The Golfer's Back

Filed in archive Golf Fitness on June 10, 2007

Golf and bad backs seem to walk hand in hand.

There is very good reason for this: the golf swing itself.

The swing is a rotational force exerted on the back with the lower back often taking much of the strain.

That's why you rarely hear of a touring pro with a bad UPPER back, although it's possible. The vast majority of back problems on tour are down low.

But the number of bad backs is nothing like it used to be. Many pros are practicing preventative therapy by working out (sit-ups are not only great for the abs but the back muscles, too) and by getting regular massages and stretching done to their bodies.

We can take a page out of that book. Brad Faxon does yoga and swears by it.

In fact, yoga is one tremendous way to, first attain and then maintain flexibility.

In my recent interviews with Roger Fredericks, he told me that almost anyone at any age can regain a great deal of lost flexibility and he has a blue chip client list to prove it, starting with Arnold Palmer.

So it's obvious that flexibility is a tremendous asset to a golfer.

Recently, I was experiencing some lower back soreness and muscle spasms that were like little jolts of painful electricity. I think I had overdone some yoga stretching combined with Roger Fredericks' golf stretching exercises. Did too much too soon.

At any rate, my lower back bothered me for a couple of weeks until my wife said "go and see my chiropractor".

I had never seen a chiropractor for an adjustment and I was amazed at what happened. Dr. David Kirsh in Toronto examined me and declared that my left iliac joint was out of alignment with my right joint.

After some deep muscle massage, he rolled me onto my right side, swung my left hip and leg over the table, climbed up on my left hip and rolled it to the right. Snap, snap, and a big pop and we were done.

I felt instant relief and one more visit two days later did the trick. No more spasms; no more soreness.

Dr. Kirsh also confirmed what Roger Fredericks advocates: stretching of the hip flexors along with the hamstrings is THE best exercise for golfers.

I do both religiously now.

The point is this: if you play a lot of golf, you're bound to experience soreness in your back at some point.

If the soreness won't go away or it's debilitating, then you have two courses of action: see your GP and get a prescription for pain relievers which mask the problem.

Or seek an alternative treatment. It may be a massage (and not the kind from those 24 hour places...) or it may be a chiropractic treatment.

The medical community doesn't get along well with the chiropractic community in North America. But they didn't think much of acupuncture 25 years ago; now it's a common element in mainstream medical treatment, when applicable.

Every track and field athlete who has ever sniffed victory at the finish line has a massage therapist and a chiropractor on staff.

And big physio trailers shows up every week on the major golf tours around the world. They're almost as busy as the driving ranges at tournaments.