Still Playing Golf? Your Doctor of Chiropractic Can Keep You on the Golf Course Year-Round in Austin

Year-round golfing is something many people enjoy participating in due to the mild winters in Austin. Golf is a game you can play all your life, regardless of your age.  Spending a day on the golf course yields many benefits, including some good exercise as you walk the course, vitamin D from the sun, and opportunities for social interaction are all positive reasons to get out and play a round or two every week. Don’t let low back pain or shoulder pain prevent you from teeing up.

Chiropractic care at Texas Spine & Sports Therapy Center increases joint mobility, corrects misalignments in the spine, and allows a golfer to perform with proper structure and function.

Your doctor of chiropractic can help you enjoy your golf outings. Golf is a game that involves correct muscle memory, effort, and hours of repetitive motions in sometimes clumsy positions.

Chiropractors have trained for many years to properly put misaligned bones back into place. As holistic doctors they provide treatment without the use of often addictive drugs or injections.

Over Exertion on the Golf Course Can Lead to Pain and Injury

According to recent studies, low back pain is the most common golf injury. This is because the twisting of the trunk during golf swings puts excess stress on the spine. Golf accounts for between 18 percent and 54 percent of all documented low back pain, leading many analysts to regard the condition as the most common golf injury. Other golf injuries commonly cited include pain in the wrist and elbow.

Chiropractors specialize in irregularities within the musculoskeletal system. A misalignment in the spine puts pressure on the nervous system. This affects the communication between the brain and the body. Misalignment also causes pain in the back, hips, and lower extremities – all of which are highly stressed during a golf game.

Chiropractic care corrects misalignments in the spine. This allows the nerves to communicate in an ideal way, increasing joint mobility, and allowing the golfer to perform with proper biomechanics.

How to Give Your Golf Game Your Best Shot

• The cause of many injuries in golf are typically due to poor conditioning, excess exertion, and an improper swing due to poor body mechanics. Following are some useful tips to ensure that you can play golf at your best.

Warm-up Before Hitting the Golf Course

• A proper warm-up is beneficial before participating in any sports. A warm up can increase flexibility and performance and decrease the risk of injury. Stretch your shoulders, hamstrings, hips, and torso to prepare your muscles for the upcoming activity.

• Activities like jumping jacks, running in place, leg swings, and windmills are great pre-golf exercises. Do some easy swings with your golf club to warm up the muscle groups you will be using for that forceful golf swing.

Start the Swing in Proper Form

• Just as important as it is to have properly fitted golf clubs, you can achieve a better golf swing by having superb body balance in your stance before you take a swing. The key to good balance is keeping the feet at shoulder-width apart, knees bent, and the spine straight, with your weight placed evenly on the balls of your feet. Repetition by practicing the proper stance will develop muscle memory, and proper balance before taking the first swing. This type of preparation will decrease the stress on the low back.

Consider Taking a Weight-Training Class

• Increasing your muscle strength has been shown to positively correlate with skill (handicap and score), driving distance, and swing speed. Chiropractic care can improve the strength and efficiency of your muscles by encouraging better circulation, increasing nerve energy flow, and improving connection across all systems of the body.

Reevaluate What’s in Your Golf Bag

• The repetitive action of picking up your golf bag and hauling it over one shoulder for hours at a time adds a lot of stress to your low back. To reduce this stress on your low back and shoulders, choose a golf bag design that has two straps, allowing you to distribute the weight to both shoulders as you walk.

Chiropractic Care Will Help You Stay Flexible

Have you ever stopped to think of how many movements and positions you put your body through during a round of golf? Chiropractic adjustments can keep the body operating normally, increase your range of motion and reduce the chance of injury.

What Golfers Should Know About Chiropractic Care

• A doctor of chiropractic specializes in disorders within the musculoskeletal system. They seek to restore optimal movement, function, and range of motion. Chiropractors understand that a misalignment in the spine puts pressure on the nervous system. This affects communication between the brain and the body.

• Chiropractors look at the body’s efficiency through movement evaluation and each individual’s biomechanics. Poor biomechanics are a common cause of golfing injuries. So, a chiropractor’s knowledge of how a joint is supposed to respond during a golf swing can help prevent pain and injury.

• Most of all, a doctor of chiropractic’s complex diagnosis and treatment has the potential to correct any underlying issues. This in and of itself can improve performance on the golf course.

Texas Spine & Sports Therapy Center

At Texas Spine and Sports Therapy Center in Austin, we have formed a team of professionals that can provide holistic healthcare treatments to patients in the Texas Hill Country area. Our clinic can provide you with a wide range of services in one convenient, comfortable office.

By accessing our treatments and services, you could improve your golf game and find relief from the pain and inflammation that can drastically compromise your quality of life.

Contact us to schedule an appointment with our team today by calling (512) 806-0015, or contact us online. Our goal is to provide chiropractic care and optimal solutions for a better, more productive life for our patients on the golf course or in other aspects of life.