Swiss Golf Simulators All venues Map By canton By city Open now Near me For business

18 September 2026 · 10 min read

Golf and back pain: what Balgrist sees, what can change in the swing and how to warm up in five minutes

The Balgrist Golf Institute names the lower back among the regions golf affects most often, and a review of 301 studies names the back as the most frequent injury site. What the swing does to the back, what can change, a five-minute warm-up, a test for the winter and the line where the question goes to a doctor.

Golf and back pain: what Balgrist sees, what can change in the swing and how to warm up in five minutes — post image

Anyone who has played for a while knows the subject of golf and back pain, usually in the lower back. That is no accident. The swing turns the upper body against the hips at speed, and the lower back sits in between. The Balgrist Golf Institute in Zurich names it among the regions affected most often, and a review of 301 studies names the back as the most frequent injury site. Four things are in your own hands: understanding the swing, adjusting the swing, five minutes of warming up, and working on mobility over the winter. And one line to know: pain is a question for a doctor.

What happens to your back when you swing

The golf swing is a rotation. On the backswing the shoulders turn further than the hips; on the downswing the hips turn back first and the shoulders follow at speed. The lower back lies between the two. It carries the rotation across, holds the upper body in its tilt over the ball and brakes everything at the finish.

How often that becomes a problem was collected in 2017 by Murray and colleagues in the British Journal of Sports Medicine: a scoping review of 301 studies on golf and health. The finding: golf is moderate-intensity physical activity with benefits for the heart, breathing and metabolism, the incidence of injury is moderate, and the back is affected most often. For amateurs the review puts the annual injury rate between 15.8 and 40.9 percent, depending on the study, and the rate over a golfing life between 25.2 and 67.4 percent. The ranges are wide because the studies count differently. By body region:

  • Spine, above all the lower back: 18.3 to 36.4 percent of injuries in amateurs
  • Elbow: 8.0 to 33.0 percent
  • Wrist and hand: 10.0 to 32 percent
  • Shoulder: 4.0 to 18.6 percent

Golf and back pain: what the Balgrist Golf Institute sees

Since 8 July 2025 Switzerland has had an address where medicine and golf work under one roof: the Balgrist Golf Institute at the Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich, with specialist doctors, sports scientists and international golf coaches. As medical partner of Swiss Golf it looks after the federation's golfers on the sports medicine side. The institute names as most often affected the lower back together with the shoulder, elbow and wrist: the same four regions that lead the review.

Whoever goes there gets an examination. The golf assessment consists of a golf-specific medical examination, a session with a golf pro using a simulator and 3D analysis of the swing and putting, an analysis by a movement specialist, and advice and training recommendations. For complaints there is a golf clinic. The simulator there is a measuring instrument: it shows how someone moves, and it cures nothing.

The swing that is easier on the back: what can change

You cannot take the back out of the swing. What you can do is spread the load differently. Three places play a part in that. You cannot see any of them yourself; a pro or a video can.

  • The posture at the ball. The forward tilt comes from the hips, with a long back. Whoever rounds forward from the lower back turns out of that rounding.
  • The hips on the backswing. The less the hips turn along, the more rotation lies between the hips and the shoulders. That brings speed, and what the hips do not turn, the trunk has to turn.
  • The finish. A finish with the weight on the front foot, chest to the target, back straight. A finish that tips backwards into a hollow back because the weight stayed behind ends every swing in overextension.

The fourth place is not technique but a number: how many balls. On the range and in the bay the swings come close together, without the walking breaks of a round. Count balls, not minutes, and take a break between two baskets or after half an hour. Whether one of them is your issue, a pro who watches you swing can tell, or a screen, more on that below.

Warming up in five minutes: before the round and before the bay

What golfers mean by warming up was simply observed in 2001 by Fradkin, Finch and Sherman: 1,040 amateurs at two courses and a driving range. 54.3 percent did anything at all before playing. Of those, 88.7 percent took practice swings on the tee. A warm-up the authors call appropriate they saw in only a few.

The same group measured in 2004 what a golf-specific warm-up programme does: 20 golfers, ten with the programme, ten without, matched by age and handicap. Straight after the warm-up the exercise group's club head speed was on average 12.8 percent higher. After five weeks on the programme, five times a week, it was 24 percent. In the control group the figure hardly moved. Twenty people make a small study, and what was measured was speed, not pain. But it shows that a warm-up is not a ritual but something that shows in club head speed. Five moves, five minutes, one reason each:

  1. Two minutes of walking. Briskly to the first tee or up the stairs to the bay, instead of straight from the car to the ball. The reason: the pulse goes up before anything turns.
  2. Hips, one minute. Standing, feet shoulder-width apart, hands on the hip bones, turn slowly to the left and right ten times, the feet stay put. The reason: the hips are one end of the rotation.
  3. Trunk, one minute. Club across the shoulders, into the golf posture, turn ten times to each side, the head stays still. The reason: that is the movement of the swing without speed and without a ball.
  4. Shoulders and wrists, half a minute. Ten arm circles forwards and ten backwards, then let the club swing from the wrists with a loose grip. The reason: shoulder, elbow and wrist are the three other regions on Balgrist's list.
  5. Swings in steps, half a minute. Ten half swings with the wedge, then full swings with a mid iron, the driver last. The reason: the practice swing is the last exercise, not the first.

