Source of golfers’ back pain? It’s all in the hips

• Reprints

Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Dr. Darrell Wehrend, a Westmont chiropractor, specializes in treating the pain of golfers — not from their sub-par rounds, but from the repetitive motion of swinging golf clubs and their overuse of certain muscles that eventually break down.

While most practitioners may directly treat a golfer’s back, assuming the back is the origin of the golfer’s discomfort, Wehrend contends the pain from the back is often secondary, not primary.

Instead, it may be that the hip joints are not moving due to surrounding muscle tightness that causes the inhibition of other muscles, including those in the back and buttocks.

To confirm his suspicion, the owner of Physicians Sports and Injury Center in west suburban Westmont or his staff will have the patient attempt certain golf swings while taking X-rays to determine the tightness of surrounding muscles.

If hip motion inhibition is confirmed, Wehrend then administers massage, electrical stimulation, acupuncture and/or Kinesio Taping to help alleviate pain and promote healing. He also has the patient perform customized in-office and take-home exercises to build strength.

The 50-year-old Wehrend treats weekend warriors and professional and amateur athletes who play golf, football, hockey, soccer, volleyball, basketball or run track. He says the athletes’ pain can be attributed to muscle tightness and, as a result, weakened back muscles.

“The main thing is: We all get tighter as we get older — tightness means weakness [so] we are either being injured or we will be injured. It’s all about the weak link in the chain. Everybody has issues — everybody seeking to get rid of muscle tightness, alleviate pain, and improve their fitness and health can be helped in some fashion,” Wehrend explains.

In addition to advanced chiropractic care, Physicians Sports and Injury Center (www.PhysiciansSports.com) offers spinal decompression to treat low back pain, sciatica, herniated discs, degenerative discs, spinal stenosis and facet syndrome; Kinesio Taping to alleviate pain, stabilize joints and facilitate lymphatic drainage; weight loss management and diet/nutrition programs; acupuncture therapy; customized fitness programs, and on-site blood testing to help diagnose and treat health problems more quickly.

Wehrend, who opened his clinic in 1998 after graduating from the National College of Chiropractic and became the first doctor to achieve level one certification in golf fitness from the Titleist Performance Institute, says the majority of golfers — especially males — ignore their pain until it forces them to lay off of golf for several months or an entire season.

“In a perfect world, people should come in when they’re in pain, when their pain isn’t getting better after a few days or when the same pain returns or happens repeatedly,” says Wehrend. He worked as a massage therapist for Butler National Golf Club in Oak Brook and earned certification in musculoskeletal evaluation/rehabilitation from the Center for Exercise Science at the University of Florida.

Wehrend became a self-described “gym rat” at the age of 20 when, as an all-state collegiate baseball player, he mistakenly thought he was physically fit. During a training session at a workout facility, he collapsed to the floor, exhausted, after a few minutes of exercising.

“We can easily deceive ourselves, that’s for sure,” he says. “For example, a physically fit triathlete can rake leaves for three to four hours on a weekend and experience muscle aches and pains the next day. The body reacts very specifically to what you do to it.”

Sandy Thorn Clark is a local free-lance writer.