Low Back Pain and Your Golf Game

Most people experience Low-Back pain at some time during their life, whether they participate in athletics or not, and some sports can actually increase the likelihood of low-back issues.

Are you an injured golfer? Get out of Pain and Improve Your Golf (and Tennis) Game...see how Deep Tissue Medical Massage Therapy can help!

The number one injury experienced by golfers is low-back pain! If you’re a long-time golfer you’ve probably experienced, low-back pain (LBP). Did you know the same kind of muscular imbalance that predisposes you to LBP, also plagues your tennis playing friends, and swimmers, too? Golfers experience low-back pain, tennis enthusiasts (and golfers) deal with "tennis elbow" or lateral epicondylitis, and both tennis players and swimmers frequently experience problems with a variety of shoulder dysfunctions resulting from overuse. There is an important yet frequently overlooked similarity and predisposition to all of these muscular injuries, and that is "muscular imbalance". Understanding and correcting muscular imbalances can decrease the likelihood of injury and time away from your sport.

You use over twenty muscular structures in your down-stroke alone. All bodily movements are dependent on the highly coordinated function of joint-specific "pairs" of muscles. These muscle "pairs" perform different but equally important roles in movement. The "movers" (agonists) move the trunk and/or limbs in the direction of the desired movement, while the "break muscles" (antagonists) mediate the force, angle, deceleration, and "end" of the movement. If a muscular imbalance exists (i.e., the fibers of one or both parts of the muscular "pair", are either too tight or short (hypertonic), or are too elongated and lacking in tone (hypotonic), the global quality of the movement decreases, while the likelihood of injury increases.

Muscular imbalances are the most common source of pain complaints. These imbalances are usually caused by postural insults and lack of conditioning, rather than overt, traumatic injury. Most of us recognize that our posture is less than anatomically ideal. In other words, you take your inclination to low-back pain with you to the tee!

Combine this predisposition with the extreme momentum and rotational forces generated by a powerful swing, and the origins of golfers LBP become quite clear. Using methods to improve your swing technique, and general strength conditioning are essential to avoiding LBP. But many people have discovered that modifying swing technique, and strengthening exercises alone have not been sufficient to resolve an already existing pain pattern, or improve their game. In many cases, this is because the issue of muscular imbalance has not been adequately addressed.

The back pain specialists at Neuromuscular Works are experts at assessing and resolving these types of muscular imbalances. Our sports injury massage therapists can help you identify and change poor postural habits at the job, in the car, and at home; and, provide hands-on therapy to immediately increase your range of motion, and ease of movement. Call us and put a little more distance between you and your low-back pain.

Call us today to find out how a holistic health approach, with a clinical massage specialist and Neuromuscular Therapy can help
you feel better! - 615.712.6536