Should You Warm Up Before Golf?

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

25 Dec 2006 09:10 AM

Should you warm up before you head out to the golf course? Too often when we think of golf, we don't think of it as a sport that can get your muscles heated up or actually create a strain on your body that will be worse if you don't warm up or stretch out before you hit the golf course. But let's think about this, stretching before a game can help prevent tendon injuries that may occur when your muscles are cold.

Golf is a Game of Repetitive Motion

You perform a number of repetitive motions when you are playing golf and this can lead to a series of stress injuries on your body and your joints if you don't warm up before you get started. You want to work on increasing your blood circulation and your flexibility prior to teeing off. You can do this in a variety of ways and if you're not familiar with the game of golf and you are interested in learning, consider the following stretches and warm up exercises as a part of your routine.

• Swing Your Arms - Swinging your arms back and forth will increase the blood circulation through your limbs, if you cross your arms as you swing them, you are also tightening and relaxing the muscles along the backs of your shoulders and warming them up - this is very good for your arms and shoulders as you use them for your golf swing
• Take a short, but brisk walk for two minutes or you may walk in place to get the blood flowing through your body and warm up your leg muscles
• Stretch your back - you can sit with good posture on a chair or bench - turn slowly to your right until you feel light tension across your lower back, hold for a count of three and then relax - turn then to your left until you feel the same tension, holding for a count of three, and again, relax
• Stretch your Hamstrings - When we walk, we use both our hamstrings and our quadriceps as well as many other muscles in our legs, stretching the hamstrings is important when you are going to be doing a lot of walking because you may not utilize them fully when walking otherwise

Golf is a great way to spend time together and to get a good walk in during the course of the game. But it's also a good way to injure yourself if you don't adequately prepare your muscles. Do you warm up before you play a round or two of golf?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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