Another great weekend almost in the books. Sunday night is a perfect time to reflect on the past week AND plan for this upcoming one.
Of course, the best-laid plans rarely go 100% smoothly. And if your plan is to play golf tomorrow, next week, month, or the next 50 years, preventing injuries needs to be a big part of it.
Injuries happen. No matter what we do, we’ll never completely escape them. BUT, there are a lot of things we can do prevent them happening in the first place.
So, before you start your round. Your workout. Or any stressful, physical activity. Start with a dynamic warm-up.
Good god, don’t do what we were taught. And try to stretch cold muscles. It hurst me just to think about how bad that is for you.
Dynamic warm-ups are kind of a hybrid. You’re moving while you’re stretching.
The thing to remember here is that we’re warming up by putting our joints through a full range of motion. And preparing the muscles for the stress to come.
Think of your muscles like rubber bands.
Would you start your workout by immediately picking up heavy weights? Or, shoot yourself out of the gate with a full-speed sprint?
No. That’s a great way to snap your rubber band.
But Jeff, you keep telling us that golfers mostly have joint injuries. And that’s what we should be working to prevent. Right?
You bet your a$$.
Most injuries are joint related. BUT, our muscles are what protect our joints.
You ever hurt your knee, then a week later your back starts to hurt? That’s most likely because your back muscles aren’t strong enough to bear the burden of protecting your defenseless knee.
That’s how amazing our bodies are. Unfortunately, that also makes it difficult to track down the true origin of injuries.
Again, the best way to handle an injury is to avoid all of that nonsense. And prevent it in the first place.
So always, always start with a dynamic warm-up. I like to do things like lunge walks with rotation. Crab walks. Shoulder blade retractions…
And just like Sgt. Esterhaus used to say on Hill Street Blues…”Let’s be careful out there.”
Your #1 Fan,
Jeff Pelizzaro
PS – The next time you hit the links, be sure to pop open your 18STRONG App and choose the Warm-Up Blueprint for the amount of time you have.
Some guys like to warm-up at home. Some dudes have five minutes on the first tee. And everywhere in between. We’ve got you covered.
If you’re not a member yet, then here’s where to go: