Best way to warm up--pound balls or stretch?

[k-troop]

I used to think that the only way to warm up to play was to hit 30 or 40 balls.  About two years ago I suffered a pretty bad ankle sprain when I fell down some frozen steps, which led to some foot problems and then a lot of tightness in my right achilles and calf.  I found that before I could make a swing I had to really work to warm up my legs and stretch my lower body really well.

It completely changed the way I open my rounds of golf.  I found that if I take 10 minutes to warm up my legs and stretch really, really well (like yoga-style) then I didn't need to hit any warm up shots, and I got much better results than just hitting balls to warm up.

Here's what I do:

Start with some squats and leg stretching.

Make long, slow, exaggerated shoulder turns to stretch the hips and lower back.

Hold a club over my head and, keeping my legs double-shoulder width and as straight as possible, try to touch the grip or clubhead to the ground in front and in back.

Then I work through the routine again, with more leg stretches (calf, quad, and hamstring), shoulder rotations, and bends.

Only after I do all of that do I start making swings with two clubs (3 and 4 iron held together), concentrating on a really wide turn with my shoulders and hips and setting the club with my wrists.  Then I'll move on to normal swings.

I do this before every round, rarely hit a practice ball, and always (well nearly always) stripe it off of the first tee.

[TourSpoon]

Nothing like striping it down the first tee!

I like to go through my stretches at home then go to the course, and warm up by hitting a few wedges for feel and progress through to the driver.  I live pretty close by so it works well.  Good topic.

[Kieran123]

I don't do ANY static stretching...it makes you weaker and has a little or no effect

I do active stretches ( leg swings, side bends, supported squats, practice swings etc ) then I will hit the range.

[mdl]

+1 for Kieran.  It's been shown in lots of studies that static stretching has minimal effect or hurts performance and can lead to more injuries than not stretching.  Active stretching all the way!

Most of what k-troop is describing can be done as active stretches, whether or not he is doing them that way.

I also like standing in a straddle and holding a club on each end and doing various active leg and back stretches.  I'll stand that way with my arms in front of me and twist side to side, bend at the waist and twist the same way, actively reach the head for the ground, retreat, repeat, same thing but with head reaching for alternating feet, reach over my head and bend left and right for a full body side stretch, etc.  Just 5-10 minutes of this and some practice swings gets me warm most days, though I still play better when I hit at least a warm up bucket (~20-25 balls) before teeing off.

[RPMPIRE]

I think that's the reason why some tour players would hit the gym to do some cardio or even light weights before their round of golf. Ian Poulter and Tiger just to name a few.

d

[x129]

Static stretching is good and most golfers should be doing it. It is not a warm up (or cool down according to the latest research) though. Same thing with weighted clubs. They can help you develop your golf strength but swinging a heavy club and then a light one isn't going to make you hit it farther as it is going to mess up your timing.

Ideally you would warm up the muscles (10 mins easy aerobic activity) and then start doing some various dynamic mobility drills and then do golf specific warm up. More realistically, putt for 15 min, chip for 10 min, and then hit range for 10  is pretty simple and gets the job done. People also vary a lot in the amount of warm up they need. Experiment to see what you need.

Originally Posted by mdl

+1 for Kieran.  It's been shown in lots of studies that static stretching has minimal effect or hurts performance and can lead to more injuries than not stretching.  Active stretching all the way!

Most of what k-troop is describing can be done as active stretches, whether or not he is doing them that way.

I also like standing in a straddle and holding a club on each end and doing various active leg and back stretches.  I'll stand that way with my arms in front of me and twist side to side, bend at the waist and twist the same way, actively reach the head for the ground, retreat, repeat, same thing but with head reaching for alternating feet, reach over my head and bend left and right for a full body side stretch, etc.  Just 5-10 minutes of this and some practice swings gets me warm most days, though I still play better when I hit at least a warm up bucket (~20-25 balls) before teeing off.

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by Kieran123

I don't do ANY static stretching...it makes you weaker and has a little or no effect

Originally Posted by mdl

+1 for Kieran.  It's been shown in lots of studies that static stretching has minimal effect or hurts performance and can lead to more injuries than not stretching.

Links? (Other than Yahoo stories, which are generally written by idiots.)

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by sacm3bill

Links? (Other than Yahoo stories, which are generally written by idiots.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_stretching

http://www.flmstri.com/jim-vance/1262-stretching-the-truthlies

http://stronglifts.com/5-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-do-static-stretches/

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by Kieran123

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_stretching

http://www.flmstri.com/jim-vance/1262-stretching-the-truthlies

http://stronglifts.com/5-reasons-why-you-shouldnt-do-static-stretches/

Interesting. Although those are really just bloggers' opinions and not actual scientific studies, I do buy into the argument that you don't want to stretch cold muscles. I do feel I get a benefit from stretching *after* a workout though.

