Here is a simple pre-round golf warmup you can do standing up. This is a quick 8 minute warmup that you can do anywhere. 

Warming up before your round – along with committing to a golf-specific fitness routine – is critical to maximize your performance and to stay healthy on and off the course. This goes beyond simply grinding through a bucket of range balls 10 minutes before your tee time. A good pre-round warmup is 5-10 minutes of moves and stretches that prepare your body for the unique demands of the golf swing. The goals of your warmup should be the following: 

Engage the Right Muscles Believe it or not, it’s possible to do almost any movement (including the golf swing) using only some of the muscles designed for that particular movement. That’s why it’s important to practice exercises that boot the neurologic system and wake up the crucial muscles for the golf swing. The muscles in our backside – the gluteal muscles – can especially need “waking up” if you’ve been sitting at work all day. A failure to engage the posterior chain can result in a weak, injury prone swing. 

Increase Mobility and Flexibility in the hips, thoracic spine and shoulders. To avoid injury and maximize your swing range of motion, it’s important to go through golf-specific mobility drills in a careful, controlled manner before doing it in a fast, dynamic manner. For example, a lack of mobility in the upper back (thoracic spine) is one of the main causes of lower back injury in golfers. This is due to over-rotation through the lower spine to compensate for the inability to move the upper back and shoulders during backswing and follow through. 

Rev up your Balance System Being able to stay balanced in your posture while generating high speed rotational force is an important skill to play consistently good  golf. The systems in our body that control balance – the vestibular, visual and proprioceptive systems – work better when challenged regularly, even right before tee time. 

A quick pre-round warmup can achieve all of these benefits which will  dramatically improve your performance on the course while decreasing your chances for pain and injury. 

Jeremy James, DC, CSCS

Founder of GOLFFOREVER

Co-Author, The Younger Next Year Back Book. Golf-performance and pain specialist to PGA pros, Fortune 500 CEOs and thousands of everyday golfers