A Golfer And Their Lower Back Pain…

Is Golf your passion? Chances are if you’re  a keen golfer you practice or play at least once a week and could be suffering with some sort of Lower Back Pain, whether that is while playing or even after a round. This article will be discussing some of the common causes that might be leading to golfers suffering with lower back symptoms and it will also discuss how to prevent yourself from injury with the key areas to warm up. 

The golf swing is a relatively stressful movement with a lot of force and momentum to go through the anatomy of not just the lower back but also the whole lower extremity (Pelvis, Hips, Knees, Ankle and Feet). Lets take a look into the back swing! The back swing is firstly how we actually load and turn on all our joints and muscles in oder to have a successful down swing. The golf swing requires the body to move in all three planes available to it which are the Sagittal plane (forward and back) frontal plane (side to side) and transerve plane (rotation from left to Right). If however for some reason the body is lacking in one or more of these plans it will cheat and find another way  to overcome the lack of movement which in the long term could potentially result in lower back pain.

“The shine bones connected to the hip bone”

When it comes to discussing lower back pain we cannot not talk about the foot and ankle but we also have to include what the hips are doing up above too. Many golfer say to me “i suffer a lot of lower back pain after playing golf” they all seem to put this down to the actual golf swing. I think a lot of golfer forget that they on average walk roughly 4 or 5 miles a round. If we have suffer some stiff and immobile ankles this will definitely have an impact on our lower back resulting in a lack of muscular engagement up into the hips and gluteal muscles but also up into the core and upper extremity this will impact the lower back when walking but also into the golf swing too. 

Warming up.

It important to spend a good 5 to 10 minutes warming up before going out and playing, this doesn’t just mean going and hitting a few balls down the range or in the practice net, but also spending a few minutes getting your ankles, knees, hips and thoracic spine moving in all the 3 planes that we have mentioned above this will just prepare your body for the activity that its about to do.  

The key piece to take away from this article is that the body moves in all three planes of motion during the golf swing and if one is comprised the body will find a way to adapt which might result in lower back pain, spending a good 5-10 minutes warming up will reduce your risk of injury or even further injuring yourself and finally how it might not be the lower back which is causing your pain but it could be something else which is putting the lower back under more stress. 

As your local osteopath in Coulsdon, we can help with all sorts of pains and niggles.