Warming Up Before A Golf Game
Posted: Monday, October 12, 2009
by Patrick Attlee
Everyone should warm up before exercising and golf is no different. Whether you are a touring pro or a hacker at your local course you always need to warm up. The main benefit is to loosen your muscles which will have huge benefits for your swing action. Golf is such a mental game that anything you can do to increase your confidence is only a good thing. Getting to the first tee nicely warmed up is a great way to make you feel confident for the challenges ahead.
Choose a club about the same length as your arm. Hold the club by the head and place the grip into your armpit. The club shaft runs down the length of the arm and this gives your arm and shoulder a good stretch. The club shaft should be pointing straight up. You can then gently bend forward, engaging your abdominal muscles as you pivot forwards to protect your lower back. This will loosen your lower back which is crucial for the golf swing. Hold this for thirty seconds before coming up slowly exhaling all the way. You should then switch sides and repeat the process. You can do this exercise a few times until you back, shoulders and arms feel nice and loose. To loosen your swing action, hold two irons at once and practice your full swing motion. The extra weight of the clubs will really help to loosen your body.
Another exercise that you should also do (Jack Nicklaus does it and if is good enough for him then it is good enough for you and I). To do this, hold a club horizontally at each end behind your back. You should then imagine you are playing a full stroke but keep your hands and arms holding the club behind your back. This gives your back an intense stretch and will help prevent straining the muscles of your back when you hit your first shot for real.
It also helps if you can get lots of highly oxygenated blood pumping around your body. For this we will borrow an ancient yoga breathing exercise. You can do this locked in the bathroom in the club house if you feel self conscious doing it on the first tee! Stand with your feet together and interlock your fingers underneath your chin, bringing your elbows to touch. Now slowly inhale through your nose for a count of ten. On the inhale breath, raise the elbows but keep your interlocked fingers under the chin. At the ten count, slowly exhale exhale for ten counts. As you exhale tilt your head back and slowly bring your wrists, arms and finally elbows to touch in front of you. Then on the inhale open your elbows and bring them slowly up to the vertical again. The main benefit of this is to flood your muscles with highly oxygenated blood which will energize you for the game. The other added benefit is loosening your neck and arm muscles.
Hopefully these tips help in your warm up and lead to a better round of golf, and maybe, dare to dream it, a lower score!
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Patrick has been publishing online for several years. Since buying a twin memory foam mattress he has noticed a big improvement in his golf game and now writes extensively about visco elastic foam mattress technology.
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