Get Off To A Solid Start With Golf Warm Up Exercises

Have ever watched athletes warming up – all these stretching exercises they use. Or footballers? Have you ever done it before your round? Probably not, yet it’s a critical part of your game.

Cold Muscles Are Bad For You

Cold muscles don’t respond well to sudden exercise and can seriously restrict your movement.

Golf warm up exercises are designed to avoid this, and prevent you ruining your whole round with a bogie or double bogie right at the start. I know what it’s like . . . I’ve done it more times than I care to remember. Have you? If you were honest, and answered ‘yes’, then I urge you to read the rest of this page, so you use the right golf warm up exercises and get off to a good injury-free start.

Two Warmup Exercises

I have eight golf warm up exercises in the ‘First Tee Warm Up’ section of my golf fitness membership site. Here are two to get you started.

The first is a ‘squat with arm raise’...
* Stand with your feet a shoulder-width apart.
* Hold your club vertically in front of you with both hands for balance.
* Lower your body by bending at the knee, not the hips.
* Simultaneously raise the club horizontally up in front of you.
* Raise yourself up again, lower your arms and repeat 15 times.
* Keep your upper body very erect throughout.

This golf warm up exercise warms up your shoulders, back and legs and helps your posture and swing.

The second is the ‘Standing Twist w/Club’...
* Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and loose knees.
* Grab your club just inside shoulder width.
* Raise it in front of you to almost chest height.
* Slowly turn to one side, then back to the other.
* Repeat both sides 5 times.

This golf warm up exercise loosens up the muscles you use when you twist and swing, and helps to ensure that your first swing is right on the button.

What Golf Warm Ups Do

If you look at athletes warming up they use lots of stretches. This loosens the joints and muscles and pumps up the core body temperature. You can’t do this by smashing balls down a practice range. You’ve got to loosen up with well designed golf warm up exercises. Understand that?

Think of yourself as an athlete. Remember back when you did other sports than golf. Remember the warming up you used to do. So what’s so different now? You are still an athlete. Your swing is explosive, just like a discus thrower, and you need the same warm up before exploding with that power.

You would certainly do a warm up in other sports, and you need one for golf as well. Bashing balls down the course is not a warm up. It can damage your cold muscles. Your warm up should warm and loosen up those muscles and joints before the big effort.

Warm Up The Right Muscles

Picture your posture. Your golf stance is important. When you bend at the waist, you put tension on your hamstrings, your glutes and your lower back. You need some golf warm up exercises for these. How about your swing – the arms, shoulders, back and legs. Stretch them before playing and you will reap the rewards.

If you are not convinced then carry on as you have been and see your scores stay the same. If you want to improve, you really must do your golf warm up exercises. You can see a very thorough pre golf warm up in my golf training manual.

Mike Pedersen
Golf Performance Coach