Dr. Sadie Landwehr
While I understand chiropractic care is not for everyone, and while I agree (depending on the situation), I like to classify myself as “not a normal chiropractor”. I cannot tell you the amount of patients I have had recently who are shocked when I say I can do more than just “pop the back”. I get even more jaws dropping when I say my favorite thing to treat is the feet and teach people how to breathe properly. If you have been around for the previous blog, yes I am mentioning intra-abdominal pressure, again, because it is just that important. But this is not the topic of this blog – so let’s jump right into golf.
Okay, maybe I just lied to you – but this is important to understand. What do I mean when I say chiropractic care can prevent golf injuries? Yes, as a chiropractor I do more than adjustments. I believe in the adjustment whole-heartedly, but there is more to allowing individuals to continue their lives without pain than just the adjustment. This is why my treatments include more than just adjustments. Treating the soft tissues, like muscles, tendons, and ligaments, in addition to putting you through movements and even exercises is what is *actually* going to get you better.
Now onto golf. Many people view the sport as low-impact, meaning it is not as physical as sports such as football or rugby, but that does not mean it can’t take a toll on the body. Common injuries in golfers include elbow pain, low back pain, knee pain, etc. Actually just think of every region of the body. This is why I love my job so much – not because I enjoy people getting injured, but its the education on the biomechanics and the proactive approach chiropractors can take for injury prevention.
Understanding the Physical Demands of the Sport
Before we can talk about prevention, the physical stresses golf puts on a player must be recognized:
- Repetitive motions: While technically different swings are required depending on the distance to the hole, stay with me for a second. The golf swing requires repetitive twists to the spine that puts excess stress on the joints. Imagine you have a paper cut on your finger, but your job requires you to type on a computer all day. It is going to take longer to heal and you may even develop a compensation – i.e., you might not be using that finger while typing. That might be a bad analogy, but hopefully you are understanding that if you injure your low back but continue to keep doing the exact thing that injured your back in the first place, it is going to take forever to heal, and may even require rest.
- Uneven terrains: All courses are designed differently, even the holes are different. Golfers are walking on varied landscapes and sometimes even playing a very poorly placed ball. This is what the sport requires, and is often what leads to low back pain and strain on the lower extremities (and the lack of intra-abdominal pressure, sorry I had to).
- Prolonged standing: I am sure you all have been told not to sit too long because it leads to poor posture, but I hate to break it to you, the same can happen with standing for too long. Especially when you are standing in one place, the tendency is to slouch or cross your arms over your chest or even kick one leg out with the hands on the hips. Whatever position it might be, poor posture puts excess stress on the neck, back, hips, knees, and ankles.
- Carrying equipment: While some might prefer the golf carts, many choose to walk the course. Lugging a heavy golf bag over your shoulders, or even pushing/pulling a bag can cause muscular imbalances as well as compression on your spine.
Can Chiropractic Care Prevent Golf Injuries?
My answer is always going to be yes. While there is always going to be those situations that are not preventable, chiropractic care can address many biomechanical imbalances in the body.
- Improve spinal alignment: Chiropractic adjustments, or manipulations, are performed on joints within the body that are not exhibiting their full range of motion. I am sure you have all had the feeling of muscle stiffness, now think of your spine and a time you struggled to rotate or move in one direction more than another. In chiropractic terms we relate a joint blockage to the phrase “block of wood” – there is not a lot of give within the joint, compared to “block of cheese” meaning it’s more giving. When you are not able to move in all directions, your performance suffers. Chiropractors use joint manipulations to reduce the stress being placed on the spine and surrounding muscles.
- Stability vs. mobility: Moving outside of the spine, all the joints in our body – so think of your shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, and ankle – have a specific function. Some joints need to be more stable to allow the joint either above or below to move more freely. Let’s take a joint by joint concept, your stable joints are the lower & middle neck, shoulder blades, low back, knees, and feet. In between each stable joint, we have a mobile joint – upper neck, shoulders, upper back, hips, ankles, and toes. As a clinician whose goal is for my patients to be able to perform at the highest level they can achieve, I am not going to be giving you an exercise for a stable joint to become more mobile. While there is a difference between a stable joint not having adequate movement, there does not need to be excessive movement. For example – on the back swing we must take a mobile shoulder and distract it from a stable shoulder blade. In simpler terms, the shoulder blade is not moving, but the upper arm must pull away from the shoulder blade and move backwards.
