My Lower Back Was Affecting My Golf Swing. Here's What Helped Me

When I started playing golf regularly again in my 50s, one of the first physical problems I noticed was tightness and pain in my lower back.

And it wasn't just something I felt after a round.

It was starting to affect my golf swing.

My back and hips didn't move the way they had when I was younger. The tighter I became, the more I found myself changing my swing to work around what my body wouldn't let me do.

So I started trying to do something about it.

I stretched more.

I worked on strengthening my lower back.

Both helped.

But one thing has probably helped me more than anything else:

Hot yoga.

I originally thought yoga would mostly help with flexibility and mobility. And it has.

What surprised me was how much strengthening we do—especially for the muscles around my lower back, hips, and core.

There are three simple exercises we regularly do that I've found particularly helpful.

3 Back-Strengthening Exercises That Have Helped My Golf

1. Prone Back Extension

Lie facedown on the mat and slowly lift your head, chest, and upper body while keeping your lower body down.

It's a small movement, but you can feel the muscles along your back working.

2. Prone Hip Extension

Again, start facedown.

Keeping one leg straight, lift it slightly off the mat. Lower it and repeat with the other leg.

We also do a variation where we lift both legs.

This is another movement that doesn't look like much until you actually do it.

3. Superman

This combines the movements.

Lie facedown and lift your chest and arms while also lifting your legs off the mat.

You're essentially creating a gentle arch through the body while your back, glutes, and surrounding muscles work to hold the position.

These aren't dramatic exercises.

But after doing them consistently, I noticed something that mattered to me:

My back felt stronger, and I wasn't experiencing the same tightness and discomfort when I played golf.

Ask the Experts: Why Can Back-Strengthening Exercises Help Golfers?

A golf swing asks a lot from your body.

Your hips and upper body rotate while the muscles surrounding your spine have to help control and stabilize that movement.

Two of the important muscle groups involved are the erector spinae and multifidus.

The erector spinae run along the spine and help extend and control the trunk. The multifidus are smaller, deeper muscles that help stabilize and control movement of the spine.

Research measuring muscle activity has found that prone trunk-extension and prone hip-extension exercises activate these muscles.

Prone hip extension also recruits the glutes and hamstrings, which are important parts of the chain connecting the hips and lower body.

That helps explain why exercises that look so simple can still challenge the muscles supporting your lower back.

Can Yoga Help With Lower Back Pain?

There's research behind the broader idea as well.

Systematic reviews of randomized trials have found evidence that yoga can improve pain and back-related function for some people with chronic nonspecific lower-back pain.

That doesn't mean hot yoga is a cure for back pain, and the research doesn't establish that heated yoga is better than other forms of yoga.

That's an important distinction.

Hot yoga is simply what has worked particularly well for me.

I think it's the combination I appreciate most: I'm working on mobility and flexibility while also strengthening muscles that help support my body.

Jim's Take: Sometimes the Swing Isn't the Real Problem

This experience changed how I think about golf as I get older.

My kids used to joke about whether I was going to use my "young man swing" or my "old man swing."

The young man swing was the swing I wanted to make—but my back and hips didn't always appreciate it.

The old man swing was full of compromises.

Shorter turn.

Less rotation.

Finding ways to swing around what my body wouldn't let me do.

Eventually, I realized something.

Maybe my golf swing wasn't the real problem.

Maybe the problem was that my body was losing some of the physical capabilities that allowed me to make that swing.

That led me to a different question:

Instead of continuing to change my swing to accommodate my aging body, what if I worked on improving what my body was capable of doing?

That's been a big shift for me.

I'm not trying to make my body 25 again.

I'm trying to maintain—and where possible regain—enough strength, mobility, and physical capacity to make the golf swing I want to make.

For me, hot yoga has become an important part of that.

And those three little back exercises?

They don't look like much.

But I've learned not to confuse simple with ineffective.

What Should Golfers Over 50 Take From This?

If lower-back tightness is starting to affect your golf swing, don't automatically assume the answer is changing your swing.

Ask another question:

Is my swing the problem—or is my body having trouble making the movement I'm asking it to make?

For me, working on both mobility and strength has made a noticeable difference.

Your answer may be different.

But I think it's a question more golfers should be asking as we get older.

That's really what Elevate with Jim is about:

Don't change your swing just because you're getting older. Work on what your body is capable of doing.

— Jim

If you have persistent or significant back pain, or pain accompanied by numbness, weakness, or pain traveling down your leg, talk with a qualified healthcare professional before beginning a new exercise program.