{"id":3416,"date":"2019-02-10T15:24:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T23:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/?p=3416"},"modified":"2022-01-23T08:43:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T16:43:40","slug":"the-latest-on-your-back-and-golf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/the-latest-on-your-back-and-golf\/","title":{"rendered":"The Latest on Your Back and Golf"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week a new paper was published<\/a> describing the effects of the modern golf swing on the lumbar spine. The effects are not good.<\/p>\n

The article states that professional golfers generate \u201cabout 7500 N compressive on the spine during the downswing.\u201d One N (newton) is the amount of force needed to move one kilogram at an acceleration of one meter per second per second.<\/p>\n

No one\u2019s back is designed to stand up to 7500 of those.<\/p>\n

Then the article takes on the X-factor, without mentioning Jim McLean. But I will. The greater the angle between the hip line and the shoulder line at the end of the backswing, the more power can be generated on the downswing.<\/p>\n

However, this position sets up the golfer to deliver a huge load of lateral bending and torsional axial moments (twisting of the spine) right before impact.<\/p>\n

More distance = more back damage. Thanks, Jim.<\/p>\n

Exercising the core muscles, and muscles in the back that support the spine, which golfers are told to do, do not help matters. Stronger muscles create stronger swings, which place more force on the spine, not less. <\/p>\n

If you read the article, which you should absolutely do, there are some technical terms in it. This little glossary should help with a few of them.<\/p>\n

acromion – a bony process (portrusion) on the shoulder blade that hooks over the front to make a joint with the collar bone. <\/p>\n

facet joint – joints that allow vertebrae to slide over each other when the back goes through various movements.<\/p>\n

spinal erector muscles – a set of long muscles that surround the spine and govern certain movements of the back. When these muscles are engaged they exert longitudinal compression on the spine which raises intradiscal pressure. <\/p>\n

disc annulus – the outer portion of the pulpy mass between the bony vertebral bodies.<\/p>\n

So. What does this mean for you? <\/p>\n

First of all, study Justin Thomas\u2019s swing carefully. Then do not do what he does. He is a case study of the scary swing identified in this article.<\/p>\n

Second, remember that the pros need all the distance they can get to be competitive. You don\u2019t if you play from the appropriate tees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Again, though the X-factor that Jim McLean identified might well be true in terms of hitting the ball farther, it is murder on a golfer\u2019s back. Don\u2019t go there. Don\u2019t force your backswing. Get your distance from hitting the ball on the center of the clubface<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fourth, do the things I mentioned in this post about building a back-friendly golf swing<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week a new paper was published describing the effects of the modern golf swing on the lumbar spine. The effects are not good. The article states that professional golfers generate \u201cabout 7500 N compressive on the spine during the downswing.\u201d One N (newton) is the amount of force needed to move one kilogram at … Continue reading The Latest on Your Back and Golf<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4qtRQ-T6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3416"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6188,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3416\/revisions\/6188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therecreationalgolfer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}