We all know that golf is not a contact sport, but that doesn't mean we can't hurt ourselves while playing it. I would imagine that many (if not most) long-time players have had back pain due to playing at some time or another. I know I have!

For me, personally, my adventures with back pain were caused by not warming up properly before taking that first big swing. This is why it's important to do some stretching before you begin play. Cold muscles do not like being twisted, which is exactly what happens when you swing that club.

If you have back pain often while playing, you should visit a doctor before it gets any worse, and it truly might do just that. You may have a stress fracture or you may need to use a brace in the future. Chronic back pain needs professional assessments.

For other players, one of the best avenues for finding good stretching activities is the Internet. There are literally dozens upon dozens of good, reliable sources to help you get the most effective warm up before play. But do keep in mind that you (the individual) will determine the proper warm up. What I mean by that is that older players will need a warm up that is less strenous than one designed for younger players. One warm up activity will not fit all players. You need to determine which is best for you and stick to that one.

Your overall level of flexibility is another issue that should not be ignored. Flexibility and range of motion go hand-in-hand, and range of motion is a key element to hitting your best shots. If your arms or shoulders or neck are stiff, you will not be able to flow through the shot fully, thus reducing your distance and perhaps causing injury to yourself.

For best results, flexibility exercises should be done not just at the course before play but also at home. You can find a good regime to follow on the Internet or at the library and most of these can be completed within a half-hour or so.

Keeping your muscles and joints (especially the back muscles) loose and fit will help considerably in avoiding back pain associated with playing golf.

However, if your back pain is chronic or if it's severe see a doctor asap. You may have done more damage to yourself than you realize.

Robert Partain has been an avid golfer for over 40 years. He publishes a golf blog that is updated 4 times a week with free golf tips, techniques, and information.

About one week ago to the day, I injured my lower back. And though I am now fully on the road to recovery, I can't help but wonder what it would be like to be saddled with nagging lumbar back pain indefinitely as is the case with many disability claimants.

It would be awful without a doubt. But here are some specific things my spouse (also a former DDS examiner and a current D.O. CR) and I discussed: light jobs would be difficult because handling any amount of weight, let alone, say, 20 pounds, would aggravate a back problem. I rediscovered this reality yesterday as I, in a limited fashion, tried to help my wife with groceries. The simple weight of a gallon jug of milk was enough to make me wince. How about a sedentary job? Well, the problem with sedentary jobs has to do with…being sedentary.

As many claimants with chronic lower back pain will attest, being in a seated position can become very uncomfortable even after a few minutes. But even "sedentary jobs" are not entirely sedentary. Most sedentary work still involves having to get up and down from a seated position dozens of times during the course of a day. And this can obviouly present a problem for someone with lower lumbar pain. And, of course, there are the psychological aspects of having continuous pain and discomfort; chief among these is the effect that continuous pain has on one's ability to maintain attention and concentration. And, of course, pain does have a nasty effect on one's disposition.

Now, in the context of disability claims adjudication, why do I even bother mentioning this kind of stuff? Simply for this reason: Disability examiners, their supervisors, and the medical consultants with whom disability examiners work all too often slap decisions on cases without allowing claimants reasonable consideration with respect to their pain. This is not a trivial issue as the social security administration has been sued a number of times over its failure to recognize claimants' limitations due to pain.

Why do the "functionaries", or cogs of the disability system, fail to recognize the role that pain plays in a claimant's functional limitations?

Well, in the case of examiners, it may have a little to do with age. Most disability examiners tend to be younger individuals (twenties and thirties), i.e. people who have never had to deal with a disabling illness, such as degenerative disc disease. It's an unfortunate reality of human existence that people are often unable to empathize with someone else's pain if we have not experienced something similar ourselves.

In the case of the disability docs, that is the physicans who serve as unit medical consultants in a state's DDS (disability determination services), the blinders they wear may have more to do with the nature of their work. Basically, "disability docs" sit in an office all day long, reading files and writeups that have been written by disability examiners. After a disability doc has finished perusing a file, he or she will write an RFC (residual functional capacity form) that may or may not agree with what an examiner has "conjured". At any one time, a DDS medical consultant may have dozens of cases in his office which need reviewing. But in NONE, ABSOLUTELY NONE, of that time will one of these doctors ever see, touch, or feel one of the claimants that they are writing an RFC for. Can you make out the picture that I'm drawing. These doctors render VERDICTS on cases, in a way that is very impersonal, removed, bureaucratic, and even automated. And with the number of cases that come across their desks, it's hardly a wonder that MOST cases are given a medium RFC, or residual functional capacity rating.

What is a medium RFC? It means several things, but in terms of exertional limitations, it means that a claimant is still expected to be able to, in the course of a workday, lift 50 lbs occasionally and 25 lbs frequently. As an examiner, I saw medium RFCs given to claimants who, doubtless, would have difficulty lifting even 20 lbs once, let alone 50 lbs occasionally.

This, of course, qualifies as a gripe that I hold against the SSA system. However, I believe it is wholly a legitimate one concerning a legitimate problem. How do you address the problem?

