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Senior Correspondent

Personally, I’m not a golfer, but I’m sure that a lot of back pain blog readers enjoy a game or several. And I also know that it’s a good chance that golf has contributed to your back pain. A condition I believe not uncommonly called “golfer's back.”

I chanced upon this article by Ron Kapriske on Golfdigest.com a couple of days ago where he says that one of the most important things a golfer can do to reduce the incidence of lower back pain as a golfer is to strengthen your gluteal muscles.

Golfers back occurs apparently because the body is not designed to withstand the twisting action placed upon the torso when driving a club.

The lower back, or lumbar region suffers more as that area is less able to handle the torque as the mid back, or thoracic region.

Strengthening the gluteal muscles helps as they are the largest muscle group in the body and help to stabilize the body and alleviate some of the pressure on the lower back, especially if they are in tip-top condition.

So Ron recommends spending a few minutes on glute strengthening exercises during every workout. He has helpfully provided an excellent video demonstrating one glute exercise, which you can find, along with the full article, here.

Kinesio Tape to Treat Back Pain

I’m guessing that most of us with back pain reckon we’ve seen it all, done it all, got the T-shirt, etc. I’m no exception.

So when I read this story by Christi Myers on Abclocal.go.com I was a little surprised to read about one thing at least that I hadn’t heard of yet.

Kinesio tape, what’s that? I hear you say. Well, I’d never heard of it. But I’m betting that, like me, you have seen it in use.

Yes, it’s that stuff you now see all the time stuck onto various parts of athletes bodies. It only seems to have been about for maybe a couple of years. But in fact was invented by Dr. Kenzo Kase, a Japanese chiropractor, in the 1970s.

It’s an elastic therapeutic tape used for treating athletic injuries and a variety of physical disorders. The tape is used in therapy to relax overused muscles and in rehabilitation to facilitate underused muscles.

It’s now being used by Dr. Sherman Yeager of the West University Wellness Center to support back muscles in some back pain patients. With good results apparently. I’ve just looked it up and you can buy this stuff online easily enough.

Of course the trick is to know how to actually use it. To learn more, read the article at this link, together with his results using ultrasound and tiny electrical shocks. We live and learn!

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