Hey, guys. Doc Russell, Man of God Performance, where we use our medical and performance training background to help golfers improve their body to play without limitations. On this week's episode, we talk about the importance of a warm up. Right? And I think a lot of times golfers struggle with either getting to the course early enough or just prioritizing warm up, which ultimately can lead to reduction of injuries.
So for those who are looking for some structure and looking for some ways to incorporate a warm up into your practice or into your routine, check out this podcast episode. Welcome back. Season Two of the Mana Golf Performance Podcast. I'm your host, Doc Russ. I'm a licensed physiotherapist and strength coach based out of Rochester, New York. And so today we're going to talk about is a topic that I think many golfers understand the idea of, but actually implementing it is another story.
And so that's the idea of a warm up. And so many golfers, myself included, sometimes are kind of stubborn with regards to a warm up and maybe don't implement it or emphasize it as much as we should. And so what I want to do today is kind of discuss some of the kind of research that we have available to us as to why the the importance of a warm up is so critical for your health, not only on the course but off the course, but also to at the end we give you some some simple strategies that you can utilize to make sure that you can actually prioritize a warm up so that way doesn't
take you too long to kind of get loosened up and get rolling so that you can play your best from the get go and not having to, you know, get warmed up or get loosened up, let's say six or seven holes into your round. And so, you know, I think a warm up when we think of a warm up, when golfers begin to warm up and think it's just kind of this boring stretching routine that is going to take a good amount of time and it's maybe not really needed and they would rather just swing the club more to kind of get, quote unquote, loosen up versus, you know, prioritizing certain areas of the body
to get them kind of loosened up and warmed up so that when you do swing, the swing is more effective and you have more kind of, I guess, power and intent behind it. And so when we talk about a warm up, you know, the whole premise behind a warmth is to kind of get the body loosened up, you know, for those who maybe struggle with some stiffness or some soreness in certain areas of the body, it's an opportunity to kind of address some of those areas and kind of highlight those areas.
So you can kind of make those your points of emphasis. And then ultimately the again, the the whole point of a quote unquote warm up is to get warm is to improve tissue temperature. So that way you reducing that, you know, stiffness and times that people are experiencing. So that way when you start to move into certain positions or some of these extreme range of motion that need for the golf swing, you can actually get into those positions and not feel like you're creating more stress or causing more discomfort if you're really dealing with a preexisting issue or potentially causing an issue to kind of arise as you get through your routine.
And so I think, you know, when we look at some of the research that we look at, you know, hey, what do we see here? And we looked at some of the research and I appreciate a shout out to Alex Ehler for kind of going through some of his research and kind of sifting through it and then curating is that, you know, there was a study that was done back in 2017 or 2016.
I want to say when they looked at those who warmed up and those who did it. And what we found is those who actually warmed up there were eight times less likely to get hurt just by doing a simple warm up and so I think that is very, very powerful when we talk about having that conversation with our golfers about, hey, are you warming up and what does that look like?
And for the majority of people that we talked to, they're like, yeah, I'm not really warming up. I'm warming up by swinging. And so again, well, it's all fine and dandy. I think if you spend 5 to 10 minutes before you start to swing by doing a number of different dynamic movements to kind of check a lot of boxes and hit those areas of contention like the upper back, let's say the shoulder is the low back in the hips.
I think that goes a long way in just reducing the likelihood of getting hurt. Well, the research study also showed was that for those who actually did get hurt while they did the warm up, they one, weren't very, very consistent or compliant with their their warm up protocol, too. But the injury that they did sustain was less was severe or more mild.
And it happened later in the round. And so in comparison, when we look at the control group where they didn't warm up, those people actually experienced more significant injuries that required more time to kind of have them recover, which ultimately led to more time left for them, which ultimately led to them spending more time away from the golf course.
And so when we look at that study and understanding that it's just one study, but there was about 300 people in that study, while we can't put everyone in the same kind of bubble, it gives us a general sense that, hey, listen, if we just do something as simple as a 5 to 10 minute warmup, that can go a long way in significantly mitigating the likelihood of us getting hurt, you know, the eight times less likely of getting hurt just by not warming up at all compared to warming up is a huge number.
And I think that's something that you can't overlook. And so I think, you know, those who are kind of beating the drum and saying, well, listen, I can just get warmed up by swinging. I totally get that. I understand that. But if you are stiff or tired, let's say you've got a little bit longer drive to the golf course and then you're spending more time in the car sitting and then also in how to get into some of these dynamic movements such as the golf swing.
Then ultimately you're setting yourself up for potentially the likelihood of that, some of that stuff kind of causing some crankiness or some discomfort as around gets going, not all the time, but that accumulation of stress over time might create more stress as you continue to get into your golf season. And so what we do notice is those who are, you know, starting the golf season early and starting to swing immediately, if a lot of those repetitive stress injuries happen, if they've been sitting on injuries that they haven't been addressing the season as well.