Here's a novel solution that might have an immediate impact on how DDS medical consultants rate the limitations of claimants: require them all to keep fifty pound dumbbells beside their desks and each time they consider handing out a medium rfc, require them to lift it just once. Each time they perform this action and feel the discomfort that comes from lifting fifty pounds, they can then consider the effect this amount of weight might have on a claimant with chronic lower back pain. And, just perhaps, their ratings of cases might begin to approach a state closer to reality. Because, presently, it is doubtful, at best, that many of these doctors have any real clue as to what fifty pounds really is, or feels like.

Welcome to article number 2 in our series "Bodybuilding Sins That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts". In this article we are going to talk about how bodybuilders tend to create massive muscle imbalances and what you can do to not be one of them.

If you missed the first article, you can read it by clicking on the link below.

Here's a breakdown of the articles to look for:

1. Article #1 - Choosing The WRONG Exercises

2. Article #2 - Training Variations for Pain Relief and Maximum Results

3. Article #3 - Targeted Stretching

4. Article #4 - Targeted Exercises

5. Article #5 - Rest, Recovery, and Injury Prevention

Article #2 - Training Variations for Pain Relief and Maximum Results

Bodybuilders are a stubborn bunch? almost as bad as runners! And they tend to follow the "HERD" doing whatever exercises and routines the "pros" are doing…

Now, if your goal is to be as big as possible and you are not at all concerned with your health and fitness, don't even bother this article? this article is for bodybuilders who ARE concerned about their health and want to be big, strong, powerful, and agile? if that's you, read on?

The reason so many bodybuilders suffer from so many different injuries is because there are several things the "pros" don't tell you?

First off, the articles that you see in all the muscle mags aren't even written by the "pros"? and the workout routines they recommend are always extreme and often not even used by the "pro" who supposedly wrote because their main goal is to sell magazines? not give you the real deal on bodybuilding.

If you are serious about bodybuilding and want to achieve your true peak, you need to stay injury free? and that's just about impossible if you train they way most bodybuilders do.

There are several key strategies that you can use right now to not only eliminate any aches, pains and injuries you currently have, but also keep from creating more muscle imbalances in the future.

Strategy #1 - Target the Weaklings!

No, we don't mean the exercises you think your weak at, or even the muscles you think are underdeveloped? what we mean is the muscles that are weak in relation to the opposing muscle group.

For example, in the first article we talked about why the Leg Extension is not a great exercise and why it's responsible for so many cases of knee, hip, and back pain? and the reason is, most people, especially bodybuilders, are already over developed and stronger in the quadriceps? and usually have a significant imbalance between the quadriceps and hamstrings.

Another reason bodybuilders tend to develop so many severe muscle imbalances is because they emphasize the front of the body more than the back? a great example of this is what we call "The T-shirt Muscle Workout" and it usually consists of dozens of sets of chest and biceps?

you know what we mean? in just one workout you do flat bench, incline, decline, pec deck, dumbbell fly, cable cross overs? and then for biceps you've got barbell curls, dumbbell curls, preacher curls, cable curls, machine curls, and the list goes on?

So instead of emphasizing the muscles that are already strong, why not really hit those weak and under worked muscles like: neck, upper back, shoulder rotators, hamstrings, glutes, hip rotators, lower abs, and shins.

These areas tend to be weak, tight, out of balance with their opposing muscles, prone to muscle strains and pulls and most importantly, these imbalances lead to major injuries and conditions like back pain, knee pain, rotator cuff tears, tendonitis and others.

All of these conditions are caused by muscle imbalances and will NOT go away unless you work towards correcting the imbalances? and the only way to know for sure which imbalances are causing your pain or injury is to do a series of physical assessments like the ones covered in our "Lose the Back Pain Video".

Strategy #2 - Experiment!

Here's a personal challenge for you: Replace at least 1 of your normal weekly workouts with something totally different like combat martial arts, kettle bell training, functional training, or even strongman style exercises.

For example, instead of doing your super heavy, 3 inch partial rep leg presses, try a single leg squat? and if that's easy, try adding weight! Or instead dozens of sets of shoulder presses and lateral raises, see if you can do 1 handstand push-up.

Those are just a few examples? do yourself a favor and experiment with other types of exercises. You can find hundreds of different types of training styles by taking classes, reading books, watching videos, surfing the web, hire a personal trainer, etc.

We aren't asking you to give up your traditional workouts? but just cross-train a bit so you not only work towards a balanced body but also towards a stronger, more powerful and usable strength. Again, what good is muscle if you can't use it!

Strategy #3 - Switch It Up!

Another great way to minimize the number of missed workouts due to injuries is to vary the exercises that you do for each muscle group. For example, if you always do barbell squats try rotating in other exercises like single-leg leg presses, trap-bar dead-lifts, d-bell squats, etc.

Conclusion

Remember, the key to eliminating injuries and preventing future ones is to identify what areas you need to target. In the next two articles we'll be discussing in detail, how to address various injuries like back, hip, knee, and shoulder pain with targeted exercises and stretches. In the meantime, be sure to read thru all of our detailed articles and if you have questions, please post them in our discussion forum.

Article by Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS, CSPN and Steve Hefferon, CMT, CPRS of http://www.losethebackpain.com. If you've got back pain or sciatic pain, you've gotta check out their video.