T-SPINE MOBILITY, YOUR GOLF SWING AND YOUR BACK
T-SPINE MOBILITY, YOUR GOLF SWING AND YOUR BACK
Bob Forman
Director, The Golf Fitness Academy
Certified Golf Fitness Instructor
The T-spine, which stands for thoracic spine, is that area of the body encompassing the chest and middle of the back. In most golf fitness discussions, however, the main reference is to the mid-back. The primary muscle groups include the lats, trapezius,and rhomboids.
Mobility in the T-spine is imperative if you want to make a good upper body turn in both the back and downswing phases. It’s also essential if you want to reduce the potential for lower back injury.
Jim McLean, in the August issue of Golf Digest, discusses the relevance of a good shoulder turn as it pertains to enhancing the X-factor. If you’ll recall, the X-factor is basically the ability to disassociate the upper body from the lower. Having the ability to rotate the shoulders more than the hips, pictured below, will increase the X-factor resulting in the golfer’s ability to generate more clubhead speed, power, and distance.
For professional tour players, similar to the two pictured in the article’s foldout, this is probably easier to accomplish for the simple fact that golf is what they do for a living so they spend time working on key elements of the swing.
The amateur golfer, on the other hand, does not and the reason so many golfers lack T-spine mobility. It’s a good bet that daytime job requirements and/or lifestyle habits are much to blame as is the lack of time spent working on improving the physical demands of the game.
Limited range of motion in the upper body will more than likely result in a limited backswing, which decreases the distance the clubhead travels and subsequently, the ability to generate clubhead speed.
A tight mid-back may also result in an excessive hip turn as the golfer with limited ability to disassociate the upper body from the lower, forces the rotation of the body pulling the hips around along with the shoulders (left photo). A smaller X-factor angle, less power.
In some cases, the swing plane is affected. It’s very common to see a golfer with limited mobility in the T-spine to have more of a vertical backswing due to the fact that they can’t rotate around their body. The club may start out in a rotational plane, but then inevitably moves skyward as the limited mobility threshold is met.
Tightness in the mid-back can also lead up to the reverse spine swing fault (left photo) if the golfer, lacking range of motion, tries to force the club back further in the backswing. This is especially true if the tightness occurs on the target side of the back (left side for a right-handed golfer). Trying to rotate beyond the stretch threshold will pull the upper body back toward the target, leaving the golfer in a poor hitting position at the top of the backswing. This usually results in an over-the-top downswing and the dreaded consequences.
A very real second concern of a tight mid-back is low back pain. There is a pattern of movement in the body that needs to be addressed in order to produce efficient movement. It starts in the foot and alternates between stability and mobility as you move up the body. For example, the foot needs to be stable, the ankle mobile, the knee stable, the hip mobile, and so on up the chain. In this pattern of movement, the lower back should be stable and the T-spine mobile.
If a golfer is lacking in range of motion in the T-spine, the lower back will be asked to pick up the slack and assist more in the rotation of the upper body. This recruitment places undue torque and stress to the lower back, an area that is supposed to be stable, and sets it up for both acute and chronic injury. In addition, if the mid-back tightness is resulting in a reverse spine, discomfort to the trail-side lower back (right side for a right-handed golfer) tends to flare up. Reverse spine is one of the top 3 swing faults that generally causes golf-related low back injury.
To address all this, focus on T-spine mobility. First, get an assessment to see if indeed there is tightness to the mid-back. Any TPI certified instructor can detect this for you. If there is, determine to what degree and develop a game plan to target and correct the deficiency.
There are several exercises that can isolate the tightness and/or imbalance, as many golfers present with a tighter side of the body (right side vs. left, for example). Knowing how to do these exercises correctly will certainly help to correct the situation and re-establish musculoskeletal balance back into the body. When body parts and tissue are in alignment, the potential for efficient movement and injury prevention/reduction is drastically enhanced.
A few exercises that target the T-spine area are the Shoulder Roll on Stability Ball, Lat Stretch, Reach Thrus, and the High Pulley Chop.
When done on a regular basis, and that training factor cannot be overstated, these exercises will increase range of motion in the upper body and allow for a more efficient turn in the golf swing. As a result, the X-factor angle will increase allowing the golfer to generate more clubhead speed in the downswing. That adds up to more distance.
It will also alleviate the need to recruit the lower back in helping with the shoulder turn. That will significantly ease the stress to the back. Less stress equates to less injury and a healthier golf game.
The tips and advice offered in the various golf publications are invaluable. Keep in mind, however, that many amateur golfers lack the physical prerequisites to achieve the positions and angles recommended by the swing experts. What would be beneficial to the reader, and would nicely compliment the swing instruction, are related tips on fitness. Until that happens, golfers do have a resource at www.golfitcarolina.com.
