Common Golf Injuries - Lower Back & Factors affecting your game

Lower Back Pain 

Probably the most common issue for avid golfers, particularly weekend warriors. The repetitive nature of the swing places large rotational stress on the structures of your lower back.  Muscles can become unbalanced and cause strain, tightness and pain on the area.  Left untreated it can cause other areas of the body to become overloaded and weakened.

 When you think about your golf swing, what do you do?  What’s the first motion, second and third?  Then what, where is the force coming from? Where do you end up?  How does it feel?  That’s a lot of movement and thinking within a short amount of time!  No wonder after doing that 70-80 times (at least for some / much more for some), every game, you walk or hobble away stiff and sore!  (Particularly if you have sat down, and tried to get up after your round).

To decrease the amount of force and torque on the lower back the other structures - ie hips need to be strong and flexible to be able to sustain the high level of movement involved. 

To fix this a combination of technique, utilising a golf pro to give you correct swing advise and receiving Remedial Massages regularly, in conjunction with strength and stretching practices will give your body the ability to heal and relax over used and over worked muscles.

3 Key areas that contribute to lower back pain in a golfers swing 

1. Lack of mobility.

Certain areas need to be stable and other areas are required to be more mobile and flexible.

The lower back, (Lumbar spine) needs to be stable and protected due to the nature of the movements involved, like rotation and lateral flexion (side bending).

This means to avoid excessive lower back rotation we need to have the maximum range of motion in other areas such as the hips and thoracic spine.

Hips - Your Gluteal Muscles (bottom muscles) are required to have good ROM (range of motion) to turn in and out.  If you can’t turn and load onto lead hip due to lack of an internal rotation ROM then the excessive rotation and lateral flexion in the lower back tends to happen.  And as you can imagine throughout a 18 hole round, that is a lot of swings involved, and your lower back will start to seize up, be uncomfortable and perhaps lead to pain.

Thoracic Spine - Left and Right side rotation is extremely important to have the mobility as equal as possible to gain the most traction for your swing.  If you have a weak group of core muscles this impacts your swing by not allowing the full range of motion through the thoracic muscles and further onto the lower lumbar region. 

This is the area that you can gain significant energy from to put into the swing to generate the most power to transfer to the ball for extra distance.

There are several exercises you can do to increase your Hip Mobility

• Foam Roll - Glutes or use a spikey ball.
• 90/90 Hip mobility drills - a fantastic way of taking hips through all the internal rotational range
• 90/90 Glute Stretch - Great for tight glutes and hips

Exercises to increase Thoracic Mobility

• Foam Rolling mid / upper back
• Cat Stretch - Flexion and extension of the Thoracic Spine
• Reach Backs - working the Thoracic Spinal rotations

2.  Alignment and Muscle Imbalances

Imbalances in our muscles are natural.  We all usually have a dominant side.  I’m right handed, I do most things with my right side.  I take my first step up the stairs with my right foot, I open a door with my right hand.  This in itself isn’t an issue.  When it becomes an issue is when, I have significant muscle mass growth on one side compared to the other.  This then in turn creates an alignment issue for my body.  Think of it like car wheels, they need alignment adjustments and check ups…… just to drive in a straight line, and not wear out too quickly and unevenly.

As a golfer, a common trait is to have overactive / short and tight hip flexor muscles on one side of the body. This makes our pelvis have a rotation to one side which creates a knock on imbalance to the rest of the body. Our body wants to be in balance, so when one part is out, some other part will try and remedy and over compensate to maintain balance. The stress and load placed on the body is now over the body’s natural state, and this causes pain and discomfort.

How can this be fixed?  Stretches, strengthening exercises and Remedial Massage Therapy will help combined with proper technique will help ease any discomfort. 

3.  Posture

Posture can be described as the proper alignment of the spine, with the aim of establishing three natural curves.  Lumbar, Thoracic and the Cervical spine.

Our modern way of living and our lifestyles have had effects and changes on our spine.  Our spine is a well balanced line.  Gravity and lifestyle can affect the way our posture is held.  If there is a push or pull away from the line of the spine, and stress is placed on other joints, and soft tissues to compensate for being out of line, this then can cause pain.  

In relating this back to your golf you can now see how a muscular imbalance will over time cause a structural change.  Poor posture will do terrible things for your golf swing!!

The biggest thing that poor posture in your golf stance will give you is a Reduced Range of Motion in the key areas - Hips, mid back and shoulders.