Back pain and your golf set up!
Could your golf posture set up be the cause of your back pain?
The posture on the left is called S-posture. It causes excessive curvature in the low back. This can put abnormally high stress on the muscles in the lower back and causes the abdominals to relax. This can then cause a loss of posture or reverse spine angle during the backswing and puts the body out of position on the downswing.
This can be caused by “lower cross syndrome” where you have tight hip flexors and low back along with stretched or weak lower core and glutes. This creates a predictable movement pattern that can lead to injury.
Let’s first see if this is a mobility issue or a stability/motor control issue. Can you dissociate (move) the pelvis by tilting forward and back while keeping the rest of the body still? Can you find neutral? Is the movement smooth or shaky?
Try grabbing a golf club, PVC pipe or broom…push down into it while moving your pelvis! Does this improve your movement and the fluidity of the movement? By pushing down you are pre-engaging the core and giving you a more stable foundation to move from. Do this in front of a mirror – looking from the side. Can you dip out the front making the S-cure, then find neutral, then tuck under and make a C shape? Practice moving through the entire range and then stopping in neutral (middle posture). This neutral position should be your golf set up posture with a nice flat back.
If you are unable to get to neutral could you also have a mobility restriction limiting the range. This is when we want to add in some hip flexor stretches and openers. My go to stretch is the ELDOA hip decompression stretch. Be on the look out for this posting soon to help open the hip while also activating the lower core and glutes. The best thing you could do for your golf game is to get a full golf performance assessment and then have a customize mobility plan created for your specific body. For more information contact me below and ask about my golf performance evaluation.
