Low Back Pain in Golf: Reclaim your speed, longevity, and painfree golf

I am grateful to have learned from the best at Titleist Performance Institute. Their many years of research and working with the professionals have lead to a mountain of knowledge about injuries and injury prevention as well as performance optimization in golf. I wanted to share a small chunk of what I learned from them regarding low back pain.

Low back pain (LBP) is considered the most common injury that golfers face. Somewhere between 12-58% of golfers of all levels will experience LBP. So whether or not this is you at this time, this is worth a read; prevention is best, early intervention next, and yes there is still plenty of hope for those in significant pain!

This post will give a few common causes of LBP and ways to address these causes.

Mobility and Stability

Understanding this concept is very helpful! Our bodies are designed for alternating segments of mobility and stability. The low back, or lumbar spine, is designed to be stable. This means that its function is to resist excessive motion and maintain control. This gives the mobile joints above and below it (the thoracic spine and the hips respectively) the stability they needs to optimally produce force.

An analogy of this could be trying to broad jump off of a skate board vs. broad jumping off of a solid and unmoving surface. Your power and distance will significantly improve when you jump from a stable surface!

photo credit: fix.com

LBP occurs when the lumbar spine is playing the wrong role in the golf swing. There are two main things that cause this: a lack of stabilization strength (good core function), and/or stiffness in the hips and thoracic spine. Stiffness, or a lack of mobility, in the mobile joints above and below the lumbar spine can cause the lumbar spine to move too much. Let's talk about proper mobility in these two areas in a future post...

Swing Mechanics

The 3 most common swing mechanics that cause LBP:

1. Reverse Spine Angle:

This occurs when the torso looks like it is leaning towards the target. This occurs when there is too much rotation combined with a lack of forward bend at the top of the backswing. The LBP comes shortly after this when excessive lumbar flexion and right sidebending (for R handed golfers) occurs with significant velocity in the downswing.

photo credit: Miamivalleygolf.org

2. S-posture:

   This posture at set up often causes reverse spine angle at the top of the backswing.

   
   

   

   photo credit: thedoctorsofpt.com

   3. Early Extension:

   This is the most common swing characteristic in golf. It is defined as any forward pelvis motion towards the ball in the backswing or the downswing. Fixing this will not only help your LBP, but will also significantly improve your ball striking.

   

   photo credit: Adamyounggolf.com

   Come Get Screened!

In all honesty, this article is educational, but not prescriptive. There are hundreds of things that can be causing your LBP in golf, and figuring out which individual issues you have and addressing them can be quite simple with the right help. Speed, Longevity, and Painfree Golf await you!