Does it take you four or five holes to warm up and gain your form on the golf course?  Do you wish sometimes you could take back the front nine score and start again? If this is the case, you probably missed your pre-round warm up.

What many golfers think of warming up is a few casual stretches before heading to the practice range or first tee. However, warming up is more critically important than that, and literally is (or should be) a mindful process. The purpose of a proper warm up is to increase muscle temperature, which increases blood flow to bring needed oxygen to activate muscles and joints.

Although static stretching is recommended before any physical activity, it is only one component in the process of warming up, a process that should be completed even before a few practice drives or putts. Before a proper warm- up, your body is not ready to hit full shots, and putting on the practice green is not active enough to increase muscle temperature.

There are two types of warm-ups: active and general. Active warm-ups can be general or golf specific. You should incorporate an active warm-up before you stretch specifically for golf. A general warm-up incorporates large muscles of the upper and lower body, and requires you to move at a brisk pace for 5 to 10 minutes to elevate your heart rate. For younger players the ideal is to break a sweat; for older golfers, it’s to become slightly winded. Recommended activities include walking, jogging, jumping jacks, jump rope or anything that will increase your heart rate.

After completing a general warm-up, you are then ready to proceed to the golf specific warm-up phase. This is also known as movement rehearsal. You are literally duplicating or rehearsing the moves used in the golf swing. Research has revealed that if you warm up specifically for the movement you will be performing, you will be much more effective than others doing the same activity but who only do general stretches.

Watch my Cardiogolf Pre-Round Warm Up Routine to see how to warm up muscles that are typically tight in golfers.

The great thing about this routine is that it will warm you up, it is specific for golf, and if you did it every day you could increase your flexibility. It starts by warming up the lower body; then moves into the core, which includes back, abs and chest; and finishes with loosening your shoulders, arms, wrists and hands.