Golf and your
lower back
More than a third of male golfers in one large survey had back pain in the past week. The low handicappers were no better off.
More than a third of male golfers in one large survey had back pain in the past week. The low handicappers were no better off.
Most golfers put a sore back down to playing a lot, or to playing badly. The research does not back either.
A study asked 1,170 male golfers, average age 55, what had hurt in the past week. The lower back came top at 37 per cent, nearly three times anything else. Low handicappers, who had started younger and practised more, were no better off. So a sore back is not about how well you swing. It is about which parts of your body are doing the turning.
And the boundary is the same here as everywhere else on this site: if it turns out to need a diagnosis, a scan or a prescription, Jonathan will say so and point you to the person who can, rather than work around it.
Your mid-back, hips, shoulder and neck all have to turn during a golf swing. Here is what happens when one of them is stiff. In three of the five, your lower back ends up doing the extra work.
This is where hands-on work helps most. A stiff mid-back is roughly as much soft tissue as joint, and the soft tissue is what Jonathan works on.
→A mid-back that will not turn is a specific problem, not just a sore spot. Tell Jonathan when you book and he can start there.
Say it is the mid-back →In three of these five, your lower back ends up doing the extra work. It was also by far the most common complaint in the survey of 1,170 golfers: 37 per cent had back pain in the past week, whatever their handicap.
Turning is the whole game. Regular sessions keep an eye on what is stiffening up, so your lower back does not end up doing the work by default.
Golfers tend to come every three or four weeks through the playing season, and most keep something going over the winter rather than stopping with the fixtures. The Rhythm: golfSee how regular sessions work
The most common one is a mid-back that stops turning partway through the backswing. Researchers measured 68 mid-back joints from 29 donors. Each one turns about five degrees, the lowest about three. Your mid-back turn is a dozen of those small movements added together.
This is where hands-on work helps most. A stiff mid-back is roughly as much soft tissue as joint, and the soft tissue is what Jonathan works on.
In three of these five, your lower back ends up doing the extra work. It was also by far the most common complaint in the survey of 1,170 golfers: 37 per cent had back pain in the past week, whatever their handicap.
Turning is the whole game. Regular sessions keep an eye on what is stiffening up, so your lower back does not end up doing the work by default.
Golfers tend to come every three or four weeks through the playing season, and most keep something going over the winter rather than stopping with the fixtures. The Rhythm: golfSee how regular sessions work
For two of the five, you need a coach or nothing at all. Most of a first session goes on working out which one you have.
Book a sessionFair point. A session will not add distance or make you a better player. Plenty of places say it will, and none of them show any evidence. What it can tell you is what is stiff, and whether that is muscle, something for your coach, or neither.
Often it means something that was turning well early in the round has stiffened up, and your back is picking up the slack. Nobody has measured your round, so that is a likely explanation, not a finding. Mention it when you book. "Fine for two hours, then not" tells Jonathan far more than "my back hurts".
Sometimes. The phrase describes what your body did, not why. A stiff hip and an old habit look exactly the same on video. Rule out the habit first with your coach, because it is cheaper. If it is still there after coaching, it is worth checking how well your hip actually turns.
Because your back is usually where you feel it, not where it starts. In a study of 15 professional golfers, the lower back turned about 45 degrees and moved almost as one unit with the hips. So if a hip or your mid-back will not turn, your lower back has to make up the difference. That is why the tool above starts with what is stiff, not with what hurts.
Partly, but not entirely. The golfers in that survey were 55 on average and up to 84, so at 61 you are a typical golfer, not an exception. Your body does take longer to recover than it used to. That is a reason to keep the movement you have, not to assume it will go. If you have pain that clicks, catches, gives way or wakes you up, that is a different matter. Jonathan is not a physiotherapist. He will tell you so and point you to one.
You leave knowing what is stiff, or knowing that is not the problem. Either is better than another season of guessing.
Book a sessionOr start from where you are: something already hurts, or nothing hurts yet.