The golf season is fast approaching, and if you want to have a good season this year (better than last year, at least!), here are a few things you can do to prepare. No, I’m not talking about cleaning the mud off your golf clubs. These are things to help you get your body ready for golfing.

Rotational flexibility, hip flexibility, lower back muscles, and shoulder strength all play a role in each golfer’s swing. And working these areas will also help you avoid getting spasms in your leg or back muscles during a long day on the links. If you have been cramped up in an office desk and chair all winter, then this is even more important.

You can perform many of these exercises during your lunch break, or at home in the evening in front of the television. You also don’t necessarily need to break a sweat doing most of them. The rotational power in your torso relies on the hips, buttocks, thighs, abdominals, and lower back muscles all working in coordination. So begin by stretching those core areas.

Try the following exercises: abdominal crunches, gentle trunk rotations, gentle torso twists, lower back stretches such as “cat” arches and hunches, hamstring stretches, and side rotations using resistance.

If you are like me and tend to spend the winters being inactive, make sure you begin gently. The risk is that you will overdo things at the beginning, and injure some of your core areas, causing you to push back that first tee-off date. Begin each session by warming up for a short while using some aerobic option such as walking, riding a stationary bike, or a rowing machine.

Participating in these exercise will help prepare you body for the upcoming golf season.

See you soon, Joshua.