Play Golf Forever: Treating LOW BACK PAIN & IMPROVING Your Golf Swing Through FITNESS

By Michael Jaffe DO

THE FIRST BOOK OF ITS KIND off ering the program developed by Dr. Jaff e at Kaiser
Permanente’s Low Back Pain Clinic in San Diego to tone and treat low back muscles stressed by golf.
Describing the causes, necessary testing, proper posture control, and various medical treatments for low back
pain, this book helps you take control and win back your golf game!
Th e Functional training and core strengthening exercises taught in this book not only treat and prevent low back
pain but also help improve your swing and athletic abilities.
Th rough step-by-step instructions with detailed photographs, you will learn exercises for the home or gym,
stretches on the tee, and proper technique for improving your swing--a winning combination for improving your
game and life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9781438988320

Book preview

© 2010, 2024 Michael Jaffe, DO. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  04/10/2024

ISBN: 978-1-4389-8831-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4389-8832-0 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Cover design: Kelly Hines Keller, GrafikNature

Front & back cover background image: copyright Wonderfile Corporation Interior design and composition: Amy Hassos

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: THE BACK

Chapter 1 Understanding Low Back Pain (LBP)

Chapter 2 Deciding to See a Doctor

Chapter 3 Finding the Right Treatment

Part II: THE GAME OF GOLF

Chapter 4 Examining Why Golfers Get Low Back Pain

Chapter 5 Analyzing the Golf Swing in Pieces

Part III: THE PROGRAM

Chapter 6 Examining How Muscles and Nerves Work

Chapter 7 Back Basics: Posture and Body Mechanics

Chapter 8 Get Ready: Getting Started and Finding the Correct Equipment

Chapter 9 Using Functional Training to Change Your Life

Chapter 10 Using Functional Training to Change Your Life: Low Impact

Chapter 11 Stretching on the First Tee

Chapter 12 The Mind Game Our Brains & The Game of Golf

Chapter 13 Conclusion: Motion Is Life

Bibliography

Glossary

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More Praise for Dr. Michael Jaffe and Play Golf Forever:

Being familiar with lower back pain, I am most impressed with the comprehensive approach the author takes. This practical and well-focused text is packed with critical information for making golf a healthy and enjoyable life-time activity.

—Jeffery M. Johnston, Director of Golf, University of California at Irvine

This informative book is a must for physicians and golfers alike. The book stresses the importance of biomechanics for a good golf swing to prevent injury, and the treatment of injury thereafter.

—Brian Davis, MD, Director Sports and Spine Center, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of California at Davis Medical Center

I was not able to play golf due to a 10-year history of low back pain. Our Medical Director suggested that I see Dr. Jaffe. He placed me on this Golf Fitness program, and I have been playing golf two times a week ever since.

—Julie Phillipson, MD, Pathologist

I have used Dr. Jaffe’s program to treat many patients. The proof is in my practice. This program will strengthen the muscles that you need to support your low back and control your golf swing.

—Sharon Kyle, RPT, Physical Therapist

This book is

dedicated with love to my wife, Linda, and my daughters, Brin and Jenna, and my son Kade . Linda-Your devotion and understanding allowed me to start writing this book at the beginning of the most arduous time of our lives—parenthood.

Acknowledgements

Brian Tarcy—Thank you for all of your collaboration on this project. I may have written a book, but you are truly a writer. Ron Brizzie, DO—You were the inspiration for this whole project. It is wonderful to see the student surpass the teacher.

Bruce Bekkar, MD—Mentor, friend, stand-up comic. Franz and Yoana, you are two are some of the best physical exercise trainers I have ever met.

Demitrus Willis—Thank you for introducing me to the world of functional training. You are truly a pioneer in the field.

Frank Nienstedt—You’re the best golf partner (and father-in-law) anyone could ask for. Special thank-you to: Bernard Jaffe for his encouragement; Matt Kuehnert, PT; Garth Getchell and Kim Getchell; Siri Johansson.

Introduction

Golfing Forever with Functional Training

W hen Fred Couples’ notoriously bad back flared up, forcing him to withdraw from the Chrysler Championship in October 2003, he stood at number 32 on the PGA money list. He was looking to make a lot of money.

The Chrysler championship was his last tournament and last chance to qualify for the top 30 money leaders and the Tour Championship. The price Couples paid for his bad back measured in tens of thousands of dollars or more, depending on how he might have played. Tens of thousands of dollars!

