Golfing Pain-Free: Solutions for Back and Elbow Injuries Common to Arizona Golfers

For many people Arizona represents sun and warm temperatures that allow them to play outside year-round. So, it should come as no surprise that a big chunk of the nation’s 48+ million golfers live in the Grand Canyon State.

This ability to play golf whenever there’s a tee time available can have a downside in terms of overuse injuries, namely low back pain and the aptly named golfer’s elbow.

At Apex Pain Specialists in Chandler, Arizona, our team, which is led by Dr. Maziar Massrour and Dr. Naveen Reddy, offers dedicated services for sports injuries with the goal of keeping our patients off the couch and, in this case, on the links.

Here’s a look at the two main injuries among golfers and how we can help.

Golf and your lower back

Every time you swing a golf club there’s a lot of twisting and force in your lower back, and only on one side, creating an imbalance.

To paint a clearer picture, consider this: During a golf swing, your lower back sustains a compressive force of about 1,370 pounds. This number is concerning because it only takes about 1,220 pounds of torque for a disc to herniate.

So, golfers often develop different types of low back pain that range from muscle strains to herniated discs. And this pain can not only strike locally in your lower back, but it can extend down into your hips and legs, usually on one side.

So, it should come as no surprise that low back pain is a common complaint that we hear among golfers and studies show that about one-third of golf injuries are in the lower back.

Golf and your elbow

The other area of your body that can be overstressed playing golf is your elbow and the condition is even named after the sport. Golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis) is a repetitive use injury that leads to inflammation in the tendon that attaches your forearm muscles to the inside of your elbow.

Golfer’s elbow certainly isn’t confined to golfers, but it’s the second-most common injury in golf, right behind low back pain.

Getting back to golf

If you’ve developed either low back pain or golfer’s elbow, the good news is that we offer an entire arsenal of treatments that can reduce inflammation and pain in these areas. Some examples include:

• Corticosteroid injections in your elbow joint
• Facet injections for back pain
• Epidural injections for back/sciatic pain
• Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections for both injuries
• Discseel® procedure for damaged discs

In addition to these treatments, which will go a long way toward making you more comfortable, we can come up with a plan that should help you avoid future problems. For example, we can work on changing your golf swing or strengthening certain muscles to better handle the stresses of golf.

The bottom line is that our goal is the same as yours: getting you back out onto the course to enjoy some golf with friends.

So, if you’re dealing with a golf injury, we invite you to call our office at 480-820-7246 today to schedule a visit. You can also book an appointment online.