Spinal Mobility and Health For Golfers... A New Exerise!

The spine is a critical component of a healthy and high performing golfer.

Low back injuries are ridiculously common in the sport.

It's my mission to minimize the occurrence of these dreaded injuries!

Remember back in elementary school gym class?

You'd roll out those large, striped mats and proceed to be gymnasts for the day.

The PE teacher would have you complete forward and backward rolls, maybe a cartwheel or two.

Well, I am bringing that back.

Carter, I'm a golfer not a gymnast.

I have athletes complete rolling patterns a couple times a month.

I think it is such a powerful expression of athleticism and motor coordination.

Now, I'm not asking you to complete some of these pretty high level rolling patterns like my athletes are here.

But, here at SCRATCH, we will be completing regressed versions... and here's why:

Rolling promotes spinal fluidity.

Rolling requires our movement to FLOW, as opposed to acting robotically.

Rolling exposes us to a novel stress and pattern we probably haven't taken on before (or in awhile).

So much of what we do in the weight room promotes core tension and spinal rigidity. Squatting, lunging, deadlifting, push ups, rows... they all require a stable and rigid spine to complete the movement.

But, then we look at the golf swing and we see this primarily fluid movement.

We see the spine rotating, flexing and extending in a whiplike manner with the rest of the body.

Core tension and spinal rigidity no doubt have a place in training... we apply these concepts daily!

But so does spinal fluidity and core plasticity.

Insert, rolling and other fluidity based exercises!

WHERE SHOULD I INSERT ROLLING EXERCISES?

My favorite place to insert rolling variations, or more general spinal fluidity exercises, is in between sets of a heavier exercise that promotes rigidity.

For example, check out the superset I did below... Squats + Rolls.

YouTube Video:

https://youtube.com/shorts/ELxgyS83YLE?feature=share

The warm-up or post-workout is another great place to insert spinal mobility exercises!

To be totally honest, there probably isn't a bad place for it in your training session... just make sure it's in there!

3 ROLLING Variations Below!

Here I am going to show you 3 rolling variations that we will work into our training at SCRATCH.

They are listed progressively, meaning the first is the simplest, and often the most comfortable for athletes, with the last progressively getting more complex and difficult.