Proper Warm Ups – BowlFit Tips

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!

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About Heather –

Heather D’Errico MS, CSCS, CFSC, LMT

Heather began BowlFit in 2013 with the hope to provide awareness to bowlers about how crucial training off the lanes truly is. She has been an avid bowler her entire life competing as a collegiate bowler for Robert Morris University, assistant coaching at the University of Central Missouri, and now head coaches at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY.

She obtained a master’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis on exercise science and interned with the head strength coach at UCM. She became a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) through NSCA shortly after graduation and began coaching athletes at Next Level Strength and Conditioning in Fairport, NY.

In October 2015 she received her certified functional strength coach certification and then went back to school in July 2016 for massage therapy. She is now a licensed massage therapist and runs a business called Restorative Bodywork in Rochester, NY that specializes in movement therapy and sports massage.

Heather has also been competing on the PWBA tour the last 3 seasons and continues to use her experiences as a competitive and professional bowler to create programs for bowlers. She enjoys the challenges of making programs specific to each bowler as every person needs to focus on different areas for their performance goals. With that said her training motto is “do no harm” and believes each program should most importantly make a bowler FEEL better and play with minimal injuries/pain.