"Golfer's Back" afflicts nearly 2/3 of all golfers under the age of 50 and this ratio greatly increases in golfers over the age of 50. The most common area affected is the lower back. These problems are created by biomechanical troubles. That is imbalances in the hips, pelvis, and feet, which affect us in our movements and walking. These imbalances become more pronounced in a golfer as golf is a one-sided sport. These problems can be recognized through muscle testing and other methods, but the easiest way to evaluate is combining this with an evaluation of the golfer's game, as Get Fit to Golf does. These imbalances will cause the golfer's swing to be off and will create problems such as hooking the ball, slicing the ball, as well as reduce the power and speed of the swing.

By attacking the underlying causes, we can not only prevent and fix back problems, we can actually improve your game!!! First let's discuss this paradigm and get a better understanding of the underlying problems.

Begin with this example, find an object which ways approximately 10kg. Lift this object keeping it close to your body, (not too difficult is it?). Now extend your arm in front of you with the object still in your hand. You will find it becomes almost impossible to do. See Figures 1 and 2.

The amount of force becomes nearly 5 times the weight of the object at the shoulder joint. Now imagine this occurring in your body while playing golf. This is what happens when you have a skeletal misalignment causing an imbalance increasing these kinds of stresses on your hips, knees, feet, and back. Let's now change that 10kg object to something you can relate to, such as your head. If you have forward head posture, such as seen in Figure 2, you can easily see how you can increase the stress in the upper back and shoulders. (This will lead to weakness in the shoulders and arms, but we will explain more of this later).

Alternatively, imagine your imbalance hips causing an increase of weight on one side of your body as compared to the other side, (a very common problem). This is similar to having a misalignment in the front end of your car, the increased stresses will wear the ball joints and tires out very quickly. Well, the same happens to the spinal, knee, and other joints in your body with pelvic misalignments.

This discussion addresses the first part of the Golfer's Back Paradigm, part two addresses the musculature of the spine and related joints. The muscles help to hold the skeleton together and really function like giant rubber bands. However, when we have biomechanical or skeletal structural problems, these rubber bands will become lengthened on one side and shortened on the other, as seen in the diagram to the right where the muscles have been simplified to represent rubber bands. The change in the soft tissues will lead to weaknesses occurring in muscles which will then affect your golf game, (i.e. slice, hook, decreased drive distance, etc.), that will eventually show up as back pain in your body.

Now the big question. HOW DO WE FIX THESE PROBLEMS? Get Fit To Golf gives you a series of simple assessments to be filled out online, which will allow us to analyse all the information about your golf game and any structural problems you may have. The assessment process includes muscle testing which will allow us to develop a program to correct your structure and improve your golf game. You will received your own personalised ChiroFit™ fitness program catering to your individual needs.

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