Golf and Chiropractic in Clarksville TN: What Can Care Help With?
If pain is getting in the way of your golf, chiropractic care at our Clarksville office starts with where it hurts and what you want back on the course. Your handicap, swing and scores are between you and your golf pro, and we don't claim treatment will change them.
Why does golf hurt your back?
Golf loads the same muscles, tendons and joints over and over, and the swing puts rotational stress through the back. Wrists, elbows, shoulders and knees take their share too.
Golf pain tends to have a pattern: one part of the swing, the range, the walk between holes or carrying the bag. How long it lasts matters, and so does any change. When we go over your history, "my back starts hurting after the ninth hole" gives us more to work with than "my swing feels off."
How should you warm up before a round of golf?
The AAOS golf guidance advises warming up the shoulders, back and legs, starting with easy practice swings and building toward fuller ones, and drinking water before, during and after play. That's sensible preparation, but a good warm-up doesn't make it safe to play through an injury, and no routine prevents every problem.
If carrying the bag or a particular club seems to set things off, we want to know. A golf pro is the right person for technique and equipment. Our side is the symptoms and what may be contributing to them.
What does research show about spinal manipulation for back pain?
We offer spinal manipulation, so here's how we read the evidence. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health sums up the benefits and risks of spinal manipulation: evidence of modest benefit for some adults with low-back pain. That evidence is about pain and function, not golf performance. Temporary soreness or stiffness can follow treatment, and serious spinal or neurological complications have been reported. Neck manipulation carries an additional potential risk of artery injury and stroke, and that belongs in the conversation before anyone manipulates your neck.
Exercise-based care is a real alternative, with or without hands-on treatment. NICE, which writes England's clinical guidelines, recommends considering manual therapy for low-back pain only within a package that includes exercise, tailored to each person's needs and abilities. We'll go over what we find before we recommend anything, and the plan is built around you. It's fair to ask what benefit to expect, how the plan will be reviewed, and what would change if it isn't helping.
When is golf back pain a medical emergency?
Some back pain isn't a golf strain at all. The NHS says these back-pain warning signs need emergency assessment. Go to an emergency room, and please don't wait to see us, if back pain follows a serious accident or comes with:
- New difficulty passing urine, or being unable to urinate
- Loss of bladder or bowel control
- Numbness around the genitals or anus
- New loss of sexual feeling or function
- Pain, weakness, tingling or numbness in both legs
The NHS also says sudden severe or rapidly worsening back pain, or back pain with a fever or feeling unwell, needs urgent medical advice.
Our back pain guide covers back pain in general, and our sports and chiropractic guide looks beyond golf. If your back is the reason you're skipping the back nine, give us a call and tell us which hole it starts on. If it isn't a muscle-and-joint problem, we'll tell you and refer you for the right medical evaluation.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Selected published sources behind what we've written, each with what it found and what it can't tell us. We give you both halves because no paper can diagnose you or predict how your own care will go.
Acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance, range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals: a systematic review
Studies of stretching before activity in healthy, physically active participants.
What it foundStretching can increase range of motion acutely. Longer static stretches immediately before performance had larger performance reductions than shorter holds; the surrounding warm-up mattered.
What it can't tell usThese are mostly immediate responses in healthy people. More range of motion doesn't automatically mean less pain, and the findings don't establish stretching as a treatment for an injured tendon, an unstable joint or an irritated nerve.
Publication details & citation
Behm et al. Acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance, range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals: a systematic review. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 2016. DOI: 10.1139/apnm-2015-0235.
Read the publication recordPrevention of Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
21 randomized trials involving 30,850 participants, examining interventions to prevent low-back pain.
What it foundExercise with education reduced the risk of a low-back-pain episode. Education alone, back belts and shoe insoles did not show a preventive effect.
What it can't tell usEvidence quality varied by intervention and outcome, and the search ended in 2014. It doesn't suggest every injury can be prevented, and it doesn't show that routine adjustments prevent back pain.
Publication details & citation
Steffens et al. Prevention of Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2016. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.7431.
Read the publication record
Our editorial policy explains how to read these sources and what our clinical-review labels mean.