Over 30 million Americans enjoy golf, even though it is one of the most demanding sports on the human body. It is requires great concentration, coordination, and flexibility. Golf involves almost all of the joints in the body including the spine, hips, shoulders, and elbows. Proper technique through the golf swing is essential to prevent overloading sensitive structures of the spine, especially those within the lower back.
Recent studies have shown that at least 80% of golfers experience back pain at some point while playing. This is because the golf swing puts the spine in a very unnatural and unstable position – forward flexion and rotation simultaneously. The spine becomes highly vulnerable to injury when it is loaded and rotated in a natural swing not to mention an unnatural swing. Swinging a club at speeds close to 100 mph for 3-4 hours at least 40-50 times is common during the average round of golf. As one of my patients said just the other day, “There are only 2 types of golfers out there – those with back pain and those who will soon have it.”
The fact that you are consistently firing more muscles on one side of the body than the other as you rotate through the swing is stressful. This overloads the muscles on that dominate side causing them to tighten up and fatigue more quickly and creates structural related injury within the skeletal system, especially the lower back. While back pain is the most common complaint among golfers, neck, shoulder, elbow, and hip pain are prevalent as well. By the time the golfer is experiencing back pain while playing a round, damage to the discs and joints that stabilize the spine has already started to occur.
Improve Your Golf Game With Chiropractic Care
Can regular chiropractic adjustments be the answer to preventing and treating golf injuries? You bet it can!
A recent study published in The Journal of Chiropractic Medicine (Dec. 2009) showed that combining chiropractic care and stretching seemed to be associated with an improvement in the golfer’s swing when compared to just stretching alone. The study compared 43 golfers split into two groups. Group 1 received a stretching only program. Group 2 received both stretching exercises (same as Group 1) and chiropractic adjustments. All golfers hit three balls for distance and accuracy before and after each treatment. The golfers were analyzed for four weeks. To maintain consistency, the average age, handicap, and initial swing were compared among all 43 golfers.
At the end of the four weeks, the stretch only group showed no improvement. However, in the stretch and manipulation group, there was a “statistically significant increase” in the driving distance each week after they received their spinal manipulation treatments.
Factors That Influence Your Game
There are many factors that can affect how well a golfer plays, and all of them need to be addressed and adjusted as needed.
- Using proper fitted equipment. The clubs should be fit to your height. If too short or too long, it alters the proper biomechanics of the swing in relation to how the spine moves, which can put considerable strain on the low back, shoulders, and elbows.
- Make sure your shoes support your feet throughout the entire swing. Custom foot orthotics are often an easy addition to add a few more yards to your swing. An article published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT) in 2001 showed that just by inserting custom foot orthotics inside their shoes, test subjects were able to add an average of 9-15 yards to their driving distance and increased the club head speed by 3-5mph.
- Stretching is extremely important to prevent injuring the tight muscles during the tee off. Since so many muscle groups are involved and needed for an efficient and effective golf swing, it’s easy to sprain/strain them if adequate warm-up exercises are not performed.
- Because so many factors come into play during the golf swing, proper form and technique is absolutely critical. Poor form puts extra stress and strain on the spine, pelvis, and sacroiliac joints. These joints quickly become ‘subluxated’ or ‘incorrectly fixated’ causing the sensitive cartilage and discs to become inflamed and painful. If not corrected or adjusted back to normal position (as performed by a doctor of chiropractic), premature degeneration and spinal arthritis are inevitable.
- Regular chiropractic adjustments are an absolute must! From Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods, nearly all professional players understand the importance of keeping their spines aligned through regular chiropractic care. Tiger Woods says that lifting weights and visiting his chiropractor regularly have made him a better golfer. Chiropractors are trained to find areas of misalignment within the spine and joints. By removing these subluxated spinal vertebrae, proper motion and normal function is restored to the discs, joints, and nerves. With regular chiropractic adjustments, not only will your swing improve but so will your score.
Dr. Bryan J. Rudiak, D.C. received his Chiropractic Degree from Life Chiropractic College West in 2002, graduating Magna Cum Laude. He also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Exercise Physiology. He has helped hundreds of athletes, at various levels, excel at their given sport including golfers, runners, tri-athletes and cyclists, just to name a few. Dr. Rudiak also provides custom foot orthotics for various foot conditions and shoe applications including golfers. His practice is located in Castle Pines and can be reached at (303) 660-3505. He also loves to play a round of golf whenever he can. (canyonridgechiropractic.com)
