Sport: Golf

General commentary:
Golfers often rush into the season having not prepared their fitness for the game.
Injuries most often occur due to improper grip or swing mechanics. A lack of fitness and reduced flexibility also contribute to pain post play.

Common Injuries:
Injuries are likely to occur in the soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, tendons) and joints of the back, elbow, wrist and shoulder.

There are 4 phases of a golf swing: back swing, down swing, strike and follow-through. During the typical golf swing, the lumbar spine undergoes a variety of forces at once and in excess, including compression and rotation.

How to avoid Injury:
While it's likely professional golfers will experience more overuse injuries as a product of hours of practice, amateurs wind up hurting from just the opposite - lack of conditioning, improper club grip and poor swing mechanics.
Injury prevention comes down to the following:

• Proper swing mechanics and club grip
• Optimal conditioning
• Quality equipment

Self treatment:
• Channel Tiger Woods: Visualization is a process of creating a mental image or intention, of what you want to happen or to feel. Professional golfers do this before competition.
• The single best thing you can do to avoid injury is get adequate rest between rounds.
• Take your time: a nice 10 minute walk prior to picking up a club is a minimum warm up.
• On the course, rather than play through, decrease your play time at the first signs of pain.
• At the gym, develop a good basic conditioning program that emphasizes core strength Including back, torso and shoulder.
• S-T-R-E-T-C-H: Shoulder rolls, side bends, trunk rotation, get length before winding up your spine.

When/Why to see a specialist:
It can take up to 5 hours to play a round of golf. The benefits are manifold: socialization, communing with nature, the pursuit of excellence, and general stress relief. What's one hour then, to make sure everything is in optimal condition physically? Let a trained Massage Therapist keep your body and your beloved game “up to par.” Pun intended :)

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