[mdl]

Gated, but a couple studies on strength.  First says static stretching reduces strength while dynamic makes no change, second says static has no effect while dynamic increases:

http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2008/05000/Acute_Effects_of_Static_versus_Dynamic_Stretching.23.aspx

http://eprints2008.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2115/17085

Static stretching also decreases sprint times compared with combo static/dynamic or dynamic:

http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/abstract/2007/08000/the_acute_effects_of_combined_static_and_dynamic.22.aspx

The intro in this ungated PDF is a good summary.

http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/e-space/bitstream/2173/3519/3/williams%2520-%2520effects%2520of%2520differential%2520stretching.pdf

Basically, there's been a bunch of research casting doubt on the usefulness of static stretching as a warm-up, but not enough to conclude 100% that dynamic only is definitely the way to go for all athletic endeavors, either in terms of performance or injury prevention.  Though this article seems to indicate that there's pretty solid research that static stretching as a warm up does not affect injury rates positively or negatively among the athletes studied.

I think the take away is that there is some indication that dynamic stretching is better than static stretching as a warm up, but in general if you do some aerobic warm up and something to loosen up a bit, whether that's practice swings, some range time, some dynamic stretching, or even some dynamic and static stretching, you're gonna be fine for your round!  As long as you're not doing 5-minute splits or some hard core back bends or long static twists or something, which seems it will probably weaken those (golf necessary!) muscles, then you'll be fine.

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by mdl

Gated, but a couple studies on strength.  First says static stretching reduces strength while dynamic makes no change, second says static has no effect while dynamic increases:

http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2008/05000/Acute_Effects_of_Static_versus_Dynamic_Stretching.23.aspx

http://eprints2008.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2115/17085

Static stretching also decreases sprint times compared with combo static/dynamic or dynamic:

http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/abstract/2007/08000/the_acute_effects_of_combined_static_and_dynamic.22.aspx

The intro in this ungated PDF is a good summary.

http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/e-space/bitstream/2173/3519/3/williams%2520-%2520effects%2520of%2520differential%2520stretching.pdf

Basically, there's been a bunch of research casting doubt on the usefulness of static stretching as a warm-up, but not enough to conclude 100% that dynamic only is definitely the way to go for all athletic endeavors, either in terms of performance or injury prevention.  Though this article seems to indicate that there's pretty solid research that static stretching as a warm up does not affect injury rates positively or negatively among the athletes studied.

I think the take away is that there is some indication that dynamic stretching is better than static stretching as a warm up, but in general if you do some aerobic warm up and something to loosen up a bit, whether that's practice swings, some range time, some dynamic stretching, or even some dynamic and static stretching, you're gonna be fine for your round!  As long as you're not doing 5-minute splits or some hard core back bends or long static twists or something, which seems it will probably weaken those (golf necessary!) muscles, then you'll be fine.

Good stuff!

Studies show static stretching has no benefits for explosive exercise....and I would bunch the golf swing into that category ( 0-100mph over and over for 4 hours )

[GaijinGolfer]

Stretching all the way because it loosens your muscles up more than just hitting balls does.

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by TitleistWI

Stretching all the way because it loosens your muscles up more than just hitting balls does.

Again, static stretching doesn't really loosen muscles at all. It can do the exact opposite

Active stretching/minor cardio does the job of loosening up

[Leftygolfer]

I have a hard time buying that static stretches are bad for you.  Have you ever been to a football game or baseball game early and watched them warm up.

[Lofty Lefty]

Originally Posted by Leftygolfer

I have a hard time buying that static stretches are bad for you.  Have you ever been to a football game or baseball game early and watched them warm up.

Actually, come to think of it, I noticed that I don't see a lot of static stretching when I watch an AFL team waring up. I DO see a lot of leg swings etc so perhaps there is something to it. It's not that you don't see any static stretching at all, just nowhere near as much as you used to....

[x129]

You have never seen football or baseball players do stupid things? They stretch before workouts because thats what they did 50 years ago.

Static stretches are not bad for you. They increase flexibility. However they do decrease muscle strength for an hour or so. But guess what lifting weights for 20 mins would also decrease your strength. The real question for a golfer is do they increase flexibility  right after the stretch(i.e. will I go from rotating 95 degrees to 100 degrees at the end of static stretch routine instantly) and I haven't seen any studies on that but my feeling is no. I don't stretch farther after 15 min of stretching than I do after 15 mins of warm up (things like brisk walking/biking, some active swinging motions,...). YMMV

Originally Posted by Leftygolfer

I have a hard time buying that static stretches are bad for you.  Have you ever been to a football game or baseball game early and watched them warm up.

[BuckeyeNut]

I'm a terrible example because I NEVER hit balls before a round.....in fact, I never hit balls on the range!!....LOL  I have unlimited range privileges at my home course, and I can honestly say I've never once stepped foot onto that range.

I make a half@ss attempt to stretch for a few minutes and make a few practice swings before teeing off and that's about it......

[Leftygolfer]

I'm not saying that athletes only do static stretches.  It is a combo of both getting ready to perform.  Also, physical therapist use static stretches alot (at least when I went after knee surgury).  When I look at training I still see alot of static stretches.  To say they are bad and have no use is mis-information IMO.

But in terms of this thread, getting your body ready to swing is important.  I'm sure we all have had the days that we just felt tight and couldn't make a good move.  Warming up either by stretching or hitting balls is great to avoid that.  I'm not stretching to make a fuller turn.  I'm stretch to make a turn and not loose my inclination to the ground.  I also want to feel like I can make a smooth transition.  If I'm tight I find it harder.