Fit for Play
Two Quick Warmups
to Prevent Shoulder
Injuries
by DAVE POND
I
T’S EASY TO OVERDO IT
DURING EARLY SEASON
ROUNDS.
At this point in the year,
the fairways look their widest, and
the cup does, too. So a lot of golfers
tend to crank it up, torquing their
bodies into unfamiliar positions in
hopes of squeezing out those last
few yards that will obviously lead to
birdie-filled rounds.
That makes us especially suscep-
tible to shoulder injuries.
“The shoulder is one of the most
mobile joints in the body and, as a
result of being so mobile, it’s more
susceptible to injuries,” said Dr. Ben-
jamin Igwe, a TPI-certified Level 3
medical professional and director
of three Northern Virginia-based
Inova Physical Therapy Centers.
Your ability to maintain a healthy
range of motion in your shoulders is
key to preventing injuries.
“Ideally, you want to have 90
degrees of external rotation on the
back swing,” Igwe said. “You tend
to see decreased ranges of motion
when there’s poor stability in the
shoulder blades, and these limita-
tions cause the majority of shoulder
injuries we see in golf.”
36
Although age itself doesn’t seem
to impact the potential for shoulder
injuries (nor their severity), it does
work in conjunction with poor pos-
ture over long periods of time.
“With more sitting- and desk-re-
lated work activities, we see increased
tightness in the hips, upper back and
chest, which is commonly termed a
kyphotic (or “C-shaped”) posture,”
Igwe said. “This rounding of the spine
elevates the position of the shoul-
der blades and leads to limitations in
range of motion at the shoulder.
Of course, that leads to overcom-
pensation with the arms and shoul-
ders, and the pain begins.
“Over time, we get more suscep-
tible to overuse type injuries of our
muscles and tendons as a result of the
compensatory movements repeated
over and over again,” Igwe said.
The most important thing golfers
can do to prevent shoulder injuries
is to improve the overall motion
and function of their thoracic
spines (upper backs). Igwe recom-
mends two TPI-blessed warmup
exercises that should take less than
3-5 minutes to complete—but will
help keep you swinging freely for
the season to come.
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 8
“The shoulder
is one of the
most mobile
joints in the
body and, as a
result of being
so mobile,
it’s more
susceptible to
injuries.”
–DR. BENJAMIN IGWE
vsga.org