There is nothing like taking to the golf course on a sunny day.

Golf offers us the opportunity to maintain physical wellbeing while challenging ourselves mentally; it is a wonderfully social sport that gets us outside for hours. But as a physical activity, golf is much more involved than it is given credit for- as we will find, it actually presents our spines with myriad challenges that aren’t found in other sports. With a little dose of proactivity, you can keep spinal wellness high and derive maximum enjoyment out of this wonderful sport.

The golf swing is a biomechanical marvel

Just a single swing involves every part of the body in a feat of coordination that can be difficult to master. Over 18 holes, and including practice swings, you perform well into the high-hundreds of these motions. Every swing includes:

• A twisting motion in the lower body, hips and upper body that causes shear stresses to the spinal joints. 
• Ballistic movements from the shoulders,
• Pivoting motion in the ankle joint.
• A power-generating hip rotation that stresses the sacroiliac joints.

Though it is a low-impact sport, the forces that stress your body are still present. Put together, these forces create local and systemic stresses that threaten to move your body out of alignment, affecting performance on the course and leaving you vulnerable to injury and spinal degeneration. Chiropractic is the first line of defense that seeks to mitigate this damage, allowing you to reap the physical fitness benefits of golf without stressing your body excessively. 

Chiropractic helps the course be with you

At Espinosa Family Chiropractic, we are invested in the golf community of Sacramento. No matter what your age or level of ability on the course, you can benefit from chiropractic’s natural modalities. Because of the interconnectedness of the golf swing, every joint in the body needs to be fully mobile in order to get the most out of every swing. To this end, chiropractic modalities for golf focus on:

• Increasing range of motion in the spinal joints
• Balancing the body to improve rhythm of the swing
• Improving core strength to stabilize the transfer of forces involved in the swing
• Decreasing local and systemic stresses

If you think you will benefit from chiropractic’s role in golf, give our office in Sacramento a call to schedule an appointment today.