It's Golf Season - Get Ready to Play Pain-Free!
Aches and pains can certainly hamper your game, but fortunately the common repetitive strain injuries that limit golfers are easily self-treated. Many golfer's experience low back pain, and for the majority of people it's caused by a muscle that is frequently ignored -- the "iliopsoas." This muscle originates on the front side of your lumbar vertebrae, passes along the inside of your pelvis, and then inserts into the inside of your thigh bone, just under your pubic bone. When you are standing up straight the muscle is at its longest length, as the muscle contracts you bend over forward, lift your leg, or sit down.
However, if you sit for long periods of time, for example at work or while driving a car; or if you do a lot of walking (especially climbing stairs or hills) or bending, the iliopsoas contracts and stays in the shortened position. This puts a strain on your lumbar vertebrae. When you are sitting and you try to stand up the tight muscle may prevent you from standing straight, so it looks like you are tilting forward at the hips. The strain will cause your low back to hurt so you sit down, bringing the muscle back into the fully contracted position. This is the very movement that caused the problem in the first place.
As the iliopsoas is tightening your pelvis rotates forward and down. Next the quadriceps muscles of your thigh get involved in the situation. The quadriceps straighten your leg when you stand up, but they need to lengthen when you sit down. As your pelvis is rotating forward and down the quadriceps muscles of your thigh are forced to shorten or they'll be too long to do their job. So your back hurts when you stand, and your knees hurt when you sit! Not a happy experience.
Other things happen when the iliopsoas muscle is tight: your hamstrings overstretch, the muscles of your hip get pulled, you may have sciatica, and as noted, even your knees may hurt! It goes on and on, and it's all happening from a muscle that most people don't even know exists!
What to do? Fortunately the answer is easy. Your massage therapist is an expert at treating the iliopsoas and quadriceps muscles, or you can learn how to treat yourself for quick relief and long lasting results. Soon you'll be back out enjoying your sport -- pain free!
Related Tags: golf, low back pain, knee pain, sciatica, repetitive strain, hip pain, sport injury, hamstring tension
Julie Donnelly is a recognized authority in repetitive strain injuries, chronic pain, and carpal tunnel syndrome. The author of Pain-Free Golf, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You and The Pain-Free Triathlete, and the developer of the breakthrough consumer product The Julstro Self Treatment Kit for Repetitive Strain Injuries. She lectures and teaches self-treatment workshops worldwide. Julie moderates an active forum on http://www.julstro.com For more information about muscle and joint pain, visit http://www.ultimate-performance.us
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