One of the most important things to
achieve and maintain for a powerful golf swing and a golf swing free of low back
pain is mobility in the upper back, otherwise known as the thoracic spine.
The thoracic spine is the part of your spine from the bottom of your rib cage
to the top of your shoulders. Having mobility is crucial for the backswing. If
you don't you won't be able to get in the proper position, or at least you
won't be able to get in that position without twisting too much through your
low back. Repetitively twisting through your low back to try to get into the
backswing will cause damage and back pain. So this is a very important
exercise to be a better golfer and to be a pain-free golfer.
Kayla's gonna demonstrate. So we want to try, if you can, to sit back on your
heels like she is. We're gonna come forward and put one hand on the ground
the other hand behind the neck and we're trying to get mobility in the upper back. So from the ribcage up. We're gonna drop the elbow towards the ground. Come on up. You're gonna feel some nice stretching right through the front of the shoulder
and the pecs, and you're gonna feel some mobility happening in your upper back.
Let's go through that nice and slow back and forth.
Now the reason we're sitting
on our heels rather than being in the hands and knees position is that that
locks the lumbar spine out. We're trying to get mobility in the upper back or
thoracic spine not the low back. If you can't get to the position that's okay,
you can come up into hands and knees, just be a little bit more careful, and
protect your back by embraced by bracing your core a little bit. Now one thing we
see a common mistake is this is just coming way too far and arching the back. You want to keep the spine in neutral as you come back and forth, making sure that most of the mobility is coming from the mid-back and not the low back. Remember change comes with commitment. Keep working at this.
It will improve your
game and relieve back pain..