Balance Training for Reducing Postural Sway and Improving Golf Fitness

Perhaps in no other sport does balance play such as crucial role as in golf. Golf requires a high degree of accuracy and precise movement to succeed. Balance and postural sway is determined the golfers posture, which in turn, is affected by the integrity of the core and muscle balance. This article provides some basic information on balance and balance training that a golfer will find valuable in helping him or her shave valuable points off their game.

What is balance and balance training?

In this article, the term balance actually has two meanings. The first definition of balance is comparable to that of stability or the ability to control your bodys center of mass. The other definition of balance is the concept of muscle balance.

These two concepts are actually dependent on one another that is, it is impossible to achieve a high degree of stability with muscle imbalances and vice versa. Therefore, balance training in this article refers specifically to restoring muscle balance, as stability will naturally follow.

What are muscle imbalances?

Muscle imbalances occur when a muscle on one side of a joint or body part (called the agonist muscle) becomes excessively short and tight and the muscle on the opposite side (called the antagonist) becomes lengthened and weak.

Muscle imbalances may be caused by factors such as excessive sitting in a slouched position, an old injury and even left/right hand dominance.

How do muscle imbalances affect posture?

Muscle imbalances cause predictable deviations in a golfers posture. Posture is a term to refer to the vertical alignment of the various blocks making up the human body that is the head, shoulders and pelvis.

A very common example of the relationship between posture and muscle imbalances is a golfer with unevenness of the shoulders. An unevenness of the shoulders is usually associated with an unevenness of the hips, essentially making the leg on the low side longer and the leg on the high side shorter.

In this situation the lateral stabilizing muscle called the glute medius (side butt) will be weak and lengthened on the high side and its functional antagonist, the adductors (inner thigh) muscles will be tight and strong.

What is postural sway?

Postural sway is an indicator of body alignment due to posture and how well the bodys center gravity of the body is balanced. An excellent way of checking your postural sway is to stand with each foot on a standard bathroom scale. If the weights differ by more than 5 lbs it is considered significant.

How do muscle imbalances affect posture and postural sway?

Postural sway demonstrates a deviation of the center of gravity from normal. Consider the example of the golfer with unevenness in the hips. Because he is unable to keep the hip down due to a weakness of the glute medius, it becomes necessary to shift the body weight over the high hip.

This compensation causes a C-shaped curve in the spine, bowing toward the high shoulder side and affecting postural sway such that the center of gravity shifts toward the weaker hip. As a result, a golfer with this condition may find it difficult to stand and balance on the high hip side with the shoulders level.

How does postural sway affect my golf swing?

The power of a golf swing is generated from a horizontal weight transfer. Just as a baseball pitcher uses a striding movement from his back foot to his front to generate power, a golfer does much the same during the swing. During the takeaway the golfers center of gravity shifts toward the back foot, and during the down stroke it transfers toward the front foot.

Golfers with postural sway will not only lose power in their stroke because of the compensatory weight transfer, but will also find it difficult to control the accuracy of the shot. Stability is lost and it is like trying to shoot a cannon from a canoe.

Muscle imbalances will inevitably result in injury

Muscle imbalances disrupt the natural biomechanics of the joint or joints they surround. Stabilizing muscles (called stabilizers) maintain ideal posture and optimal biomechanics by ensuring congruence of the joint surfaces; but when the stabilizers weaken from injury, poor posture or long periods of sitting, other muscles attempt to substitute or compensate for this weakness.

These compensatory muscles are called mobilizers since they are responsible for causing movement and offer little in the way of stabilizing the body. Mobilizing muscles cannot perform the role of both stabilizing and mobilizing, and as a result change the normal movement of the joint or body part.

These compensations and substitutions result in a wasting of muscle energy and power and abnormal joint wear, eventually leading to injury. Common areas of compensation, injury and pain for golfers are the low back and shoulders.

