Warming up should mimic the activity you plan on participating in. For golfing, the routine should focus on mainly hip flexibility, strength, and balance to be ready to go at the first tee. In this article, we will cover:
- Most common body part injured in golf
- Importance of a warm up
- An exercise to help you warm up before golfing
A warm up is a simple way to set our bodies up for the demands of a golf swing. It is estimated that low back pain is the most common complaint among golfers. Where most golfers go wrong and end up with a back injury when they use their lower back instead of their hips to create their swing. Our hips have 90 degrees of rotation compared to our back which only has 5 degrees per segment. If our hips aren’t rotating well, then our lower back compensates for what our hips aren’t giving us.
A proper warm up will help our body increase its blood flow to all of our muscles in the body. It helps our muscles to be prepared to move in a specific way for an activity, in this case, golfing. By properly warming up, we can help to reduce our risk for injuries. As we mentioned before, our hips are our major rotators in our body. If they aren’t moving to their potential, it is causing unneeded stress on the lower back. Stretching and warming up our hips should occur just before starting a round of golf.
Check out this video below where we discuss why our hips should drive our golf swing and an exercise to help you warm up before you hit the course!
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Sports Injury Statistics Suggest: Golf is More Dangerous than Rugby. Golfsupport Blog. https://golfsupport.com/blog/sports-related-injuries-golf-more-dangerous-than-rugby/. Published July 18, 2018. Accessed June 9, 2019.
Reinhardt G. The Role of Decreased Hip IR as a Cause of Low Back Pain in a Golfer: a Case Report. HSS J. 2013;9(3):278–283. doi:10.1007/s11420-013-9353-9.
Sherman, C. A., & Finch, C. F. (2000). Preventing injuries to competitive and recreational adult golfers: what is the evidence?. Journal of science and medicine in sport, 3(1), 65-78.
