Herniated Disc Golf

This discussion will provide recommendations on how to still enjoy golf, despite a positive disc protrusion diagnosis. Learn how disc pathologies can be exacerbated by golf and what you can do to minimize your chances for injury.

Herniated Disc Golf Problems

While it is true that a minority of herniations can certainly be agonizing, especially when they first occur due to traumatic injury, they do not usually cause the chronic and treatment-resistant types of back, neck and sciatic nerve pain often blamed upon them.

Golf does not inherently cause back pain, although the wear and tear associated with the game can indeed hasten some types of spinal degeneration and aggravate pre-existing injuries.

Luckily, most of these mild to moderate degenerative concerns are normal and not the source of any worry or pain whatsoever. Understanding this basic truth will help get you back on that golf course in no time.

Herniated Disc Golf Solutions

Instead, a lesser considered reason for the symptoms often comes down to the personality profile demonstrated by the average golfer. Avid players are perfectionistic and self motivated. They are self-critical and have a strong desire to succeed in all things. This is normal on the golf course.

These are also the verified personality traits clinically proven to contribute to psychosomatic herniated disc pain.

It is not the golf swing that is causing many instances of pain; it is simply the way the person is arranged emotionally. While I can not say this psycho-emotional model applies to all golfers with back and neck pain, it certainly does have a good chance of representing many, especially those with pain which has not responded to seemingly proper treatments.

There is no coincidence that so many golfers have been successfully treated for TMS by Dr. John Sarno.

Herniated Disc Golf Advice

Golf provides an ideal nocebo effect. It is obviously exertive and makes a perfect scapegoat on which to blame symptoms. However, it is not a given that golf caused your pain or will exacerbate it.

Muscular injuries are a part of the game, but herniated discs and golf can co-exist in perfect harmony. The first step is to learn the facts about herniated discs and then realize that golf, or any other athletic endeavor, may not be the actual culprit for your pain. If the misery is indeed anatomical, it should be easy to cure using appropriate herniated disc treatments. However, if the pain lingers despite care and time, it is far more likely to be the result of a regional ischemia process.

In these circumstances, the internal and external cautions about your golf game are unnecessary parts of the conditioning process common to every chronic pain syndrome and hold little, if any, validity at all.