Golf Injuries (1)

Golf is not a contact sport, like basketball or football. Nevertheless, golf injuries are common, especially among the elderly. You do not want to be slave to your injuries, which can be debilitating or may even become chronic, forcing you to give up the sport totally.

Knowing how to recognize these injuries is the first step to prevention, which is far better than rehabilitation. If you have injuries, you need to take precautionary steps to correct the problem in order to prevent these golf injuries from happening. Be knowledgeable in their prevention.

Research in golf injuries has indicated that 80 percent of lower back problems are due to poor alignment of the spine and pelvic girdle, as well as the repeated strain exerted by the golf swing on different parts of your back.

Poor alignment is caused by:

 

body inflexibility

weak muscles

poor postural habits.

Strains and pressures are constantly exerted by the golf swing on different parts of the back, including the vertebrae, disks (cushioning plates of cartilage between vertebrae), the facet joints (joints connecting the vertebrae), the ligaments of the facet joints, and the muscles surrounding the spine.

As a result of these consistent strains and pressures on different parts of the back, often aggravated by poor alignment, your back and spine may snap, leading to debilitating golf injuries, or the more common problems of muscle strains, herniated disks, and inflamed joints and ligaments.

The bottom line: make sure you have a healthy posture while standing, sitting, sleeping even when you are not playing golf. If you are a senior, pay special attention to your forward head posture.

More next time . . .

Stephen Lau