Read This Before Your Next Golf Game

If you're somebody who has had pain during or after your golf game, now is the time to get serious about improving the mobility and stability of your body so you can get out there and enjoy golf again.

The three most common painful areas during golf are by far, the low back, the knees and the elbow.

Let’s talk about the elbow first. The most common cause of elbow pain is called golfer's elbow.  On the inside of the elbow there's a bone that has a lot of tendons that attach to it. With golfer’s elbow, the bone starts to get stressed, which creates micro tearing of the tendons. The body tries to heal itself by going through the first phase of healing, which is inflammation. Inflammation can create fluid buildup, pressure, and ultimately pain.

Next let’s talk about the knee. The knee is a joint where the femur and the tibia come together. The knee joint is mainly designed to flex and extend or bend and straighten, but it also has a little side to side motion and some rotation, but not a lot. That's really the key, rotation. Knee issues in golfers arise when the knee is being asked to rotate more than it is designed to rotate since that's not its predominant or primary motion. The hip joint, however, being a ball and socket, is designed to rotate a lot so a lack of mobility in hip rotation can create knee pain. It actual can become more of a problem for some golfers. Tiger Woods had a torn ACL as well as some fractured bones because of golf. But increasing the mobility in your hips can avoid those types of injuries.

Finally, let’s talk about the low back. There are five segments of the lower back. These segments have facet joints between them, out of which the nerves leave the spine. Again, the lower back vertebrae are only designed to move five degrees at each segment. If you think that the average golf swing requires a lot more than five degrees rotation, you can see how the low back will need help. Ifs the low back doesn’t get that help with turning, the joints narrow and the exiting nerve get pinched, causing back and sciatic pain.

At Superior Physical Therapy, we know how to increase your hip rotation so the spine and the knees don’t have to get stressed and cause you pain. Likewise, we can get rid of your golfer’s elbow because we are musculoskeletal experts. Call us to schedule a 20 minute movement assessment which looks at the most common areas that golfers encounter: 231-944-6541.