GOLF BIOMECHANICS: IMPLICATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE AND THE LUMBAR SPINE

Abstract

Golf is one of the most popular sports in the world today. It offers accessibility to a wide range of ages, physical abilities, and levels of expertise. Novices and experts alike desire maximal performance with the game of golf, and often encounter musculoskeletal injuries in their quest to perform at the highest level possible. The most common injury associated with golf is low back pain. The purpose of this paper is to review the physical conditioning approaches to minimize the incidence and severity of low back pain while maximizing golf performance, present information related to normal lumbar spine mechanics, and discuss the stress imposed upon the lumbar spine from the game of golf.