These suggestions are all aimed at reducing stress and strain on the lumbar spine. They may not sound like much. But even small, seemingly insignificant stresses on your musculoskeletal system can cause injury when they occur repeatedly and in combination with other stresses. Along with your regular daily activities, add up all the mechanical stresses on your low back across each hole, round, season, or lifetime of golf and certainly it can be enough to cause pain or injury. Here are 6 simple tips that may reduce your risk of low back pain (of note, and most unfortunately, I have no financial disclosures):

1) Play/practice consistently. Try to prevent deconditioning, atrophy of core muscles from disuse, loss of flexibility, etc. because if you don’t use it, you lose it.

2) Push your hand cart (instead of pulling it). To quote a famous duo, “Push it. Push it real good.” (Salt-N-Pepa, 1986).

3) Use a longer putter. A longer putter promotes an upright posture and a more neutral, happy spine. A shorter putter induces you to hunch forward and flex your lumbar spine, which can increase muscle strain and disc pressure in the low back.

4) Use proper bending technique (when picking up you ball, teeing up, marking your ball, etc.). Bend your hips and knees, not your back. Maintain the natural curve of your lower back. Avoid twisting. Side note, they make golf ball retrievers (for a few bucks) that you can attach to the butt end of your putter to avoid having to bend down altogether.

5) When carrying your golf bag, use dual straps over both shoulders. Carrying the bag with your hand or with a single strap increases strain, whereas the dual straps distribute the weight more symmetrically.

6) Ensure a proper club fit to your unique anatomy. This one is straightforward but not necessarily “simple” to address if it’s a problem as it requires time and money to get evaluated somewhere that offers club fitting. No two people have the same anatomy or swing. Height, arm length, leg length, ground-to-hand distance…the list goes on…vary person to person. If you are using clubs that force your body into bad positions and movements in order to strike the ball, you may be increasing your risk for back pain. Again, even tiny deviations, when added up over hundreds or thousands of swings, can cause problems.

Thanks for reading, leave comments below or use the link at the bottom to ask a question!

And follow on Instagram @Dr.GolfGuru <instagram.com/dr.golfguru>

Sources:

Finn C. Rehabilitation of low back pain in golfers: from diagnosis to return to sport. Sports Health. 2013;5(4):313-9.

Mchardy A, Pollard H, Luo K. One-year follow-up study on golf injuries in Australian amateur golfers. Am J Sports Med. 2007;35(8):1354-60.

Parziale JR, Mallon WJ. Golf injuries and rehabilitation. Phys Med Rehabil Clin N Am. 2006;17(3):589-607.