Golf Related Injuries II: Back Pain | 高尔夫运动损伤系列之二：腰痛

As we know, for some people, golf can be quite addictive. No matter how good his technique is, a true golfer will always look to improve. Therefore a dedicated golfer will keep practicing---keep swinging the club. When swinging the club, the spine serves as the core of movement: the spine is rotated first so that the weight of the body is transferred from the right leg to the left leg and the striking path of the club is kept a perfect arc.

Therefore the spine is essential for golfing, but at the same time, due to overuse and all kinds of bad golfing postures, it becomes vulnerable to all kinds of back injuries such as acute lumbar sprain, lumbar muscle strain, sciatica, third lumbar transverse inflammation, and spinal arthritis.

In fact, 95% of people will experience back pain at least one time in their lives. The golfers in particular, tend to suffer more serious and usually chronic back pains because of their ever-lasting effort to swing a better strike. The situation will become worse for those who would not stop practicing even in rainy days.

No matter what the cause of chronic back pain, there will be back and forth of conditions, including the golf-related back pain. For this problem we need to understand that we all have self-healing ability and this ability is the key to heal all injuries. When we are young this ability is strong, so that we will usually recover from a pain after a night of good sleep. This ability will deteriorate as we age, and the time to recover will become longer and longer. If a problem is not treated for too long, the time to recover will be extended too. Someone suffering from years of chronic back pain usually recover slower than others. They will feel the pain whenever they walk or sit for an extended period of time or after working, sometimes even cannot sleep at all. Also, the chronic back pain is usually accompanied by fatigue, insomnia, frequent urination, cold limb, depression, panic, and anxiety. To make things worse, for these people there may be a higher chance to develop kidney and heart related problems or other vascular problems years later. In Chinese medicine, the self-healing of back pain is supported by the “kidney” ( it is not the organ kidney in modern context, but rather an imaginative place in the body that adjusts the “qi” of the whole body---this theory have been applied and proved to be effective for thousands of years). The “qi” of the kidney is the fuel for self-healing, and the “kidney” will be weakened if too much “qi” is used in a short time---then many problem follows.

Therefore, improving this self-healing ability, in other words, adding more “qi” to the “kidney” rather than just using painkillers, is the proper way to treat back pain. Only then can the damaged tissues be fixed while preventing long term after effects.

Here are some suggestions for golfers:

1. Make sure you warm up sufficiently (at least 10 mins) before practicing; 2. Do not play golf in rainy days; 3. Stop playing and take rest once acute back pain appears. If the pain persists, go to see your acupuncturist or doctor; 4. Use structural strength, not the muscle to swing the club. If your posture is incorrect, get advice.

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上一篇文章讲过，人一旦喜欢上高尔夫这个运动后，一般都会体会到“上瘾”的感觉。不管动作如何好，都会有想继续改进的欲望。因此，高尔夫成瘾的人就会不断的走进练习场，不断地重复挥杆、击球的动作。当在挥杆击球的时候，腰部往往起到一个中枢的作用。球手用腰椎的扭转力把力量的重心从右脚转到了左脚上，并且使球杆保持一个完美的弧线圆形运动，因此腰的作用至关重要。但同时亦会因为挥杆次数过多、姿势不正、击球过深或过浅、动作走形而导致各种腰伤。如急性腰扭伤、腰肌劳损、坐骨神经痛、第三腰椎横突炎、腰椎关节炎等。

实际上，95%的人在一生中都会有至少一次以上的腰痛史。由于高尔夫球手对自己动作的高标准要求及为了获得更好的技术而不断的下场挥杆练习，很多人的腰部疼痛往往纠缠难愈。如果这个球手在雨天还继续下场，症状就会更加难愈。

不管是什么原因引起的慢性腰痛，都会时好时坏，包括高球手的腰痛。关于这个问题我们必须先明白一个道理：就是在我们人体内部有一种自愈的能力来修复身体。年轻时这种能力很强，往往睡一觉，疼痛马上就好了。随着年龄的增长，这种能力渐渐变弱，恢复的时间也越来越长。有些多年反复发作的腰痛患者，往往是休息后只略微缓解。坐的时间稍长，或稍长时间走路，工作后腰痛马上加重，甚至日夜不能缓解，而且常常伴随精力减退、睡眠差、小便频、手足发凉、易抑郁、易惊恐、易发怒等现象，真是苦不堪言。但大家都还没意识到更严重后果，那就是几年，十几年，二十几年后的肾脏病、高血压、心脏病等后果。这不是耸人听闻，因为对于腰痛自我修复的能力直接来源于肾脏，（这是被印证了几千年的中医理论），中医叫肾气。一旦肾气被不断地消耗，肾虚就不可避免了，很多病状就因此而来了。

加强这种自我修复能力（肾气），提高这种能量（即补肾），而不只是服用止痛药，才是好的治疗方式。这样才可以既修复腰部受伤组织，又预防将来的不良后果。