Missing the tournament was certainly a high price for a bad back, but thousands of amateur golfers pay an even higher price for their bad backs: They quit golfing completely. For those who live to golf, this is indeed the highest price.

Golfers of all sorts dream of a magic pill to make their backs feel better; but that pill, unfortunately, doesn’t exist. Still, patients always ask me for it. There must be a way to stop the pain, they say. In fact, there is a way, a better way—the power of the body to heal itself.

Most people who quit golf because of low back pain could keep golfing if they understood the power they possess to strengthen their own backs. Functional training, in which the entire body is retrained to work as a unit, is the program that can get you back on the golf course. And, as a great side benefit, it actually improves your golf swing. Functional training is a magic pill—only you don’t take it, you do it.

The Conundrum: Oh, My Aching Back

At some point in life, low back pain is part of the human experience for almost everyone. For known and unknown reasons, low back pain is one of the unfortunate ties that bind us together in this journey on Earth.

Of course, knowing that others share your pain offers little relief to you. And even within the commonality of the experience are unique circumstances of each individual’s back. Everyone is different, and the hardest part for doctors and patients to understand is that a clear correlation doesn’t always exist between what the back shows in x-rays or Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) scans and how the patient feels.

Low back pain (LBP) is a conundrum.

Sometimes, there is no logical explanation. Some people have Xrays or MRI scans that show damage to the structure of the back, but the patients have no symptoms. Other patients have severe symptoms with no obvious causes that show up in scans. For doctors, this situation is frustrating and complicated. I can personally tell you; I have been treating patients with low back pain for over 25 years and I still don’t have all the answers. Western medicine is still trying to figure out the exact causes and best treatments for low back pain.

This is not to say that a closer look—by MRI or X-ray—isn’t helpful. It can often be very useful. But the truth is that what shows up on a picture doesn’t necessarily reflect how the patient feels.

The truth is that the back is a complicated mechanism, and when problems occur, there are no easy answers.

The back basically provides strength, movement, and stability; but the cause of any specific pain in the back can be difficult to find, because the system itself—bones, nerves, ligaments, and muscles—is so intricate. Any movement requires a combination of actions throughout the system. A complex movement, such as a perfect golf swing, requires that the back work like a finely tuned machine.

In most humans, the design of the back begins at birth without flaws. Parts do wear with time, but often, simple maintenance is the best solution to low back pain.

Some Numbers: You Are Not Alone

The fact that you have LBP is not, in itself, a reason to worry. As the following numbers show, it happens to almost everyone:

• Over 80 percent of the population will experience LBP at some point in their lives.

• Studies have stated; Up to 85 percent of those with LBP cannot be given a definitive diagnosis because of a weak associations between symptoms and test results such as X-rays and MRI.

• LBP is the most common reason for someone under 45 years of age to go on disability.

It is the weak associations between symptoms and test results that make treating LBP especially difficult. That is why functional training along with the bodies innate ability to heal itself is the best way to treat low back pain.

More Numbers: Without Treatment, Most LBP Gets Better

It’s true. Most low back pain comes and goes; it usually doesn’t last. Consider these statistics:

• 90 percent of acute LBP resolves in four to six weeks.

• An additional 5 percent resolves by 12 weeks.

• Only 5 -15 percent of low back pain becomes chronic. –Chronic LBP is pain lasting more than 3 months.

• Fifty percent of those with acute LBP have a recurrence within one year.

If you have a flare-up, you can be reasonably sure that it will often go away by itself. The body is a wonderful natural healing machine.

It doesn’t always heal itself, of course. But your confidence in your body’s ability to heal itself should be as high, or higher, than in any doctor’s ability to heal you. Your body is the real miracle worker.

It is good to understand, a clear path doesn’t always exist from pain to recovery.

In fact, this road usually isn’t a clear path at all, but rather a sort of rollercoaster in which the body takes two steps forward for every step back. You may have a painful time for four to six weeks, but the pain should begin to lessen—although flare-ups will occur. I often chart the recovery process like this:

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This graph doesn’t mean that everyone follows this path. Rather, the chart shows what is typical. LBP is a conundrum, and everyone’s experience is completely unique. But one truth is universal: functional training can help.

Still More Numbers: Returning to Work

Activity is good:

• Only 50 percent of people return to work when they are off work from their low back pain for six months.

• Only 25 percent return to work when they are off work from their low back pain for one year.

• Essentially, Zero percent return to work when they are off work from their low back pain for more than two years.

I have had patients ask me for disability from work due to their LBP, which is fine for a short period of time. But, as the