As an avid golfer, I often read books or magazines to try and improve my game. Several years ago, I read a study in a book that said your spine slowly shrinks every round of golf you play. This fact stayed in the back of my mind for years and I always wondered why. I had always presumed it had to do with the shock that courses through your body when your club impacts the ground.

image courtesy kenblackgolf.com

It turns out that while that is part of the problem, research shows that something else is just as big a cause of spinal issues in golf. That, as it turns out, is how one gets around the course itself as opposed to any action in the swing sequence. The act of carrying a golf bag doesn’t seem harmful on first glance, but taking into consideration that you are carrying essentially an extra 50 pounds on your shoulders on and off for over 4 hours, and the stress on your spine increases by 15%, according to a compilation of studies publishes in the Asian Journal of Sports Medicine, whose results are based off testing between an equal number of amateur and professional golfers. The alternative taken by millions of Americans, the golf cart, isn’t much better according to doctors. The constant bouncing up and down over the golf course’s terrain jostles your back as well. The Bykowski Chiropractic practice recommended similar solutions: pulling your own bag on a wheeled cart or, for golfers of a certain income, hiring a caddie to tote their bag.

But my years-old hypothesis was at least partly right. Many studies have been conducted over the years and show the golf swing is prone to causing spinal injury almost conclusively. The issues with the golf swing mainly revolve around the technological explosion in new clubs that professionals use to tackle ever longer courses. Amateurs, who lack the same swing mechanics to hit the ball as far, use what one study called a “modern golf swing”, which involves more shoulder rotation that leads to more spine “coil” and longer shots according to a study conducted by The Spine Journal. This is also a principal cause to the spine shrinkage that I read about in my book many years ago, and the correct half of my hypothesis! For amateur golfers out there, one way to avoid swing-induced spinal injury is to go for more accuracy than power, and limit the amount of turning during your swing that puts pressure on your spine.