In a stunning reversal of apparent policy, the Antigo Daily Journal has published a chiropractor’s article that was not plagiarized! Yes, that’s hard to believe, but it’s true! The May issue of the Family Primetime insert in the May 3 Antigo Daily Journal contains an article by chiropractor Matt McCabe of the Gress Chiropractic Clinic that is apparently an original work, not stolen from anywhere else.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the article is typical chiropractic claptrap and pseudo science, compounded with bad advice.
In “Golfers should take a look at chiropractic care”, McCabe asserts that the “most common site [sic] on your average golf course here in the area” is “two to four men slightly overweight and definitely out of practice.” News flash for McCabe — women play golf “here in the area” too. Many local golfers have a good deal of practice. I, for instance, manage to get in about 130 rounds of 18-hole golf a year “here in the area”, and I know many golfers who do 100 rounds or so. That’s hardly “out of practice”.
McCabe says (without reference) that a golf swing can generate “6100 Newtons of compressive force” and claims that’s “about eight times the body weight”. He doesn’t explain if that’s good, bad, or normal, and what reasonable limits on “compressive force” might be. But he uses that little item to assert that golfers who step up the tee box with little preparation and “put the club thorough a violent motion that resembles a golf swing”, combined with the “compressive force” thing, have performed what “is a sure formula for low back injury.”
To me, a “sure formula” is a guarantee, so every golfer would accordingly be guaranteed to have lower back pain. Not so. I, and many of my fellow golfers, have played for years without suffering from golf-induced lower back pain. Golf is not a “sure formula” for creating lower back pain.
Then we get to this interesting assertion: “The normal function of your spine is to protect and maintain proper tension of your spinal cord and exiting nerves….” No. Any six-year-old can tell you that the normal function of your spine is to keep your head from falling into your lap when you sit down.
The spinal cord is not like a guitar string that needs to be somehow precisely tensioned or torqued in order to work properly. Come on Matt — I defy you to show us any research that shows that “tension” on the spinal cord is a determining factor in spinal cord function. The notion of proper spinal cord tension, and that chiropractic manipulation has any predictable effect on such “tension”, is as phantasmagorical as the mythical “subluxation”.
Finally, toward the end, the confession: “So by now you’ve read this whole article and I have not once mentioned how you can lower your golf score.” True. McCabe has also, by this point, not mentioned how chiropractic manipulation is supposed to improve or prevent lower back pain caused by golf. Nonetheless, he claims that if you get chiropractic care, “…maybe you will be telling me what I hear all the time, ‘Doc, I don’t know what you did but that was the best round of of golf I ever played.’” What?! Your patients don’t know what you do to them? You can’t explain what you do, or how it works? They just come in for some magic pokes, probes, and twisting, and “Presto!” they have a great round of golf? Amazing.
McCabe finishes up with some misguided advice: “Your chiropractor can also give you valuable stretching instruction of the large muscles used in the golf swing in order to loosen those muscles before the round.” Wrong. McCabe’s a bit out of date with his urban myths. I’m not a doctor, nor a golf pro, offering professional advice. But I’m telling you that you can find the truth yourself.
Do a Google search on “stretch before exercise” and you’ll see that that stretching before exercise does not prevent injuries or soreness, and does not enhance performance. The time to stretch, in order to maintain flexibility and range of motion, is after exercise. Before exercise, you should warm-up, which means using the motions and action of the actual exercise at a lower intensity and speed, not stretching, to prepare the exact muscles and ligaments you will actually be using for the exercise itself.
For golfers that means taking two or three irons in a bundled grip, gently swinging them in a partial pendulum swing, then gently swinging longer to a series of full, slow-motion golf swings with the extra club weight to warm up your swinging muscles. Then hit a few balls, gently, just to get the motion of the swing going. Don’t worry about distance. When you get comfortable with the motion, add a little more effort to the swing, until you’re using your normal swing, which for amateurs is about 85% of a full-force swing. About twenty balls hit this way will get you ready for the round. With a sensible warm-up, you won’t get anywhere near the dreaded “6100 Newtons of compressive force” on your spine, and you’ll get better distance and accuracy by making better contact with the ball.
Finally, McCabe’s clincher: “About that nasty slice with the driver; please talk to the local golf pro, sorry we’re not miracle workers!” At last, something we can agree upon!
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