Proper Warm Ups

One of the popular questions or requests I get from bowlers and coaches is “what is a good warm up routine for bowling?”. My answer is using a joint by joint approach.

Starting wth your ankles you can do some ankle circles, toe walks, and heel walks to improve mobility of the ankle then move to the knees. You can perform lunges forward, back, laterally, and at a 45 degree angle to warm up the knees.

Then moving on to the hips I really love leg swings and hip circles in all directions. For shoulders you can to arm circles forwards and backwards through the full range of motion. For wrists you can do some simple wrist circles or I highly recommend a stretch of your wrist flexors against a wall or on the ground.

Lastly I recommend moving the spine. This can include cat/cows from a quadruped position and some lateral flexion to stretch some of the low back and rotator muscles. If you do something to activate and mobilize each joint in the body you can greatly reduce the risk to injuries during competition!