Strengthening the core muscles is key to restoring muscle balance

The core is much more than just the abdominal muscles; it is a complex of 29 muscles that act together to stabilize the lower back, pelvis and hip (called the lumbo-pelvic-hip complex or LPHC). The muscles of prime importance are the transversus abdominis and the multifidus (deepest abdominal and back muscle respectively).

The core muscles control and stabilize the region of the body where the center of gravity is located and where all human movement, including the golf swing begins. The core acts as the primary anchor for almost every muscle in the body to pull off and as the bridge for conducting forces between the upper and lower body. The powerful leg muscles attach to the LPHC directly via the hip, while the muscles of the arms and shoulders attach indirectly via the spine and trunk.

Strengthening the core muscles helps reset muscle balance far from the core itself however it is important to combine a core strengthening routine with an effective stretching program for chronically tight mobilizing muscles too.

Stretch the tight muscles, work the weak ones

Be leery of any golf fitness professional offering a conditioning program promising big results, yet who has not performed a thorough postural analysis, gait analysis or some other form of functional testing. These tests provide telltale clues to the origin of muscle imbalances.

Tight muscles are usually overactive and strong, and lengthened muscles are usually underactive and weak. Overactive and underactive are terms that refer to the amount of motor nerve activity a muscle receives from the brain.

Typically, the muscles that tighten and become overly active are the hip flexors (groin muscles), low back, hamstrings, upper trapezius and levator scapula and the neck extensors. Muscles that are typically weak and underactive are the abdominal muscles especially the transversus abdominis, glutes (butt), lower trapezius, serratus anterior and the deep stabilizing muscles of the neck and spine (coli and multifidus respectively).

Consistently stretching a muscle will help to reduce the overactivity, plus will physically stretch the muscle fibers that have shortened. Strengthening the weak stabilizing muscles will increase nerve activity and cause the fibers to shorten somewhat.

In closing, this article has focused on the identification of muscle imbalances, their influence on postural sway and the resulting effect on the golfers ability to play consistently with power and accuracy. Correcting muscle imbalances is very complex, as the human body is a master at compensation and adaptation; but with instruction from an experienced golf fitness professional, the task becomes much easier. Remember it is better to treat the root cause of your hook or slice and lower back pain than whitewash it over with continual golf lessons and frequent club upgrades; both of which tend to enforce muscle compensations even further.

Related Links:

Back Pain Facts?

There are several causes of back pain: mechanical causes, eg lumbar disc disorders; degenerative conditions, eg degenerative disc disease; inflammatory conditions, eg ankylosing spondylitis; infective causes, eg osteomyelitis; neoplastic causes, eg primary benign or malignant tumours; metabolic bone disease, eg osteoporosis; referred pain, eg from duodenal ulcer; psychogenic pain - originating in the mind rather than the body.

Back pain is one of humanity's most frequent complaints and does not usually reflect any underlying disease. However, anyone with back pain that does not improve after a few days should first consult a Physician, as back pain can sometimes indicate significant and serious conditions which might not otherwise be diagnosed. Back pain is very rarely a sign of a serious medical problem. It is however important that the treatable medical causes are identified early on.

Back pain affects 50 to 80 percent of people in the U.S. at some point in their lives. In any given year, 10 percent of adults experience back pain or other symptoms, such as limited mobility or stiffness. Each year, Americans spend an estimated $24 billion on treatments for back pain - not including missed time from work nor the emotional costs of enduring pain and not being able to participate in daily activities. Imagine what it would be like to have problems working, golfing or enjoying playtime with children!

Back pain can be mildly uncomfortable, excruciating or anywhere in between. It can start slowly, sometimes a result of poor posture, or come on suddenly because of injury. If your question is not answered here, please contact one of our information specialists. Back pain can last for a few short days or can linger for weeks, months and even years. Arthritis is a common form of back pain. The earlier arthritis is diagnosed, the more steps can be taken to reduce disability in the future. Other factors that aggravate back pain include suffering from stress, not getting enough sleep, being overweight, having poor posture or not being physically fit.

Back pain should not be considered a normal part of aging; it is a chronic condition that calls for similar lifestyle changes as diseases like arthritis and diabetes do.