Think Your Chiropractor Won’t Be Able To Help Your Swing? Guess Again.

It’s springtime again, and that means all eyes in the golfing world are on Augusta and The Masters

Professional golfers and Chiropractic go together like Pimento Cheese Sandwiches and The Augusta National- and it’s not hard to see why.

Back pain (and specifically lower back injuries) [1] is among the most common concerns golfers experience and that pain can have a big impact on their game.

We also created a short video to introduce this idea—watch it here before diving deeper into the details below.

Posture and Pain

You don’t need a golf coach to tell you that a good golf swing starts with good posture.

The way you align your body and place your feet is central to maintaining balance all the way through your swing. No one wants to end up in the sand and balance is the key to hitting the ball to get it where you want to go.

Ball location will help control the direction of your shot, but so will the posture of your body. The angles you create with your body literally control the way you swing your club and hit your ball. To an outsider, golf may not look like the physically demanding sport that it is, but real golfers know how important mobility and mechanics are to their game.

At the heart of good posture is a cleanly functional spine. Maintaining an integrated balance of participation of the wrists, elbows, shoulders, spine, hips, knees, ankles and feet will help prevent muscle strains and discomfort as well as achieve your best shot. Whether you’re spending a Saturday afternoon on the green or just chasing your kids around the backyard, poor posture can mean serious pain.

Did you know experts have demonstrated that chiropractic with stretching is more effective than stretching alone for improving full-swing performance? [2] Routine chiropractic care works for professional golfers, and it could work for you too, to eliminate the effects of bad posture and unnecessary pain as well as improve your game!

Lower Back Injuries

Like nearly all professional sports, golfers can experience serious injuries on the course. An overwhelming number of injuries golfers face occur in their lower backs. Chiropractic are among the most commonly sought solutions for golfers experiencing these sometimes-traumatic incidents.

Golfers aren’t alone with their lower back pain [3] though. Roughly 4 in 5 Americans [4] experience pain in the lower parts of their back for various reasons. From a dull ache to sharp strains of pain, low back pain is one of the leading reasons people miss time from work or other activities.

No matter what’s causing your low back pain, many studies have found chiropractic care is often successful at reducing or eliminating that discomfort entirely. By getting to the root cause of the problem rather than simply addressing the symptoms, chiropractic care may be able to help you get rid of back pain for good.

Overcoming The Pain

By utilizing heat, cryotherapy, physical modalities, mobilization of the joints through a traditional adjustment, and attention to the muscles through trigger point therapy and other manual techniques, chiropractic care can help you overcome bad posture and the lower back pain it leads to.

Even if you aren’t teeing up at this years’ Masters, why live with back pain if you don’t have to?

[1,3] Costa, S. M. V., Chibana, Y. E. T., Giavarotti, L., Compagnoni, D. S., Shiono, A. H., Satie, J., & Bracher, E. S. B. (2009, December). Effect of spinal manipulative therapy with stretching compared with stretching alone on full-swing performance of Golf Players: A randomized pilot trial. Journal of chiropractic medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2786229/

[2] Finn, C. (2013a, July). Rehabilitation of low back pain in golfers: From diagnosis to return to sport. Sports health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3899905/

[4,5]Ouch! the painful facts about back pain. Hartford HealthCare | CT. (n.d.-a). https://hartfordhealthcare.org/about-us/news-press/news-detail?articleId=29278

Written by: Donaid Seals D.C

Dr. Seals is a practicing Doctor of Chiropractic with over 25 years of experience caring for people across three states. His thinking is the product of his education, practice experience and many years in the natural foods and fitness industry. He has become living proof that old muscleheads don’t die-or fade away; sometimes they grow up to bring real-world expertise to the clinical picture. Traditional background information is available here.