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Category: Tiger Woods

Golfers Swing into Summer with Chiropractic Care

Golfers Swing into Summer with Chiropractic Care

afternoon golfing
afternoon golfing

PGA golfers Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington have relied on chiropractic care for years to stay healthy and to improve their performance over the course of their professional careers. Fred Funk and Suzann Pettersen have too. So have a great many others. So there’s really little doubt that elite golfers (and their coaches and trainers) recognize the value of chiropractic care. But what about the weekend warrior? Can chiropractic care help the average golfer play better, longer and with fewer injuries?

If you’re a golfer, you might already know first-hand that your musculoskeletal health plays a huge role in your enjoyment of the sport as well as your performance.

One of the most important things to understand is that the biomechanics of your golf swing can affect your health (back, hips, neck, elbows, etc.) and vice-versa—that your health can affect your swing.  It’s really a feedback loop that can have either a positive or negative effect on your game over time.

Many professionals around the broader golf community—from instructors and trainers to healthcare providers who specialize in sports medicine—are becoming increasingly interested in this feedback loop.  The Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) is one very good example:

“…TPI has analyzed how physical limitations in a player’s body can adversely affect the golf swing and potentially lead to injury.”

“TPI’s mission is to educate golfers and industry professionals on the body/swing connection…”

Let’s talk health first.

The very nature of golf and the biomechanics associated with swinging a club make chiropractic care a great fit for golfers. Golfing can involve considerable strain on the spine as a result of the need to generate club head speed. This requires good swing mechanics—posture, balance and timing. Poor swing mechanics have the potential to create exaggerated or flattened spinal curves that can seriously affect performance. In fact, Tom Ward, PGA Golf Instructor, says, “Over 50% of all golfers will experience some sort of pain due to poor posture and the problems that arise from loss of proper curves in the spine.”

By helping to improve your spine’s stability and range of motion, chiropractic care can help prevent injuries and enhance swing performance. An individualized treatment plan including chiropractic adjustments combined with structured stretching and exercise programs may make a significant difference in how well you golf and how much you enjoy it—as well as in how long you’re able to play the game.

Now what about performance?

Recent research suggests that chiropractic care can indeed lead to improved golf performance. A recent study published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine demonstrated that the combination of chiropractic care and stretching are associated with greater improvements in golfers’ swings when compared to stretching alone.

Two groups of golfers participated in the study. One group received a program of stretching only, and the second received both stretching and spinal manipulation. The stretching program was the same for both groups, and both groups had similar average ages, handicaps, and initial swings. All 43 participants initially performed three full swing maneuvers, and the average distances were recorded. Over a 4-week period, all participants hit 3 balls before and after treatment.

After 4 weeks, the stretching only group showed no improvement in swing performance.  However the stretching and manipulation group did improve their swing performance and there was greater driving distance right after treatment each week. So it appears that yes, chiropractic care can help not only top golfers such as Woods and Harrington, but it can help you improve your golf game too.

A good golf swing is the result of a complex combination of balance, flexibility and strength.  And doing it repeatedly over the course of 18 holes (or even more in tournament play) takes a high degree of conditioning as well. If you’re serious about golf, chiropractic care can help you play better, play longer and avoid injuries while you’re doing it!

Call or visit our office today to learn more!

Chiropractic Expertise Helps Reduce Golf Injuries and Improve Player Performance

Chiropractic Expertise Helps Reduce Golf Injuries and Improve Player Performance

golfer-at-sunset
golfer-at-sunset

Can chiropractic care improve your golf game? As a golfer, you may have pondered this very question—and now you’re in luck. A recent Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) study showed that a combination of chiropractic care and stretching enables golfers to increase their drive distance by nearly 10%. PGA golfers such as Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington certainly believe this to be true, as they’ve incorporated chiropractic treatment into their training regimens for years. Unsurprisingly, the Titleist Performance Institute believes this to be true as well.

