Hastily putting on you spikes. Grabbing your clubs. Speeding to the starter. Two practice swings. And you’re off. You feel stiff and the ball skips off the rough into the woods. Breakfast ball. Many of you reading this know this all-too-familiar situation.
Golf is one of the only sports that people rarely make enough time to appropriately prepare for. If you arrived 15 minutes earlier, how might you spend that? Some may be found at the bar grabbing a beer to start your round off with, others finding time to get a couple of putts off on the practice, a few might be doing some stretches they read in a Golf Digest from April 1997.
What if you had a plan and direct action that would improve your game as well as keep you healthier, safer, and more mobile? What if you didn’t have to take a breakfast ball and have to tell your buddies that you usually don’t “heat up” until the third hole?
The American Heart Association recommends warming up before exercise in order to take the stress off of your heart. It helps to dilate, or open up, your blood vessels to allow the flow of blood and oxygen to muscles, optimizing their performance, as well as reducing the risk of a catastrophic event occurring. The average golfer walks two to six miles per round (depending on cart, cart path only, or walking 18). Thus, it is very important to keep your heart happy based on the demand you place on it. You can also improve mobility, increase flexibility and strength, and get your game started by taking a few extra minutes before playing.
Here are my 5 favorite warmup activities:
A Frame Rotations:
Hinge at your hips, maintaining neutral spine. Take one arm and latch between your knees. Straighten your opposite arm. While keeping your eyes on your hand, rotate your torso, pointing your hand to the sky. Repeat 10 times on each side. This opens up your thoracic mobility in your mid-back, improving rotation through your golf swing.
Helicopters:
Standing upright, loosen arms and start rotating side to side, like a helicopter’s blades. Go back and forth a few times, then progress to getting your hips involved, repeat again a few times, then work down to getting your knees and lower extremities involved. An easy progression from here would be to hinge at the hips, maintaining neutral spine, and repeat these in a golf address posture.
Hip Rocking:
Bend down to one knee, or you can do this standing with knees bent if it’s a wet turf day, point your “up-knee” side toes out to the side. Rock your weight toward that “up-knee” side, hold for a few seconds and repeat ten times on each side. This will also improve your hip mobility to improve rotation and power.
Shoulder Extension Stretch and Squeeze:
Put a club behind your back with your arms gripping on either end, palms facing behind you. Lift the club off of your backside as far as you’re comfortable and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Hold 5 seconds and repeat ten times. This helps to open up shoulders and chest and activate some of your upper back muscles.
Squat with Overhead Reach:
Take a club and hold out in front of you, with hands on either end. Squat down shooting your hips backward and pushing knees apart, sitting back as if there is a chair behind you. As you squat down, reach the club up overhead toward the sky. Go as deep as you are comfortable. Repeat ten times, take a short rest, and try another end. This is a full body activator, increasing hip and shoulder mobility, as well as warming up your muscles.
These easy-to-do exercises take no more equipment than what you have in your bag and can change your game.
Meet Pat Griffin, PT, DPT, SCS and TPI Certified Expert
Pat Griffin, PT, DPT, SCS, earned his bachelor’s of science degree in Clinical Health Studies from Ithaca College in New York. During his time there, he also played quarterback and was a student assistant coach for the Bombers’ football team. He continued on at Ithaca College, earning his Doctorate of Physical Therapy in 2015. After graduation, Pat became the inaugural graduate of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Sports Physical Therapy Residency and earned ABPTS Board-Certification in Sports Physical Therapy. Pat has a strong interest in overhead and rotational athletes. He is especially passionate about returning athletes to sport, as well as injury prevention, strength training, and helping patients in the sports and orthopedic populations maintain an active lifestyle. Outside of the clinic, Pat enjoys playing sports, such as golf and basketball, lifting weights, and spending time outdoors.
Prepare like the Pro Golfers
At FX Physical Therapy, you can utilize our state-of-the-art golf labs to help analyze and improve almost all aspects of your game. Find and fix underlying deficiencies that could be causing you back pain with our K Vest 3D Motion Analysis. Receive a Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Assessment by our certified professionals to strengthen your skills. Perfect your use of force and transfer of power throughout the swing with our BodiTrack Force Plate.
Or get some practice in by yourself or with friends at our Golf Simulator! Utilizing Foresight Sports launch monitor and Jack Nicklaus Perfect Golf programming, our innovative indoor golf simulator lets you get to tee off in any season or weather.
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