What Does The Spine Do In The Golf Swing?
The spine plays a central role in both golf swing performance and injury prevention. For golfers, the spine is responsible for maintaining posture, creating and controlling rotation, transferring force between the lower and upper body, and moving through multiple ranges of motion at high speed. A healthy golf swing doesn’t rely on rotation alone—the spine must flex, extend, and rotate in precise combinations while staying stable in space. When spinal mobility or control is limited, golfers often compensate through the hips, shoulders, or lower back, leading to swing inefficiencies, inconsistency, and pain. As a chiropractor working with golfers in Brentwood and the greater Nashville area, I routinely see how spinal restrictions impact both performance and longevity. In this article, we’ll break down the specific demands the golf swing places on the spine, walk through simple self-tests to assess your mobility and stability, and share targeted movements and exercises to help you improve spinal function, reduce compensation, and swing more efficiently.
Check out this article for more on this topic:
-4 movements to improve spine mobility for golfers
What does the spine do in the golf swing?
The spine starts at address in flexion. Now, we get most of our forward position from hinging at the hips, but we also get flexion form the vertebrae of the spine to achieve are starting position over the ball. As we rotate in the backswing, something interesting happens. By the time we are at the top of the backswing, we are no longer in flexion. It looks like we are, but the positioning has changed. We are still hinged at the hips, but now we are rotated through the spine while EXTENDED. Yes, we switched from flexion at the vertebrae to extension. The rate of change matched the rate of rotation, hiding the fact that the vertebrae now are in slight extension while rotated and hinged at the hips. You can imagine now how important full, fluid, and compensation free extension from the spine is for a golfer.
Check out this test that helps assess for spinal extension in the golf swing…
Titleist Performance Institute’s lat length test also assess for spinal extension.
When we transition to the downswing, we now need to create flexion through rapid rotation from an extended position. Again, this happens with rotation, hiding the rapid return to flexion through impact. Having the ability to get shared motion through flexion from the individual vertebrae is critical to protecting the spine and keeping certain segments of vertebrae from overworking. Also, when we lose access to rotation at certain segments of the spine, the compensation at the vertebrae is laterally or side bend. Instead of turning, we know introduce excessive side bend and more opportunity for force overload and injury.
Check out more on TPI lat test here:
-Why Titleist Performance Institute’s Lat test is important for golfers
Check out these tests for shared spinal flexion and spinal rotation…
An example of how we can see spinal flexion (or lack of) in global movement testing.
This is a global movement tests that can tell us many things about the golfer, but here we can also focus on global and shared motion of flexion through the spine.
How we test for thoracic rotation.
This test is critical for understanding the true ability to rotate through the thoracic spine. Here, we lock out the lumbar spine to assess how the thoracic spine rotates specifically.
How to improve spinal mobility and motor control
When we aim to improve spinal mobility, we want to first address the biggest missing links. Focus on whichever test’s above gave you the most trouble.
Improving spinal flexion
These drills below will help restore and improve motor control through spinal flexion.
Here we can specifically encourage flexion through the lumbar and thoracic spine.
This will specifically help with flexion through the lumbar spine.
Here we are actively driving spinal flexion against resistance.
Improving spinal extension
These drills below will help improve and restore function through spinal extension.
Lengthening and decompressing the spine will drive spine extension.
This drill will work to create extension or straightening of the spine while challenging the rib cage and scaps to move around it.
This movement combines spinal rotation and extension.
Improving spinal rotation
These drills below will help improve motor control and mobility to spinal rotation.
This position helps drive thoracic rotation with hip stability and motor control.
This banded drill helps drive thoracic rotation strength and control.
A great drill for integrating spinal rotation with motor control.
Conclusion: Why Spinal Function Matters for Your Swing—and Your Longevity
The golf swing places unique and complex demands on the spine. To swing efficiently and consistently, a golfer must be able to move through flexion, extension, and rotation in a coordinated, controlled manner—often at high speed and under significant load. When even one piece of that puzzle is missing, the body finds a workaround. Those compensations may keep the ball in play for a while, but over time they tend to show up as lost power, inconsistent contact, or persistent back, hip, or shoulder pain. By understanding how the spine truly functions during the swing, assessing where your mobility or motor control may be limited, and addressing those gaps with targeted movement and exercise, you give yourself the opportunity to both swing better and protect your body long term. If you’re a golfer in the Brentwood or Nashville area struggling with pain, stiffness, or swing limitations, a structured assessment of spinal mobility and control can be the difference between managing symptoms and actually improving how your body moves through the golf swing.
-Dr. Nick DC, MS, TPI, CSCS
If you would like to learn more about your body, pain, and performance, send Dr. Nick an email at contact@integratedrpc.com or call at (585)478-4379, or schedule a FREE discovery visit at Contact.
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