With nice weather and long drives right around the corner, it is important to make sure your body is as ready as your mind for the upcoming golf season. Back pain is by far the most common injury suffered by not only professional golfers, but weekend warriors like myself. In fact, recent research shows up to 28.1% of golfers deal with lower back pain after every round.
Do you want to play more golf pain free while also improving you performance…
Are you moving right?
The vast majority of back pain comes as the result of poor movement and compensations. THE most common movement issues we see in golfers who have back pain include tightness in the hips and thoracic spine. The only way to know where you need to improve is to go through our golf biomechanics evaluation. We help golfers of all ages address their movement deficiencies to reduce pain and improve their performance.
Are you swinging right?
Swing mechanics play a huge role in the development of back pain. There are a few common swing faults we see in golfers who suffer back pain. We work closely with area swing coaches to address posture throughout the swing.
Common Injuries in Golfers:
- Neck pain
- Herniated discs
- Arthritis
- Neck and arm pain
- Low back pain
- Stenosis
- Sciatica
For most amateur golfers the back can be the primary source of pain, but it is usually not the direct cause of pain. The spine or low back is usually the area of the body that gets over worked as the result of muscle imbalance, mobility and stability issues. Along with this imbalance, poor swing mechanics can play just as important of role.
Primary Sources of Muscle Imbalance:
- The hips- primarily the hip flexors and external rotators.
Primary Source of Mobility Issues in Golfers:
- The ankle joint
- The hips
- The thoracic spine
Primary Source of Stability Issues:
- The “CORE”
Here at Central Ohio Spine and Joint, we treat golfers with back and neck pain with the combination of the most effective non-surgical treatments including spinal manipulation, exercise, stretching, massage therapy, and nutrition.
1. Spinal Manipulation/Mobilization: Spinal manipulation is THE most effective treatment at addressing spinal stiffness or mobility issues.
2. Exercise: We provide all our patients with a personalized exercise program to address their specific needs. Whether it is gaining strength or stability you will get a program designed just for you. Our physicians and exercise specialists are some of the most highly trained in Columbus for prescribing exercises to golfers with back pain.
3. Stretching: Stretching, although never fun, is a vital part component of the recovery process for golfers with back pain. We design a stretching routine and warm-up program specific to your body and your needs.
4. Massage Therapy: Our highly trained massage therapist has been working on golfers with back pain for years and when used in combination with the services listed above, we see amazing results.
5. Nutrition: Our dietitian provides meal planning and food prep advice for our golfers.
6. Spinal Decompression Therapy: For those cases that are either serve or that have failed to respond to the traditional routes of care we offer decompression therapy. Over the past few years we have literally stolen patients off of the surgical table with this cutting edge technology.
When golfers consult our office in regards to either back pain recovery or for injury prevention we start with a physical fitness assessment and medical evaluation. During this process we not only make a medical diagnosis (arthritis, disc herniations etc.) but we also focus on a functional diagnosis as well (mobility, stability and motor control issues).
The goals of our evaluation include:
- A golf-specific movement screen to identify any faulty stability patterns and /or altered mobility patterns of your body.
- Assessment of movement pattern and physical limitations which ultimately create swing faults.
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