Ahhh! Spring is finally here, and after 6 months of being cooped up indoors, scared of venturing out without thermal underroos and a propane heater, people are beginning to break out their woods and irons and hit the links for the other 6 months of the year!!! Most people will include the following as their golf conditioning:
Holding the club by both ends and doing a power twist to either side
Saying “Need to hit a few to loosen up.”
So the 6 months without doing any conditioning will no doubt lead to a few disc bulges in the first few rounds, mostly resulting in complaints of “I just pulled something in my back, time to hit the couch.” Now while most back injuries are simply a result of poor conditioning, poor posture, and poor technique, some things just can’t be changed.
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While some aspects of your golf swing can only be helped by a golf pro (or in this case maybe an exorcist), a good personal trainer can help increase your mobility, stability and strength enough to let you take the skin off the ball without having your lumbar discs shoot across the fairway.
Most golfers drive the ball with the amount of force equal to 90% of maximal voluntary muscle contraction. That’s the equivalent of trained Olympic lifters!! With that amount of force, the person needs to have enough balance to control it properly and not fall on their butt in front of their business colleagues. While having power is great, having the mobility to properly utilize it is one of the most important feature. Most people have limited thoracic mobility, which means they have limited ability to bring their arm across their body, therefore they can’t generate the elastic potential in their back swing to generate the appropriate amount of force to Happy Gilmore the ball. Additionally, most people have “stupid butts,” and don’t know how to use their hips appropriately to get rotation and weight transfer, and will make their weak low backs do all the work. Think of the back like a union worker: when it thinks it’s getting worked too much, it goes on strike for a while, taking everything down with it.
Training to address the demands of the game (beers in the cart don’t count) can make a big difference during the summer months of escaping to a natural, well maintained, man-made, manicured slice of heaven.
Last time I played I shot a 72.
Then I played the back nine.
Hey-ooo!!