While golf season is in full swing, it’s a great time to reflect on ways to stay healthy and functional on and off the course.
Lucas Bartlett, a certified athletic trainer and program manager for Northern Light Sports Health offers some helpful tips for keeping your body (particularly your back!) healthy as you enjoy Maine’s golf season.
It’s time to get back to basics.
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Every movement we make starts with the core. Do you want more power while decreasing the chance of injury to your back? Strengthen and stabilize your core.
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Mobility – warm up, stretch, foam roll. Key areas to focus on are the hips, legs, and thoracic region of the spine (where your rotation should come from).
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Listen to your body. Feeling sore, tight, or pain in a specific muscle group? Often that means there is more stress in that area or that there is a muscular imbalance. Tightness or lack of mobility in one region causes other areas to work harder/move more to accomplish the same result.
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Keep a non-dominant club in your bag (if you’re right-handed, that would be a left-handed club). Not only can it help you with a tricky lie but using it on the range can help balance you, increase mobility, and help decrease stress in certain regions of the body (especially the back).
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Talk with your PCP or other healthcare professional like a physical therapist about injuries, concerns, or deficiencies you experience.
So, if you can, be proactive with key exercises that strengthen the core and increase mobility. Also, if you are experiencing pain or tightness over a period of time in a particular area, don’t wait. Contact your primary care provider to find out the source of the issue.
If you are in need of physical therapy you can access our services here.