This warm-up routine will get you golf-ready before the first tee

If you’re anything like me, you probably struggle with (or completely ignore) a regular warm-up routine before teeing off. Whatever your reasoning, we all know it’s best to loosen up before hitting your first shot rather than spend the first few holes priming your body.

Sure, we probably yank on the occasional shoulder, or rotate our neck and back to feel like we’re warming up, but that’s not the optimal way to prep for a round.

So what’s a trusted golf warm up that engages all those important areas of the body? In the video below, elite mid-amateur Jonathan Bale — who competed in this year’s Bridges Cup for Team Europe — shares his go-to routine, which will help you quickly and efficiently get you ready for the round ahead.

A mid amateur, Jonathan Bale, shares his most-trusted warm up routine

Bale is a stud golfer who played college golf at Louisiana Tech, so he knows what it takes to compete on a high level.

In the video, Bale squashes a common misconception that many Average Joes have when it comes to the driving range — using it as the only area to warm up and get loose.

“Most people think when you come to the range you’re coming to warm up, but most of my warm-up is done before I get to the range,” Bale says. “Typically, about 2.5 hours before my tee time, I’ll be in the gym focusing on the areas of my body that I know need more attention than others.”

Fitness

Next, Bale says that he’s used body screening to help identify which areas he should primarily focus on during a warm up. For him, it’s his hips, glutes and spine.

“If I came [to the driving range] straight from breakfast or bed to hit balls for 30 minutes, I wouldn’t be warm,” he says. “My intention is to come to the range firing on all cylinders, so I can use the range to get a feel for the turf and a feel for my swing.”

So, how does Bale get himself loose, working on those three key areas?

“Getting back into my trail side [during the golf swing] is something I really struggle with,” he says. “If I bend over to do a typical hamstring stretch, with my knees just slightly bent, for the backswing, my left leg is slightly bent and my right leg stays straight.”

In the video, Bale turns into his backswing motion [without using a club], rotating his right hip upward so that his right arm stretches toward the sky and his left arm pushes against his left leg.

He then does the opposite for his through swing — all with the intention of helping his back, glutes and hips to loosen up.

“I can feel it all the way down my side and into my glute, then down into my IT band, and I’ll do 5-to-10 seconds on each side about five times,” he says. “I feel like that [stretch] just covers everything.”