Sponsored by one of the most respected and popular purveyors of golf equipment and apparel, the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) has incorporated chiropractic as a fundamental part of its program since its founding in 2003. TPI was created to study how the human body functions—and functions at its best—when it comes to the game of golf. TPI believes that chiropractors have a unique and valuable perspective in this area given their expertise in human biomechanics as well as their specialized knowledge of the musculoskeletal system. At present, there are over 9,000 TPI-certified professionals in 57 countries, employing chiropractic and other methodologies to help golfers not only improve their performance, but also to avoid injury.

TPI’s work over the past decade has clearly demonstrated that chiropractors have even more to offer golfers than pain relief and rehab support. In fact, chiropractic physicians can actually help golfers to improve their game by identifying and correcting physical limitations that can adversely affect their swings. As an example, the TPI study mentioned above compared two groups of golfers: one practicing only stretching exercises, and the other practicing stretching exercises while receiving chiropractic spinal adjustments. Both groups performed three full swing maneuvers before and after each treatment, and the driving distances they achieved were recorded. After four weeks, the stretching-only group showed no improvement in swing performance, whereas the stretching plus chiropractic group achieved greater driving distance after each treatment.

This is important information for performance-oriented golfers, because although many of them rely on chiropractic care to help them when they are in pain or injured, they may not recognize that chiropractic care can help prevent problems and improve their game. But the TPI-certified chiropractors may to be able to do just that, offering tips and techniques that allow golfers to improve their joint function, customize and optimize their warm-up exercises, recover faster from injuries and soreness, and maximize their efficiency.

So if you’re a golfer, give your chiropractor a call and ask how he or she might be able to help you. Who knows—you might end up seeing your chiropractor to relieve your back or neck pain after an overly enthusiastic round of golf and find that he or she can help take a few strokes off your score!

 

Look Who Else Uses Chiropractic: Professional Golfers

Look Who Else Uses Chiropractic: Professional Golfers

golf-collage-200-300Both amateur golfers and professionals alike find that chiropractic care helps keep them at their best both on and off the golf course. Many golfers who belong to the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) insist upon chiropractic care during a tournament. The PGA has contracted Dr. Tom LaFountain and his team of chiropractors since 1997 to provide chiropractic services at all PGA tours and Championship tours throughout the U.S.
Chiropractor Dale Richardson, who treats championship golfer Padraig Harrington, says, “The most common injuries are strains and sprains in the lower back and neck, and tendonitis affecting the wrists and forearms due to the repetitive action and overuse syndromes typical of golf. These injuries can be prevented by taking precautionary measures, such as conditioning and proactive healthcare, both of which are key to optimizing performance for anyone who plays golf.”

Harrington, winner of two British Open championships and a PGA championship, is a big supporter of chiropractic.  He says, “One thing I know through experience is that I need to keep seeing my chiropractor, even when I have a few weeks off from golf. Getting on-going chiropractic care helps me to stay injury-free. It also helps me to deal with symptoms when they begin, so that they don’t turn into bigger injuries down the road.”
In 1995, at the tender age of 17, when Tiger Woods was still an amateur golfer, he appeared as an advocate for chiropractic on the Chiropractic Centennial Foundation’s (CCF) Tournament of Roses Parade Float. Woods said, “Being a chiropractic patient has really helped me a lot. When I was in a growth spurt, my back became very sore and I was weak. My chiropractor really helped me. Not only did he adjust my spine, he also gave me strengthening exercises to do. If you are tall and gangly, like I am, or play sports, I would recommend chiropractic. It’s as important to my game as practicing my swing!”

Fred Funk, one of the oldest players to feature in the top 50 of Official World Golf Rankings, said, “I do believe chiropractic has really benefited my game.  Over the last three years, I feel I have become more exposed to, and knowledgeable about, the benefits of chiropractic for me and my game.  I realize how your body can get out of balance, and chiropractic care helps me. So many guys on the tour wanted chiropractic care that the tour had to supply a regular chiropractor that travels with us two weeks out of the month!”

Dr. Richardson added, “Golfers who access treatment by a chiropractor with multidisciplinary experience will experience fewer injuries, perform better, and achieve greater results. Restoring and improving skeletal and joint mobility with associated skeletal and joint stability is a focus of chiropractic treatment.”