scratch golf for more than 30 years and was not happy to see my average drive drop from 250 to 230 over the past few years. The combination of Microfiber Reduction and the Power Hip Trainer has enabled me to increase my average drive to 280, with some drives going as far as 300 yards. At 57 years of age, I am very pleased with the results." R. G., Austin, TX

"My pro has been telling me for years to get my lower body into my swing, but I was never able to do it until I started working with your hip trainer. After the first week of practice, I could begin to see a difference on videotape. Now I'm starting to hit some of the best drives of my life." P. A., Fresno, CA

"I had a habit of sliding my hips during my downswing that was very difficult to break. After working against the resistance of the Power Hip Trainer, I have been able to eliminate the slide and just turn my hips. As a result, I'm more consistent with my drives and irons." T. G., San Francisco, CA

"My problem has been my right leg. I never felt solid at the top of my backswing. Now that I've been working with my hip trainer for a while, I feel more solid. I'm keeping my right knee bent, and can feel that I'm really driving off my right leg. I feel like I'm making better contact with the ball. My handicap has dropped from 12 to 9." B. L., Naples, FL

"I'm hitting the ball more consistently. A brutal left hook that popped up from time to time disappeared after the third week on the hip trainer. My wife now uses it for her tennis game, and our son has found it helpful for soccer." H. K., Mission Viejo, CA.

"The Power Hip Trainer has been a big help to my students. The resistance and acceleration really help them work the muscles in their legs and hips. Talking about hip rotation, showing them tapes of expert golfers, and demonstrating the correct motion myself has not helped them to learn how to drive with the legs and rotate the hips like the Power Hip Trainer." A. W., Orinda, CA

The Power Hip Trainer can be ordered by clicking on the 'Order Now' button below. The Power Hip Trainer is $275 and $35 for shipping, plus tax for CA residents. It will take 5-7 business days for your order to arrive.

You may also want to learn about our new golf stretch DVD www.golfstretchdvd.com