So, you know, I think the important part to understand is that while we can't completely prevent injuries from occurring, we can significantly reduce them by doing a warm up and being very, very intentional with what we want to do with our body. And so I think some strategy we want to talk to you about when it comes to being more compliant with the warm up is, you know, be intentional, right?
If you've got like five or six movements that you know, hey, really get the body loosened up and it feels good for you understanding that everyone's going to be a little different. But if we have a general idea of what we want to do and we know that it's going to take 5 to 10 minutes to kind of do it, then again, show up a little bit early to the golf course.
Right. We understand there sometimes there are some things that kind of play like, hey, if you're spending a little bit more time with your family before you spend three or 4 hours on the golf course, we totally get that. If that's the case, then maybe we need to prioritize maybe doing a warm up at home and do it with your kids and show the kids hey
This is how you kind of moving and get warmed up so that they understand maybe the value of that, too. And so, you know, I think first things first, if you have an opportunity to get to the course earlier, get to the course, the other 15, 20 minutes doesn't have to be long. But if you can at least start your day and start your round by warming up before you start hitting balls and putting and chipping in all those things like that, it's going to set you is going to set yourself up for success.
Number two, again, if you feel like you can't get to the course earlier and do your warm up at home, it does have to be long, right? But at the same point in time, something is better than nothing. Right. And understanding that sometimes the travel time to the golf course might kind of influence how much of all of you do before you leave the house.
But again, something is better than nothing. And then lastly, use full body movements. Okay. Now, you don't have to get on the ground. A lot of people think like, hey, when I do this warming, I get on the ground, I've got to do all these different things. And I'm like, No, I think a lot of times if you can check a lot of boxes with simple dynamic movements, that's going to go a long way in helping your body get warmed up before you start to swing.
So I think in summary, again, this is another quick hitter. I think the the importance of a warm up shouldn't be overlooked. You know, it's a simple way to kind of get the body trying to get the nervous system to kind of calm down and reduce the threat of sitting that stiffness or tightness that you're experiencing. And ultimately it's going help you feel good, right?
Like we don't want to be on the first tee and be like, my body feels stiff, kind of feel tired. And then also we start to make excuses for game because we're not warmed up properly, right? And so I think if we can feel confident to know when we're standing over the ball on the first tee that we did everything we can to be ready for this golf round, and that's all you're asking for, right?
We don't want to spend seven or eight holes getting loosened up and also that our game improves once we warmed up. If we can warm up from the beginning and then also be ready from the first tee box on, that's what we're kind of looking for. So I think while a warm up sounds great, the application and implementation warm up is something that I think golfers can do better and I think that I'm included in that as well.
And so, you know, for those who struggle with warm ups, like maybe tell us why you struggle the warm up is because you don't have time or you feel like, hey, I just want to kind of go through my normal routine, which is something that you've been doing for years on end. And while that's okay, I think if we can just add in a little bit of something that's going to go a long way in helping your golf game, not only when you play it, but also hopefully after you play, you're not feeling that increased soreness, you're not feeling that increased tightness or not dealing with pain, which then ultimately leads down to a different
road where now all of a sudden, if you're taking yourself away from the game because we didn't do enough stuff in the beginning to kind of keep ourselves healthy, then again, the only person we can look at is ourselves in the mirror when it comes to that. So if you have any questions on a warm up of what warm up should you do, what movements should we look at?
What areas should we target? Please reach out to us. We love to come to you. I'll be able to help you that maybe we should put something together. If you're open to it, maybe put something together for you so that you can kind of like have a checklist of some of the areas that we want to kind of hit before you start swinging.
And then maybe you can kind of go from there. Right. So again, don't underestimate the importance of a warm up. Spend 5 or 10 minutes at the course to kind of get things kind of primed to get your body loosened up so that when you start playing, you're ready to roll. We'll talk to you guys on the next episode.
All right. Thanks so much for watching this week's episode of the Mana Golf Performance podcast. If you have any questions on a warm up or how to implement a warm up or what you should do to warm up, please let us know. Leave a comment in the comments section below so we can help you kind of figure out what makes the most sense for you based on, let's say, some limitations that maybe you're kind of dealing with.
And so in next week's episode are going to kind of go over some more specific things with regards to certain body regions. And if you're dealing with pain in those regions, how can we either modify some of the training or some of the golf kind of preparation that you're doing to help kind of work around that while we try and get that under control?
And so we're excited to bring that to you? I think a lot of golfers have reached out to us about some of the pain that they're experiencing either in the offseason and they're worried about what's going to happen when they get back into the actual golf season this upcoming spring. And so we want to try and highlight some of those things for you guys so that if you're dealing with shoulder hip low back issues, here are some of the things that we recommend and here are some strategies that we can do to help kind of get you to where you need to be.
So make sure you stay tuned to next week's episode. If you haven't seen last week's episode, make sure you check out the video here. Subscribe to our page you know where the next podcast is dropping. We'll talk to the guys soon
