IOG Physio Department FAQ’s

Why do I need a golf Muscle Balance Assessment?

A golf muscle balance assessment screens your body for physical limitations that may be limiting your potential.  It looks at areas including flexibility, range of motion, stability, strength, balance etc.  Any one or combination of physical restrictions or limitations may impact on your ability to efficiently swing the golf club and pre-disposes you to swing faults.  This of course leads to poor scoring on the course and increases the likelihood that you develop a golf related injury.

A golf muscle balance assessment allows us to then prescribe you a completely individualized improvement program which includes a physical exercise programme targeting specific areas you need to improve your body for golf.  By improving your body for golf you will notice your golfing potential increase dramatically!   And you will find you will be able to achieve the technical changes and positions that your golf professional is working on so that your improvements will transfer in to results on the golf course.

What exercises will help improve my golf swing?

Golf requires a combination of good flexibility and range of motion, stability, strength, balance and power.  Therefore a combination of exercises that address these areas will help improve your golf swing.

Everybody is physically different, and therefore it is recommended that you get a golf specific muscle balance assessment to assess your bodies current physical limitations and identify areas to work on physically that will help you improve your golf.  Contact the Institute of Golf team for a Full Golf Specific Muscle Balance Assessment and exercise programme.

The following highlights some of the key areas that you should focus on with golf specific physical exercises and conditioning.

1. Flexibility:
Flexibility and range of motion at the shoulders, trunk (thoracic spine), and hips is very important.  This allows for full rotation through the correct areas of the body during the golf swing.

2. Strength and stability of the deep abdominal / core muscles:
These muscles are important in protecting the joints in the lower back.  These are also key muscles that connect the lower and upper body and therefore help transmit forces that generate power and club head speed.  These muscles also help maintain good posture, spine angle and therefore also correct swing plane in the golf swing.

3. Strength of the posterior chain muscles around the hips:
Strengthening the posterior muscles of the hips such as the gluts will help stabilise your lower body and maintain spine angle, while helping create resistance for your upper body to coil around to create good stretch and separation of your upper and lower body in your backswing.  The same muscles are also important power generators in the downswing phase.

4. Stability of the scapula and shoulder girdle:
This includes strengthening of the shoulder muscles (rotator cuff), as well as the scapula (shoulder blades).  These muscles are important in maintaining upper body posture in the golf swing, maintaining connection between the arms and the trunk, as well as transferring energy from the body/trunk to the arms and clubhead.

Why do I get back-pain when I play golf?

Lower back pain is very common among golfers of all ages and levels. In fact, up to 70% of all golfers experience back pain.    There a multiple reasons why you may be predisposed to, or are currently experiencing lower back pain with your golf.  Amateur golfers tend to have inferior swing mechanics when compared to professional golfers.  Therefore when poor swing mechanics are involved the lumbar spine is often vulnerable to generating greater lateral bending and shearing loads.  You may recognize these faults as sways, slides and loss of your spine angle during your golf swing.  These forces have been shown to be up to 80% greater in amateurs when compared with professionals!

Poor posture is another common cause of lower back pain in golf.  Often golfers address the ball with either too much arch (extension) in their lower back, or too much flexion.  Because the golf swing is in a forward flexed posture and is rotational and dynamic, there are potentially much greater forces generated in the muscles, joints and discs in the lower back and when posture is poor.  Poor golfing posture is most often an adaptation related to lifestyle.  It is common to see sedentary, office bound workers develop rounded shoulders and backs from long periods of sitting at work desks in poor postures.  This is more often than not reflected in there golf posture as well as the body looses its flexibility and ability to maintain a normal posture.

If you are experiencing back pain while you golf it is important that you see a golf physiotherapist, who will be able to assess your lower back, as well as your golf swing biomechanics to identify why you are getting back pain while you are playing golf.