Sports Injuries
Dr. Kevin Toss DC, DACBSP
Diplomate American Chiropractic Boards Sports Physicians
Staten Island, NY - 718-966-7000
Clifton, NJ - 973-777-2536
Golf Injuries
Golf is a sport that places tremendous stress on the body. Though golf is not a contact nor collision sport, it doesn’t come without its multitude of sport-related injuries.
The golf swing is another example in the sports realm of lower body weight transfer from a wind up phase to a recoiling follow through phase, as seen in a baseball swing, a pitcher’s delivery and a tennis serve.
The golf swing takes just over 1 second to complete but to accomplish the goal of hitting a golf ball with as much distance and accuracy as possible, the golfer’s club swings between 100 and 120 miles per hour. To generate this type of force, the golfer’s torso goes through many coupled motions including flexion, lateral flexion, rotation and hyper-extension of the spine. It is the repetitiveness of these motions that lead to lower back pain being the number one golf related injury. Weakness in the core and hip musculature combined with poor or sub-optimal swing mechanics promote abnormal force generation in the lower back causing pain.
Following lower back pain, the shoulder joint is the second most common golf-related injury. Due to the violent nature of the golf swing, shoulder injuries such as impingement syndrome, rotator cuff tears, labral tears, ligament laxity and joint instability, tendonitis and bursitis are among the most common shoulder injuries seen in golfers.
