Effective Golf Stretches to Help Avoid Injury

Someone who happens to play a lot of sports, especially someone who is a bit older, will likely need to take a lot of trips to the pain clinic in Glendale to seek treatment for inevitable injuries. However, one sport that tends to create far fewer injuries than most others is golf. Because this sport is much more slow-paced, it allows the people playing it to avoid a lot of situations that would wind up sending them to seek pain management in Glendale.

However, this is not to say that no injuries occur while playing the sport of golf. Because of the movements involved in swinging the club repeatedly, many people have been known to develop back pain from playing the Glendale courses.

It is even worse if someone tries to play golf while already dealing with some neck pain in Glendale. This will likely aggravate the injury even more and may cause the previously temporary pain to develop into chronic pain that requires frequent Glendale medical treatments.

In order to help minimize the risk of developing any sort of injury while playing golf, players need to make sure that they are doing the proper stretches beforehand. By taking the time to stretch, it can help to work the muscles and tissue that are going to be involved while on the course. They will then have a much lower chance of developing issues as a result of being used over and over again during the several hours that they are playing.

However, just doing any sort of stretches is not going to be very beneficial. They need to make sure that they are working very specific parts of their body and doing it in the right way so as not to aggravate anything. Here are a few of the best stretches to do before golfing to help minimize the risk of injuries.

Back Stretches

As previously mentioned, the back is one of the areas that are potentially at risk while playing the sport of golf. This is because it goes through some pretty drastic twisting while swinging the club, which is done repeatedly on every hole. Therefore, it is incredibly important that someone takes the time to stretch their back out before swinging the club.

The best way to do this is to put their hands up against a wall or grab the back of a chair while standing with their feet shoulder-width apart. They then need to slowly lower their body while simultaneously moving it away from their hands. While they are doing this, they should be keeping their back in a straight line so that they do not add any stress to it. When they get to the point where they feel a stretching sensation around their armpits, then that means that they have found the ideal position to stretch out their back.

It is best to hold this position for several seconds, then stand back up and repeat. Once the stretch has been done for a total of about 30 to 45 seconds, their back should be sufficiently stretched out so that it has a much lower chance of getting injured while playing golf.

Hip Stretches

Besides the back, a person’s hips are one of the other most vulnerable areas in golfers. Even if someone does not golf, they can quite easily injure their hips in a variety of other ways. Therefore, taking the time to properly stretch them is a good idea in any situation.

A truly effective way to stretch out someone's hips is for them to take a seat on a chair or bench. They then need to lift their right leg up and put their right ankle on top of their left thigh. Once this has been done, they should take their right forearm and gently push down on their right knee. While they are doing this, they should also slightly lean forward at the waist and keep leaning until they reach a point where there is a slight stretching feeling in their right hip.

At this point, the stretch should be held for several seconds and then they should slowly sit back up and put their right leg back down again. The stretch then needs to be done on the other side of their body and should be repeated two or three times on both sides in order to ensure that their hips have been fully stretched out.

Shoulder Stretches

Since golfing involves repeatedly reaching across the body on both sides, it works the shoulder muscles quite a bit. Having a sore shoulder can completely stop someone from being able to golf, which is why it is so important that someone who loves to play the sport takes the time to stretch out their shoulders before every game.

The best way to do this is to stand up straight with their feet shoulder-width apart. They then need to take their right hand and grab onto their left elbow with it. From there, they should slowly rotate their upper body to the right until they feel a gentle pulling sensation. This position should be held for several seconds and they should then return to the starting position.

From there, they should do the exact opposite of the first stretch, which will involve grabbing their right elbow with their left hand and turning their upper body to the left. Once this has been done on both sides of the body several times, their shoulders should be ready to go.

Wrist Stretches

Something that most people tend to overlook when stretching in preparation to play golf is the stretching of their wrists. Although the danger to them is much lower than that of a person's back or hips, there is still the looming risk of someone injuring their wrists as a result of not properly stretching them beforehand.

 A really easy way to do this is to outstretch their right arm directly in front of them with their hand facing downwards. They should then take their other hand and grab onto the tips of the fingers on their right hand. At this point, they should slowly begin to pull their hand upwards while keeping their fingers in a straight line until they feel a stretch in their right wrist. After this is repeated with the other hand, they will have a much lower chance of developing a wrist injury.