Golf Stretching Exercises
It is very important to stretch and warm up before you play a round of golf. Golf stretching exercises will not only reduce your risk of injury, but also increase your power, swing consistency and accuracy.
Click Here For 101 Stretches For Golf
However, exercises done as a warm up are much different from flexibility exercises.
Warm up exercises are meant to help your body get warm before you play golf so that you do not pull any muscles. These are light stretches, where you should not feel a lot of tension in your muscles when completing them.
Flexibility exercises on the other hand are more intense and should be done on your off time, not right before a round of golf. Flexibility exercises focus on improving your flexibility, posture, strength, balance and coordination.
When completing these exercises you should feel some tension in your muscles. You will notice that after awhile you will be able to stretch farther before you feel tension this means the exercises are working.
Besides the benefits mentioned above, golf stretching exercises will also give you more energy and endurance when you play a round of golf, as it increases your blood flow throughout your body.
Pilates Golf
A new form of golf stretching and flexibility training is Pilates golf. Pilates golf has great overall results, including increase agility, flexibility, and strength. Pilates does not take up that much of your time and has many great health benefits along with the golf benefits.
Pilates golf takes the basic Pilates program and specifically gears it toward golf motions to improve your golf game. A great Pilates golf program to check out is Pilates For Golfers.
Basic Warm up Golf Exercises
Shoulder Stretch
- Place your right arm in front of you, across your chest.
- Put your left hand on your right elbow
- Pull your arm towards your chest
- Hold that position for 10 seconds
- Switch arms and repeat
- Complete exercise twice (2x right arm, 2x left arm)
Triceps Stretch
- Get a shorter iron out of your golf bag (such as 7 iron)
- Hold the club at the grip with your left hand
- Place the club over your head
- Take your right hand and grab the lower end of the club (club head)
- With your right hand pull downward on the club till you feel the stretch in your left tricep.
- Hold for 10 seconds
- Switch arms and repeat
- Complete exercise twice (2x right arm, 2x left arm)
Golf Stretching Exercises for Flexibility
Lower Back (Back Extension)
- Lay down on the floor (stomach down)
- Use your elbows to prop yourself up off the ground (only your upper body, your hips and lower body should remain on the floor)
- Slowly straighten out your elbows, propping up your body more, till you start feeling a stretch in your lower back.
- Continue to extend your back so that you can feel a good stretch in lower back
- Hold position for 15 seconds
- Relax your arms and back, returning to starting position
- Repeat this exercise 5 times
These are just some golf stretching exercises you can complete to increase your power swing consistency and decrease your chance for injury.
For golf weight training exercises see: Golf Weight Training
For golf balance exercises see: Golf Fitness Training
Is Lack of Flexibility Affecting Your Swing?
A complete golf flexibility and warm up exercise guide is 101 Stretches For Golf.
101 Stretches for Golf will give you an extensive step by step guide to improving your golf game and decreasing golf injuries, by demonstrating over 100 golf stretches. This guide is the best out there and the results are amazing, definitely recommend checking it out.