May 7, 2026 · 39 min · 18 segments
The PGA Tour is in the middle of a back injury epidemic. Tiger Woods just had his seventh spine surgery. Justin Thomas had a microdiscectomy. Will Zalatoris re-herniated two discs. Rory McIlroy…
Yeah, so then for the, you know, call it the, the normal golfer that comes to see you, like, where are the areas that people do need to maybe spend more time and strengthen, or is it more about more mobility? And I imagine you're gonna say, yes, it's, it's all the things, but like what, what are the areas that, you know, generally for somebody listening, it's like, "Hey, you wanna save your back and you need to figure out the golf swing, like here are the, here are the things that you need to focus on and strengthen m- more than not." 'Cause I know for me, like a lot of it had to do with just like hip mobility.
Like I had really tight hips and hips, and it felt like that's what was pulling on my lower back, and then it was getting things out of, you know, whack and-
So all that translation was going to your lower back, which is not designed to rotate, but in order to gain a golf swing and have that speed, you had to put that in that lower back, and that's why the lower back hurt.
Now your hips and pelvis move perfectly, so you're not loading that lower back at all because you're getting that turn from the hips.
Yeah, it does.
And I try to like, you know, when I'm going through it in my mind, like u- my initial thought was, yeah, I have lower back pain and like I think I had some stuff with the, the discs going on as well that we-
... had diagnosed, but ultimate- ultimately a lot of it came down to better hip mobility, and I think people will think, "Oh, I need to strengthen my lower back or do something with the lower back," but it actually had to, a lot to do with my like glutes and hips, which-
... you know, are close to the lower back area, but a- actually it, it had more to do with that than it did strengthening like back muscles per se.
And so if you can gain that rotation there and not place all that force on the lower back that shouldn't rotate as much, then your back's gonna be fantastic.
Sure.
And so like the average golfer, amateur, you know, they just go out, hit the first tee, try and drive it right down the middle, no warmup, nothing.
The issue is your lower back is not moving, your hips aren't moving, your pelvis aren't moving.
Something's gonna give, right? And so that's learning to gain independent movement in all those segments, like I talked about last year.
Each joint has to move independently, um, and you'll, you know, we'll translate that to when you have surgery, right? If they don't move independently, something has to make up for that lack to gain that swing.
Sure.
Yeah, so then for the, you know, call it the, the normal golfer that comes to see you, like, where are the areas that people do need to maybe spend more time and strengthen, or is it more about more mobility? And I imagine you're gonna say, yes, it's, it's all the things, but like what, what are the areas that, you know, generally for somebody listening, it's like, "Hey, you wanna save your back and you need to figure out the golf swing, like here are the, here are the things that you need to focus on and strengthen m- more than not." 'Cause I know for me, like a lot of it had to do with just like hip mobility.
Like I had really tight hips and hips, and it felt like that's what was pulling on my lower back, and then it was getting things out of, you know, whack and-
So all that translation was going to your lower back, which is not designed to rotate, but in order to gain a golf swing and have that speed, you had to put that in that lower back, and that's why the lower back hurt.
Now your hips and pelvis move perfectly, so you're not loading that lower back at all because you're getting that turn from the hips.
Yeah, it does.
And I try to like, you know, when I'm going through it in my mind, like u- my initial thought was, yeah, I have lower back pain and like I think I had some stuff with the, the discs going on as well that we-
... had diagnosed, but ultimate- ultimately a lot of it came down to better hip mobility, and I think people will think, "Oh, I need to strengthen my lower back or do something with the lower back," but it actually had to, a lot to do with my like glutes and hips, which-
... you know, are close to the lower back area, but a- actually it, it had more to do with that than it did strengthening like back muscles per se.
And so if you can gain that rotation there and not place all that force on the lower back that shouldn't rotate as much, then your back's gonna be fantastic.
Sure.
And so like the average golfer, amateur, you know, they just go out, hit the first tee, try and drive it right down the middle, no warmup, nothing.
The issue is your lower back is not moving, your hips aren't moving, your pelvis aren't moving.
Something's gonna give, right? And so that's learning to gain independent movement in all those segments, like I talked about last year.
Each joint has to move independently, um, and you'll, you know, we'll translate that to when you have surgery, right? If they don't move independently, something has to make up for that lack to gain that swing.
Sure.
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