Golf and lower back pain

Mark Perren-Jones from the Haven Spa and Clinic

How to help your lower back pain AND hit the ball longer and straighter!

There is something wonderful about working in a spa that is situated on a golf course. I can sneak away when I don’t have clients and play a few holes of golf. However, there is something awful about working in a spa that’s situated on a golf course too. When you have beautiful days like today and I CAN’T sneak away to play golf. So I figured if I can’t play golf today I will write about it. I am not sure whether this is going to make me feel worse or better.

There are a couple of major reasons that golfers suffer from lower back pain and like many things I have written about, very easy to rectify. You will also be hitting the ball longer, more direct, straighter and with a better trajectory.

Over Flexing:

When you play golf there is a lot of bending forward needed. You have to place the tee, put the ball down, pick the ball up, take it out of the cup, place it for putting, etc. you also bend slightly forwards when you have to hit each stroke. Although make sure that you are  bending from the hips keeping a small inward arch in your lower back when doing this as opposed to rounding you lower back or you will definitely have lower back pain .To read more of why this is bad see lower back pain, disc problems, sciatica. You should pick up the ball using good techniques obviously but I would also like you to counteract the forwards bending with back bends. Every time you are out playing, before you start and during the match, place your hands on the base of your spine, keep your knees straight but not locked and bend backwards from the lower back. Do these slowly and rhythmically 12 times. It’s going to help push the disc forward just like in the exercises for lower back pain in over flex syndrome I wrote about. The difference is that here you are not lying on the ground on your stomach (which doesn’t do a lot for your clean clothes) but you can still get the benefits by doing the standing extension exercises. You will feel a lot better!

Over Arching

over arching

Here is another very common and very easy to fix problem. It’s from over arching. The last was from over flexing (too much bending forwards or rounding of the lower back) and now we have the opposite problem. This swing I am reminded of when I think of the great Aussie Greg Norman. He would hit the ball and his swing would finish with his back in a huge arch. This arching you will see all day on the golf course and it’s not good for your backs. It is a common Cause of lower back pain. So what should you do? When you hit through the ball keep your back in a straighter position, not arching right back. And here’s the added bonus! Not only will you help remove your lower back pain but by doing this method you will also bring your core muscles a lot more into play. If you do this you are then using the big muscle (core) s to drive the smaller muscles (arms) and will get a lot more power. You will also be staying over the ball which will allow you to drive through the ball giving you a much better strike and the ball which suddenly punch through those head winds. You will also enjoy the game more because you won’t be thinking of your lower back bothering you anymore.

So go out there and have a great pain free round of golf! (Whilst I am still stuck at work-and no, it hasn’t made me feel any better)

oh and by the way, when i played against my mate he had one of these Taylor-Made drivers advertised below. I hit the same length or further with my irons against him but when it came to driving distance he kept out driving me by 20-30 yards with this club. Don’t ya’ just hate that!

much better position for their follow through