Mobility in winter: the test in December and in March

Before the bay the same warm-up applies, in winter too. The bay takes the cold off you, not the repetitions. Mobility is the lever you hold in your own hands over the winter, and you can measure it. In December, an hour in the bay: your own driver, ten swings after the warm-up, the average club head speed, written down. In March the same, same club, same venue, same warm-up. In between lie twelve weeks for the hips, trunk and shoulders, with the programme above or a plan from a pro. What comes out for you nobody knows beforehand. How to read the number is in the club head speed table and under understanding launch monitor numbers. A plan for the whole winter is in the winter training plan.

For golfers over 60 the same test applies, and the same reason to keep going. Murray's review rates golf as moderate-intensity activity: the estimates run from 2.5 to 8.0 METs, a mean of 4.5, and whoever walks 18 holes takes between 11,245 and 16,667 steps, 4 to 8 miles, about 6.4 to 12.9 kilometres. Balgrist lists age-appropriate training approaches as a research topic of its own, alongside biomechanical loads and prevention in golf medicine, and treats age-related complaints of the hip, knee and ankle.

What a TPI screen is

TPI stands for Titleist Performance Institute. Since 2003 it has studied how the body shapes the swing, the Body-Swing Connection, and trains people in it: over 19,000 certified professionals in 63 countries, in five fields, golf, medical, fitness, power and junior development. A TPI screen is an assessment in which a certified pro, physiotherapist or trainer looks at how you move: swing mechanics and biomechanics, physical fitness, movement quality, current health and your history. TPI does not start from one correct swing but from many swing styles. The screen shows what your body allows of them. The golf assessment in Zurich includes a golf-specific medical examination alongside the movement analysis. Whether a pro near you does a screen, the venue can tell you.

More on this: Golf fitness: what training brings and Golf injuries and what studies say about prevention.

When you stop and see a doctor

Sore muscles after the first round of the year are one thing. Pain that stays for days, that grows from shot to shot or that runs into a leg is another, and it is not a question for the pro or for any blog. It is a question for a doctor, in Zurich for the golf clinic at Balgrist. Nothing on this page replaces that examination. The warm-up above is a sequence of movements, not a promise. The simulator measures speed and ball flight and prevents no injury. And the bay is warm, nothing more.

The next step is small: five minutes before your next round, the five points above, and the same before the bay. If you want to run the test in December: the directory lists the 110 indoor venues with their system and hourly price, 80 of them publish a price, between CHF 25 and CHF 99, a median of CHF 50 per bay. At the median, the two hours for the test cost CHF 100. 95 venues in the directory offer coaching if you want your swing looked at. What training in the bay gives you beyond that is under indoor golf training. What a walked round means physically, in kilocalories and steps, is in How many calories golf burns.

Frequently asked questions

Is golf bad for your back?

No, but the back carries the load. The scoping review by Murray and colleagues over 301 studies calls golf moderate-intensity physical activity with benefits for the heart, breathing and metabolism, at a moderate injury rate. The back is affected most often: in amateurs 18.3 to 36.4 percent of injuries, ahead of the elbow, wrist and shoulder.

How do I warm up for golf in five minutes?

Two minutes of brisk walking, then a minute each of turning the hips and the trunk, half a minute for the shoulders and wrists, and finally swings in steps from the wedge to the driver. In the study by Fradkin and colleagues, club head speed straight after a golf-specific warm-up was on average 12.8 percent higher, in a study of 20 golfers.

Can I play golf despite back pain?

That is for a doctor who has seen your back to decide, not a blog and not the pro. The Balgrist Golf Institute in Zurich, open since 8 July 2025 and medical partner of Swiss Golf, runs a golf clinic and a golf assessment with a simulator and 3D analysis for exactly this. According to the institute, the lower back is among the regions affected most often, alongside the shoulder, elbow and wrist.

Which parts of the body get injured most in golf?

Among amateurs the spine comes first, the lower back above all, with 18.3 to 36.4 per cent of injuries. Then the elbow with 8.0 to 33.0 per cent, wrist and hand with 10.0 to 32 per cent, and the shoulder with 4.0 to 18.6 per cent.

What is a TPI screen?

An assessment in which a certified pro, physiotherapist or trainer watches how you move and reads from it what your body allows in the swing. TPI stands for Titleist Performance Institute, which has studied the body-swing connection since 2003 and has certified over 19,000 professionals in 63 countries.

Sources