diff --git a/go/vt/vtgateproxy/discovery.go b/go/vt/vtgateproxy/discovery.go
index 7a019e49030..7a5df534e96 100644
--- a/go/vt/vtgateproxy/discovery.go
+++ b/go/vt/vtgateproxy/discovery.go
@@ -62,9 +62,10 @@ const PoolTypeAttr = "PoolType"
 
 // Resolver(https://godoc.org/google.golang.org/grpc/resolver#Resolver).
 type JSONGateResolver struct {
-	target     resolver.Target
-	clientConn resolver.ClientConn
-	poolType   string
+	target       resolver.Target
+	clientConn   resolver.ClientConn
+	poolType     string
+	currentAddrs []resolver.Address
 }
 
 func (r *JSONGateResolver) ResolveNow(o resolver.ResolveNowOptions) {}
@@ -210,15 +211,24 @@ func (b *JSONGateResolverBuilder) start() error {
 			}
 			parseCount.Add("changed", 1)
 
+			var wg sync.WaitGroup
+
+			// notify all the resolvers that the targets changed in parallel, since each update might sleep for
+			// the warmup time
 			b.mu.RLock()
-			// notify all the resolvers that the targets changed
 			for _, r := range b.resolvers {
-				err = b.update(r)
-				if err != nil {
-					log.Errorf("Failed to update resolver: %v", err)
-				}
+				wg.Add(1)
+				go func(r *JSONGateResolver) {
+					defer wg.Done()
+
+					err = b.update(r)
+					if err != nil {
+						log.Errorf("Failed to update resolver: %v", err)
+					}
+				}(r)
 			}
 			b.mu.RUnlock()
+			wg.Wait()
 		}
 	}()
 
@@ -393,8 +403,17 @@ func (b *JSONGateResolverBuilder) update(r *JSONGateResolver) error {
 		addrs = append(addrs, resolver.Address{Addr: target.Addr, Attributes: attributes.New(PoolTypeAttr, r.poolType)})
 	}
 
-	log.V(100).Infof("updated targets for %s to %v", r.target.URL.String(), targets)
+	// If we've already selected some targets, give the new addresses some time to warm up before removing
+	// the old ones from the list
+	if r.currentAddrs != nil && warmupTime.Seconds() > 0 {
+		combined := append(r.currentAddrs, addrs...)
+		log.V(100).Infof("updating targets for %s to warmup %v", r.target.URL.String(), targets)
+		r.clientConn.UpdateState(resolver.State{Addresses: combined})
+		time.Sleep(*warmupTime)
+	}
 
+	log.V(100).Infof("updating targets for %s after warmup to %v", r.target.URL.String(), targets)
+	r.currentAddrs = addrs
 	return r.clientConn.UpdateState(resolver.State{Addresses: addrs})
 }
 
diff --git a/go/vt/vtgateproxy/vtgateproxy.go b/go/vt/vtgateproxy/vtgateproxy.go
index d25961e8b30..a9bbbfe9343 100644
--- a/go/vt/vtgateproxy/vtgateproxy.go
+++ b/go/vt/vtgateproxy/vtgateproxy.go
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ var (
 	addressField    = flag.String("address_field", "address", "field name in the json file containing the address")
 	portField       = flag.String("port_field", "port", "field name in the json file containing the port")
 	balancerType    = flag.String("balancer", "round_robin", "load balancing algorithm to use")
+	warmupTime      = flag.Duration("warmup_time", 30*time.Second, "time to maintain connections to previously selected hosts")
 
 	timings = stats.NewTimings("Timings", "proxy timings by operation", "operation")