
Why is this important?
Do you enjoy playing sports such as golf, baseball, tennis, or racquetball? If you do, you may have had a time you didn’t perform as well as you wanted. But, you are unsure how to improve other than playing more often. Or, maybe, you experienced pain during or after you played. Low back pain is common in swinging sports. One study found that low back pain was the most commonly occurring injury in golf, with up to 36% of golfers experiencing it. Whether you have or haven’t experienced this, the information below could help you!
How the hips work
In any sport, there are many moving parts, which all must come together correctly to have success. For example, if you are swinging a golf club or a bat, not only do you have to transfer your weight from one leg to the other, you have to stabilize your trunk while you rotate, and all of this is to bring your upper body and arms through smoothly to make contact with the ball. This sounds like a lot, because it is a lot! And, at any given point during that motion something can go wrong, causing failure and possible injury. One such area, which was previously mentioned is the low back. There are several ways to address this type of pain. One of those, is to address why the back was injured in the first place, and correct that error.
What you can do
In physical therapy, we specialize in the area of examining and evaluating movement. We do this to find what areas are moving to little or too much, and which muscle groups require more strength to improve or maintain such motions. For example, if your hip mobility is limited on one side or both, this can lead to over rotation through the lumbar spine, which is a contributor to back pain. The stretches and exercises below are the beginning of a much larger program to improve functional mobility and strength throughout the body. If you, or someone you know, has had problems in the past with an injury, or recently sustained one, please contact our office and set up an appointment to be evaluated!
Stretch those hips!



Work those hips!

