"Golfers Elbow" could core conditioning be the cure?

Do you find your shoulders, elbows or wrists are often painful following a morning on the fairways?  If so there is a good chance that we have a fix for you.  These types of ailments are all variations on a tendonitis theme.  Tendonitis arises from overuse of a joint, put a joint under enough stess repeatedly and it will hurt, simples!  What we need to do therefore is first figure out why the joints are being overused during the swing and then what we can do to correct it.

The most common cause of upper extremity overuse in golf is the inability of the golfer to properly stabilise the transfer of force from the ground up.  This stabilisation radiates out from the core musculature of the abdomen, without adequate strength in these stabilisers the golfer is unable to utilise the force generated from the legs to power the swing.  This is certainly bad news as we see from studies that as much as 54% of force is generated by the legs in throwing actions1.

So without this force generation coming from the legs the golfer is now faced with using the musclulature of the shoulders and arms as the prime power generators for their swing.  This is where the increased stress is coming from, so now how do we fix it?

We treat the cause of the disfunction!  The arms don't need to be stronger, the legs don't need to be worked harder it's the bit in the middle that links it all together that needs the focus.  Our core!

Targetted training of the core musculature will mean improvements in the golfers ability to stabilise and hence make use of the force available from the legs, immediately opening up that 54% more power mentioned earlier.  With the legs now contributing their fair share and the summation of force up through the body happening the golfer is going to find that their shoulders and arms are under much less stress and they can get on with enjoying their game without pain.

For help with golf specific core conditioning check out our golf page. Sports Massage may also help to reduce the symptoms of Golfer's Elbow.