How Can Chiropractic Improve your Golf Game?

We all know that golf is one of the most frustrating sports to play – as soon as you master one aspect of your game another falls by the wayside. Is this down to skills or can our body mechanics play havoc with our consistency?

Playing golf has a range of health benefits – it’s a low impact form of exercise, often gets you a good dose of vitamin D, reduces stress and improves muscle tone. Some studies have even attributed playing golf to increasing life expectancy by 5 years.

But can chiropractic help my golf game?

Tiger Woods has often spoke about his reliance on chiropractic care, along with many other professional golfers

Your swing, accuracy and distance all relies on good posture and proper body mechanics. A proper alignment is crucial for your swing, and unfortunately many golfers suffer issues in their performance and experience pain due to a poor posture and faulty mechanics. 

How can posture affect golf performance?

A proper alignment, allows the vertebrae to sit nicely on top of each other, which allows full rotation of your upper body during the backswing and follow through. Any misalignments can reduce this range of motion, resulting in less accuracy and power. This loss of accuracy and power can lead to reduced club speeds and therefore shorter distances. 

Similarly, rounded shoulders and/or a rounding of the upper back restrict the ability of shoulder rotation, affecting the backswing and follow through. Rounded shoulders also affect consistency by increasing the difficulty to maintain the desired swing plane. 

A posture with an exaggerated arch in the lower back can cause an overly steep swing plane, making it difficult to strike the ball with the correct club face, resulting in slicing of the ball and inconsistent results. 

How can posture affect pain and risk of injury?

As well as golf performance, posture can also affect the risk of injury, recovery times and pain. Golf requires a great deal of coordination within your body; you use multiple muscles in your swing. Good posture allows your bones, joints and muscles to perform optimally and spread any strain and effort appropriately. Poor posture, however, can lead to certain muscles and joints compensating for bones out of place within the body and therefore risk being put under excessive strain during use. 

How can Chiropractic help?

Here at Spine we undertake a holistic approach and look at the whole body to make sure its performing optimally. We address all misalignments within the body to ensure the body is performing at its best. By addressing any postural issues, golfers can experience a more consistent and accurate swing with greater power. 

Our very own Dr Stuart is a keen golfer and along with years of practice, often attributes his ability to swing freely on the course with the proper alignment of his body.

Come and chat to Dr Stuart about how ABC™ can help your golf game, you may be concerned over pain felt during a round, or limitations in your swing – you’ll be amazed at the difference!

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