Teeing off with golf and chiropractic!

Teeing off with golf and chiropractic!

Fore!

That call to signal an errant drive is echoed at tens of thousands of golf courses across the U.S. each week, with an estimated 25 million Americans regularly playing the best pastime/sport/lifestyle/obsession ever invented.

However, all of that teeing off, driving, chipping, putting, and walking the links causes a lot of stress on your body, often resulting in pain and injuries for golfers.

In fact, the motion of a golf swing can be really hard on your spine, especially since it’s a unilateral torquing and repetitive motion (just on one side), while also causing imbalance and misalignment to your muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc.

For that reason, official PGA tour chiropractors estimate that up to 80% of all pro golfer injuries on the tour are lower back issues, while the remaining 20% of injuries affect the neck, elbows, hips, shoulders, and more.

That’s always why avid (and smart) golfers visit a Doctor of Chiropractic on a regular basis, which can not only prevent pain and injuries but help them improve their swing and shave points off of their score!

In this post, I’ll cover some of the common golf injuries – and how to prevent them. But in part two, I’ll delve into the fun stuff: how coming to see me can actually help your golf game!

These are some of the most common golf injuries:

Neck:

Disc Herniation
Spinal Stenosis
Facet Arthropathy
Muscle strain or spasm

Lower Back:

Disc Injury
Altered Joint Mechanics
Degenerative Arthritis
Ligamentous Strain (Muscle Strain)

Elbows:
Lateral and Medial Epicondylitis (commonly known as Golf or Tennis Elbow)

Shoulders:

Rotator Cuff Injuries
Scapular Lag
Impingement and Instability
AC Joint Issues

Hands and wrists:

Tendonitis
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Pronator Teres Syndrome

Knees:

Osteoarthritis
Tendonitis
Ligament and Meniscal Injuries
Chondromalacia

However, research shows that only 2% of amateur golfers regularly visit a Doctor of Chiropractic for adjustments and preventative treatment. Instead, most golfers wait until they are experiencing pain or suffer an injury before they seek the help of a chiropractor. Even worse, those conditions are often treated with prescription painkillers, masking the pain without truly addressing the root cause.
So, how can you help prevent injuries while playing your next round of golf?

Always warm up:
Just like any sport, you should make sure you properly warm and stretch both before and after your golf game. Start slowly and lightly and focus on mobility and dynamic movement stretches and light exercises, helping your muscles and everything else get flexible and ready for action.

Take practice swings:
Of course, you should warm up properly before playing, but that also means taking a few light practice swings before each shot, replicating the tempo, hand placement, and torque you’ll use in the real shot.

Focus on hitting correctly, not hard:
Too often, golfers (especially weekend warriors or neophytes) try to hit the ball as hard as possible, muscling through the swing as if it was a baseball or even hockey slap shot. They think that by contorting their body and whacking the ball with violent brute force, it will travel the longest distance. What most often happens, of course, is that the clubhead meets the ball incorrectly and with the wrong follow-through angle, flubbing the shot and also putting their body at risk of injury.

Only PERFECT practice makes perfect.
Take a lesson again if you need to, but make sure you practice your swing with the correct form, balance, weight distribution, body rotation, and follow through. Practicing a misaligned or sloppy swing a thousand times will only ensure that you master the art of the bad shot – and hurt yourself in the process.

Stay hydrated:
It may not seem like golf is a highly-athletic endeavor, but we know better. Walking eighteen or even thirty-six holes on a scorching, humid day with hundreds of swings per round can really take its toll. So stay hydrated, save the booze and cigar for after the round (not the night before or during play!) and dress appropriately to save the wear and tear on your body.

Wear comfortable shoes:
Golf may look like an upper-body dominant sport, but it actually all starts with your feet. Therefore, having a pair of properly fitting, comfortable shoes is essential for walking the course, twisting and pivoting as you swing, and avoiding injuries while still giving it your all. (In fact, you walk about 3-4 miles during the average round of golf!)

You should also focus on keeping your weight distributed evenly on the balls of your feet when swinging for proper balance, which you’ll really feel if your shoes are low quality or ill-fitting.

To caddy or carry?
Some like to carry their own clubs, others swear by a cart, while even more golfers just opt to dump their bag on their caddy. No matter how you get your sticks from hole 1 to 2 and on and on, remember that they do get a little cumbersome and can even cause strain and misalignment. If you do carry your own bag, I recommend keeping it at 10% or less of your body weight.

Make sure your clubs are the right size:
Too often, we buy used clubs or get hand-me-downs without even giving a second thought to the size of the clubs, grip, or other important factors. If you’re serious about your golf game (and not injuring your back!), then spend the time to go get fitted by a professional for clubs based on your swing, mechanics, and body measurements. It will be well worth it when you get years or even decades of pain and injury-free use out of your new clubs!

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Chiropractic is the secret weapon to keep any golfer pain and injury free, and even playing better!

Contact me if you have any questions or would like to book an appointment, and look for part two of this series coming soon.