This year’s Golf Masters starts today, so it’s a good time to look at the common injuries that face golfers, how they can be treated and how they can be prevented.
Because, although it may be seen as a leisurely sport by some, golf injuries actually exceed those of rugby players! In fact, a staggering 62% of amateurs and 85% of professionals experience significant injuries while playing!
The below sets these out, provides some suggestions for how you can injury-proof your technique and how our team of elite practitioners can help you.
The Demands of Golf
Golf demands strength, endurance, explosive power, flexibility, and athleticism. The lower back takes the brunt of the high torque and twisting involved in swinging that club, accounting for one-third of all golf injuries.
This strain on the spine is intensified by the tremendous pressure—eight times one’s body weight(!)—generated during the swing.
The Route Causes
However, the lower back is often not the root cause of pain; it’s usually poor swing mechanics stemming from limited mobility in the ankles, hips, thoracic spine, and shoulders.
Other top golf-related injuries include trauma to the elbow, wrist/hand or shoulder. So much for golf being a low-impact activity!
As such, the main drivers (pardon the pun) of injury include excessive practice (yes, there is such a thing as too much practice!), subpar swing mechanics, inadequate warm-up, and an overall lack of physical preparedness.
Where these injuries arise, recovery time averages 2-4 weeks, which is a significant amount of time while you’re paying for that club membership! This emphasises the importance of addressing these root causes, treating them and working to improve mobility and technique.
Injury Prevention
So, how exactly can golfers prevent injuries and enhance their game?
This is, primarily, going to be through targeted and routine conditioning. Believe it or not, research was done on an 11-week programme, which yielded the below impressive results:
- 7% increase in clubhead speed,
- strength improvement of up to 56%,
- flexibility boost of up to 39%,
- and an additional drive distance of up to 15 yards with sustained accuracy.
How can Health in Motion help you?
Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a serious golfer, staying injury-free and enhancing performance is achievable, and Health in Motion can help you to do just that. Our elite team provides you with lots of treatment options, including:
- Chiropractic treatment – this aids golfers by improving spinal health, mobility, and alignment, reducing injury risk and enhancing performance through adjustments and guidance on posture and biomechanics.
- Osteopathic treatment – this focuses on restoring balance and alignment within the body, addressing any imbalances or restrictions that may contribute to a golf injury. Through manual therapy techniques, our osteopaths can alleviate muscular tension, improve joint function, and enhance overall structural integrity, promoting optimal performance and reducing the risk of injury recurrence.
- Physiotherapy – this can provide you with tailored exercise programs, manual therapy, and bio-mechanical assessments to address specific weaknesses or imbalances that predispose individuals to poor technique and injury.
- Regular sports massage can aid in muscle recovery, alleviate tension, and improve circulation, helping to prevent overuse injuries and promote faster healing. Targeted massage techniques can also identify areas of tightness or imbalance, allowing for early intervention before they escalate into more significant issues that impact your golf game.
- Ultrasound Diagnostics can assess injuries in real time by observing the movement and function of muscles and joints. This provides any of our practitioners with dynamic insight into your movement patterns, enhancing their ability to support you with more targeted techniques and movement regimes.
- Golf Swing Biomechanics Assessments – two of our practitioners, Francesco and Dominic, have qualifications in “Functional Golf System Biomechanics” which allows them to breakdown your swing habits step by step and provide both explanation and improvement strategies to prevent injury and improve performance.
Additionally, our elite training facilities provide our practitioners with various functional training equipment. This enables our practitioners to not only assess and treat you, but to also get you on the gym floor and provide you with specific exercise and mobility regimes that support you in your golf game.
Health in Motion Resources
To get you started, we also have some resources that provide suggestions to support you in avoiding injury and improving your skills. Check out the links to the resources below:
By prioritising targeted conditioning, understanding swing mechanics, and addressing mobility limitations, golfers can enjoy the game while minimising the risk of injury and maximising performance on the green. Here at Health in Motion, we appreciate the beauty of a good golf game and would love to help you!