Golf is an athletic sport that demands the use of multiple parts of your body, resulting in overuse and leading to injuries or chronic pain problems over time. Although it’s athletic, golf is a relatively low-risk sport. However, you can still be at risk of attaining several injuries due to overuse if you play it often.
The most common form of injury that golfers experience is back pain, and if you’ve ever strained your back during a game, you’re not alone. Research studies estimate that of the 30 million golfers in the United States, over 80% have experienced back pain. As fun as the sport is, swinging at golf balls repetitively puts a person’s body in an awkward position, making it vulnerable to injuries.
While some golfers deal with the aches and pain by popping over-the-counter medications, others limit their participation or even stop altogether. There are better, healthier, more natural alternatives than these, and one of the best remedies is chiropractic treatment.
Chiropractic care can help by alleviating aches and pain associated with the most common ailments that come with the game, allowing you to not deprive yourself of your favorite sport and swing with confidence.
Types of Golfing Injuries
Given the aggressive force that golfers put on their bodies when swinging a club, injuries are inevitable. That’s why you need to stretch before playing and not overdo it when swinging the club. But if you’re already dealing with any pain, ache, or injury, seek proper treatment.
Here are the common golf injuries that you should look out for:
Back Pain
A golfer’s hunched stance, twisting, swinging, and carrying heavy golf bags for an extended period causes pressure to the spine, resulting in an ‘aching’ feeling on the back. Back pain, specifically low back pain, stems from several causes, including mechanical or pelvic misalignments, subluxation, or herniated discs. However, the most common cause of back pain is due to improper swings or swinging too hard.
If you want to limit your backaches while playing golf, ensure you practice good mechanics and never swing forcefully.
Medial Epicondylitis
Medial epicondylitis or commonly known as ‘golfer’s elbow,’ is an inflammation of the tendon present on the inside of your elbow. It’s attached to a bony protrusion called the epicondyle. When you repeatedly swing a golf club, it can place excessive stress or pressure on the tendon, resulting in chronic inflammation or pain.
One way you can avoid the golfer’s elbow is by using an armband when playing the sport to give your elbows more support, minimizing stress placed on it.
Muscle Pulls
Playing golf involves a one-sided dominance in body stress. With a golfer swinging either left or right, the body may experience strains on its dominant side when you repeatedly make the motion. It can result in an imbalance of muscle development and quickly lead to pain from pulled muscles. Other causes of pulled muscles include insufficient warm-ups, not stretching before swinging, low flexibility, and not performing other activities outside of swinging the club.
Knee or Thigh Injury
Generally, the knee is weak as it joins in the femur’s soft cartilage, the longest bone alongside the tibia. Fortunately, all these fragile body elements get supported by strong muscles, tendons, and ligaments. There are many causes of knee or thigh injuries associated with golfing, with the most common ones, including muscle weakness, poor posture, overuse, or poorly fitted shoes.
Knee and thigh injuries can manifest into other conditions, including muscle strain, tendonitis on the knee, and hamstring pulls.
Shoulder Injury
Shoulder injuries linked with playing golf makes up 8 to 18% of all golfing injuries seen and are caused by the broad range of motion when a golfer swings the club. You can avoid this by knowing which point in the swing causes the pain or aches, helping experts facilitate the proper diagnosis for pain relief.
Although there are natural treatments available, if you haven’t attained any injuries, it’s best to avoid them as much as you can.
Tips to Avoid Golf Injuries
Although golf is a relatively low-impact sport, it’s linked with many types of injuries, but you can easily avoid these by following these tips, helping you stay in shape on the course.
- Use Proper Posture When Swinging
When you play golf, you need your body to execute a golf swing following a complex and coordinated movement. Repeatedly doing this can place excessive stress on the same muscles, tendons, or joints, resulting in injury over time. You can avoid this by using proper posture when swinging by avoiding hunching over the ball and keeping your spine straight.
- Don’t Swing Aggressively
If you swing your club too hard or fast, this can place stress on your joints. That’s why it’s best to take it nice and easy when swinging the ball. After all, the best golfers have consistent and not necessarily quick swing tempos.
- Warm-Up Before Playing
Before practicing your swings or play a round of golf, it’s wise if you warm-up for at least 10 minutes with a brisk walk around the course or a set of jumping jacks. Other exercises that can help prevent injuries or pain is by stretching your hands, wrists, forearms, spine, pelvis, and elbows.
- Lift and Carry Golf Equipment Carefully
Golfers that carry their bags have higher chances of acquiring shoulder and back injuries than other golfers because of extended stress on the spine. It’s best to practice a proper lifting technique. You can do this by keeping your back straight and using your legs’ strength to lift, not your back.
These tips are best to practice before and during playing a round of golf. However, if you think you’ve already acquired an injury, seek medical help immediately. One of the best remedies to get is chiropractic treatment.
How Chiropractors Can Help Golfers
Chiropractic care and golfers go hand in hand since players have an array of body functions that they need to be working at their 100% to perform their best. Chiropractors can help ensure your body can maximize all the necessary factors required for a game of golf, including speed, strength, and flexibility.
Besides improving body functions, chiropractic care can help when injuries are knocking at the door. Chiropractors provide specialized care that can ensure you heal all the way and quicker, allowing your body to be in an even better condition than before.
Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Golfers
Here’s a more in-depth insight into the incentives that you can enjoy when having regular chiropractic care, helping you feel better and be a more efficient player.
Enhances Strength
A person’s muscles work with your brain’s help as it sends a series of information to your other body parts. For instance, in a standard golf swing, your legs, core, arms, and shoulders receive signals from the brain. All these work together to help you swing the club efficiently and get the ball right where you want it. The whole process depends on your nervous system.
Having chiropractic care can help align your spine correctly, improve your nervous system, and in turn, your gameplay.
Improves Flexibility
An essential aspect that every golfer needs is flexibility, and when you aren’t flexible, you’re missing out on power or accuracy, which are vital for golf. Visiting a chiropractor can help enhance your flexibility by preventing or fixing existing subluxations (spinal misalignments). Spinal adjustments can improve flexibility since subluxations can cause stiffness, increase your risk of attaining injuries, and deplete flexibility. These ‘silent injuries’ can mess up a golf game without you even knowing it’s happening.
Injury Prevention
One of the things that you should watch out for in golf is back injury since they’re the most common golfers’ affliction. The cause of back injuries is most likely subluxation, as any movement you do places pressure on the misaligned joints or vertebra. A chiropractor can help by performing spinal adjustments, increasing your chances of avoiding future injuries.
Visiting a chiropractor can provide tons of benefits for golfers, from improving their gameplay to injury prevention. These advantages can help you play consistently and pain-free, enhancing your skills and enjoyment when playing the game.
Chiropractor care can also do more than help you with your golf game. It will also improve your overall health and well-being. If you’re looking for a reputable chiropractic clinic to enhance your golfing skills or treatment for existing golf injuries, O’Dell Family Chiropractic is the perfect clinic for you.
O’Dell Family Chiropractic provides specialty chiropractic care for sports injuries, freeing athletes, fitness buffs, and active individuals from common sports injuries, including tendonitis, sprains, strains, tennis elbow, runner’s knee, and back or neck pain. They achieve this by using the latest technology in chiropractic practice and following a holistic approach in treating injuries.
Chiropractors from O’Dell Family Chiropractic are some of the best in the industry, helping patients maintain the ideal spinal health and live a pain-free lifestyle by providing personalized treatment for each one.
They also offer pregnancy chiropractic care, spinal decompression, pain management, and more. Get the chiropractic treatment you deserve by visiting O’Dell Family Chiropractic for better health and well-being.
