Most common golf injuries include golf back pain. Undoubtedly golf back pain develops because of unconventional body posture in golf swing. Tight coiling of upper body against stable lower body puts tremendous strain on the back portion of a golfer. Acute low back pain, arthritis and herniated disc problem are types of back pain that a golfer can experience. Recommended prevention technique for back injury is to stretch back core muscles through proper golf exercise.

  • Golf Back Pain Causes –

Each individual has a spine tolerance level which depends on factors like age, body type and physical health of the individual. As one goes beyond his or her tolerance level and overloads the spine, stiffness in the facet joints occurs. The muscles that stabilize, protect, and guard the irritated joint can, over time, become irritated, causing pain. Weekend golfers who have poor swing mechanics, lack fitness, or do not warm-up properly are more likely to injure themselves. Golfers with degenerative disc disease or arthritis in the lumbar spine are more susceptible to overloading their spines. A poor golf swing causes large shearing, compression, and tensional forces on the low back.

  • Preventing Golf Back Pain –

To minimize the potential damage to your back, learning correct technique and posture is vitally essential along with implementing it with consistency. It is worth studying with a professional in order to learn the intricacies of a fluid swing. Though playing with utmost care helps in delaying the back pain in golfers, it does not however prevent it all together. It is of supreme importance that every golfer begins their game with warm up exercises and stretching before getting into the full swing.

Stretching exercises should emphasize the shoulder, torso, and hip regions as well as the hamstring muscles.

    • By holding a golf club behind the neck and shoulders and then rotating the torso the shoulder and torso can be stretched
    • The hips maybe stretched by pulling the knee to the chest.
    • The hamstrings maybe stretched by bending over and trying to touch the toes.

Golf practice should begin with the smaller irons and progress up to the larger woods. This process allows the muscles to incrementally warm up.

  • Treating Golf Back Pain –

To treat acute low back pain, doctors recommend rest for 2-3 days along with application of ice which will reduce and break the inflammatory process. It is advised to use ice packs in regular intervals. Medication also relive pain in the back, however, relying on medication is not a healthy way to de-stress. Adopting regular fitness regime with exercise specific to back pain is must. Heat-Stretch-Ice is a great way to return to natural bending of back. Avoid excess heat, though it brings soothing feeling, it actually worsen the healing process.

  • Don’t Do –
  • Bending on back when lifting heavy objects. Bend at knees instead.
  • Rotation with weighted bars on the shoulders, that is axial loading and rotation. This actually is damaging to disc and joint tissues.
  • Do not bend your back while performing stiffed legs dead lefts exercise. It is injuring to your back.

Neglecting back pain can be injurious to your health in longer run. Often golfers push themselves in game while having low level stress, this only aggravates the back pain. Understanding the reasons, symptoms and prevention techniques for golf back pain is essential for every golfer.