- Muscle synergy: Please don’t hate me, but these next two points are correlated with intra-abdominal pressure (at this point we all know the word, but probably not how to accurately create it, so I am going to abbreviate ‘IAP’). IAP must first be well understood by the golfer because this is what is going to have a neurological effect on the whole body. When IAP is able to be created, it recruits the muscles surrounding a joint to equally put in as much work as the other. So there’s no more lying to yourself – we all have massive trigger points in our shoulders (also known as upper traps). This is because 1) we all suck as breathing, 2) we have been told to suck our belly buttons in, 3) we’re always looking down at our computer screens or phones, and 4) we don’t know how to properly train the other muscles surrounding a joint because we cannot get into a good position. As a chiropractor I have so many tools to address the tension in the upper traps, but my favorite (and what I find to be most effective) is one of the “baby positions” I was talking about earlier. Through teaching IAP and proper muscle recruitment around a joint, all the muscles are able to work together instead of fighting one another. This is what causes all the trigger points, tension, and increased tone in muscles.
- Joint centration: Once the golfer is able to establish IAP and muscle synergy, the joint is then centrated. A joint can only be centrated when all the muscles are working together. This allows for no singular muscle to work harder than another. When this faulty pattern occurs, the joints are not in good alignment and can then lead to the trigger points, tension, and increase muscle tone. This all goes to say when we cannot train in good positions or have the ability to feel good positioning, injury can occur because all the joints and muscles in our bodies are not working in unison. All of this is not ideal for the game of golf, especially in the upper extremity when the arms should be relaxed. Relaxation cannot occur if there is too much tension in the upper traps and not enough muscle activity of muscles such as the latissimus dorsi or serratus.
- Body awareness: Proprioception can be increased with chiropractic manipulation and you probably do not want to hear it, but proper breathing techniques. Enhanced proprioception improves your body’s ability to sense its position in space, which is especially important in creating a stable base of support through your feet. How many times in the last month have you tripped over a rug or maybe even your own feet? Maybe you even stumbled on something that was not even really there. As we all can imagine, this can lead to possible injury. And it may even sound ridiculous but spending time with yourself and your own breathing calms the nervous system and reduces the stress within the body. Would you spend 10 minutes a day focusing on nothing but your breathing if it meant improving your swing mechanics and your body awareness? There are so many physical and mental benefits of focusing on your breathing.
- Nutrition: This is a topic not always addressed by chiropractors, but certainly as seasoned golfers and aspiring professional players, you realize the effect of nutrition on your game. This may look different to every player, but there is a time and place for educating about nutrition. Everything you put in your body either fuels it or drains it. This is why I think a well thought out nutrition plan, discussed with your physician or nutritionist, can enhance your golf game.
Implementing Chiropractic Care in Your Golf Routine
By incorporating chiropractic care into your golf routine, you are not just treating existing problems – you are actively preventing future injuries. This proactive approach can lead to more enjoyable rounds, improve performance, and a longer, healthier golfing career. Here are a few ways you are able to prevent injuries:
- Schedule regular adjustments, especially during peak golfing seasons.
- Ask your chiropractor about golf-specific exercises and stretches.
- Chiropractors can assess your golf stance and swing through a biomechanical lens.
- Do not wait until the pain occurs – chiropractic care is here for you now to help prevent injuries.
Every golfers body is different, and therefore should not be receiving the same care as the person next to you. The needs are unique for each individual and treatment should be tailored to your specific needs. In the meantime, you already have one exercise that every person could be doing (because we all suck at it) – breathing and intra-abdominal pressure!
Until next time,
Dr. Sadie Landwehr