Warm up to play better golf!

Joe Rosenthal is the owner of Kinect Sport & Fitness. His passion for the game of golf, coupled with strength and conditioning, have helped focus his efforts to obtain is Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in physical therapy from San Diego State. Joe received his Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Certification. It is at Kinect Sport & Fitness in Pleasanton where Joe performs his highly accredited golf specific conditioning program.

Joe is teaming with ACES to offer golf fitness tips throughout each month. You can contact Joe at (925) 997-4360 or go to www.Kinectsf.com.

It’s Saturday or Sunday morning and you’re going to play some golf. You’ve been excited to get out all week. You want to play well and beat your playing partners…and maybe win some money while you’re at it! You arrive at the course, but they don’t have a driving range, but it doesn’t matter because you tee off in 10 minutes anyway. So, you rush to the first tee and take a few practice swings, maybe grab two clubs and do some rotations. The whole time thinking…man I’m stiff! You end up playing the first three holes terribly and don’t fully get warmed up until about hole 5 or 6. Sound familiar? I thought so. Let’s talk about how to properly warm-up before a round a golf.

A proper warm-up for golf starts before you even pick up a club. We need to wake up the body and get it ready to swing at 100% for the first tee. This is what physiologically happens during a warm-up…

  1. Activate the muscle groups that we will primarily use when swinging a golf club
  2. Move through the joints associated with those muscle groups
  3. Turn on the nervous system for a more active, stable, and fast-moving body

Now let’s discuss some guidelines before your warm-up. A good dynamic warm-up (moving while heating) should take you about 10-15 minutes. Everyone will be different with some of us needing more, and some, less time. Another concept to remember when performing a dynamic warm-up is that you should always be moving through each exercise. No more holding stretches or “bouncing”. Lastly, you can do these moves anywhere…so no excuses!

Here are a few examples:

Long Hip Flexor with Side Bend: Start with a long-split stance with both feet facing forward. From here, press the hips and upper body forward while raising the arms overhead. You should feel a stretch on the front part of your hip. Then side bend as far as you can over the leg in the front. You’ll get a stretch all the way down the side of your body possibly into the hip. Repeat 5-8 times per side.

Single Leg Flow Row: Balance on a single leg with a slight bend in the knee and hip. While trying to keep the balancing leg and knee stable, rotate the hips and upper body around as far as possible. Move in a controlled motion into your backswing and follow through. Always make sure the balanced knee stays pointing forward. Repeat 5-8 times per side.

Lateral Hop with Rotation: Balance on a single leg with a slight bend in the knee and hip. Slightly bend the knee and hip down and jump or hop to the opposite leg. Make sure to use your thigh and glutes to move you when jumping. Once you land softly on the opposite leg, rotate your upper body as far as possible without moving the hips. You can stabilize by tapping the toe of the floating foot. 10-12 repetitions total.