The leading cause of back pain is poor posture. Being mindful of your posture is always a good thing for your back. One good thing to do to make sure that your posture is engaged is to eliminate bad exercise and movement patterns that you perform in the gym.

If your job requires sitting or bending forward, then the exercise program at the gym should counterbalance that by providing more extension exercises. As you know, Golf is a flexion sport. More flexion at the gym is not good.

If you’re doing chest flies or chest presses or crunches on the floor, you could be shortening your pectoralis minor muscle in such a way that it causes a rounding of your shoulders and a muscle imbalance in your back.

The use of exercise machines does not help back pain either. Some machines, like the leg press, can cause you to hold your body in an unnatural position under load. Leg presses in particular can lead to herniated disks because of the way your hips are positioned while lifting heavy weight.

Something women in particular should be aware of is that during menstruation, your joints are actually looser. During this time, you need to be extra careful to maintain good posture and stability during exercise and during your golf swing. If you can’t decelerate the club slowly, you will hurt your body. Your looser joints can actually lead to what’s called “shearing” in your joints, and consequently to injury.

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