Stiff Golf Swing? Why Golfers’ Hips And Backs Tighten, And What Yoga Gives Back

Yoga for golfers: the short answer

Yoga for golfers starts with the problem: a golf swing is a fast twist to one side, repeated thousands of times. Over the years the hips stiffen, the body becomes lopsided, and the lower back starts turning for hips that will not. That is why so many golfers end up with a stiff swing and a sore back.

Yoga for golfers gives back what the game takes away: hip turn, an even body, strong legs and a steady mind. Here is the article in short form:

• More than a third of 1,170 male golfers had back pain that week.
• When the lead hip will not turn, the lower back turns for it.
• Six weeks of yoga improved golfers’ pelvis rotation.
• Standing poses stretch and strengthen at the same time.
• Both sides get equal work, which golf never gives.
• Yoga: about 0.6 injuries per 1,000 hours; golf about 2.

A quick word on Iyengar yoga. Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, through his books and his teaching, and he pioneered the use of props. He even wrote a book called Yoga for Sports. It is the style we teach at Flametree, in Darwin and live online.

Why does golf make you stiff?

Because it is one-sided. You swing the same way, thousands of times, year after year, and the body follows. One hip turns in more than the other. One side of the back gets tighter.

The Australian Test opening batsman Justin Langer found the same thing with cricket. On a visit to Mr Iyengar’s institute in Pune in 2004, Mr Iyengar saw trouble in his lower back and shoulder just “by the way you are sitting there”. He put it down to the long hours Langer spent batting left-handed. Golf is the same story.

Add a desk job and a car between rounds, and the hips spend most of the day folded. Hip extension, taking the leg back behind you, is the movement we lose most with age, and chairs are a big part of why.

Why do golfers get lower back pain?

Golfer’s back pain usually comes from the hips not doing their share. In a 2023 survey of 1,170 male golfers, mostly in their fifties, more than a third (37.3%) had low back pain in the past week. Shoulders and knees came next.

In a small 2009 English study, golfers with low back pain had less inward turn in the lead hip, the front hip in the swing, than golfers without back pain. A study like this cannot prove one causes the other. But it fits the idea that when a hip will not turn, the lower back turns for it, and the lower back is not built to turn much.

That is why both sides, and both hips, get equal work in a yoga class. Read more on backs in How To Reduce Lower Back Pain.

Does yoga actually help your golf swing?

The first study says yes. In a small 2019 study from Scotland, ten male golfers did six weeks of yoga or carried on as normal. The yoga group’s pelvis rotation in the swing improved. The researchers called it promising, and a first step.

Other sports point the same way. In a New Zealand trial of 31 rugby players, the half who added yoga twice a week kept their hamstring flexibility through the season, while the others lost about 15% of theirs. In a trial of 60 young club cricketers, yoga improved bowling speed and accuracy as well as standard conditioning did.

Nobody has yet tested yoga against your golf score. But Dino, an Australian golfer quoted in Mary Flaherty’s book Does Yoga Work?, started yoga at 52 when he could not reach his toes. In time his palms went flat on the floor, his back and shoulder pain became “almost non-existent”, and he reckons he gained at least 20 metres on his drive. His own report, not a measurement, but a good one.

Are golf stretches enough on their own?

Stretching on its own can leave you loose but weak at the end of your range. A golf swing needs range you can control, at speed.

Iyengar standing poses stretch and strengthen at the same time, because you hold your own weight in the stretched position. In Warrior 2 and Triangle, the hamstrings and hips lengthen while the thighs work hard. For a golfer, that is a fuller hip turn that you can actually use.

Mr Iyengar learned this young. In the 1930s, champion wrestlers lived in rooms beside his in Pune. They kept knocking on his door to lock and unlock their own, because the lock was high and they could not lift their arms above their shoulders. Great strength, he saw, can come with a stiff body.

What does a yoga class do for a golfer?

A class is not a random set of stretches. The order is the point:

• Standing poses first: legs, hips and range you can use. A fuller hip turn.
• A leg up on a rail or ledge: the hamstring and hip work that keeps a golfer’s back out of trouble, with the spine kept tall.
• Weight on the hands: Plank and Downward Dog for shoulders strong right through their range.
• A twist on a chair: lift first, then turn, to even out a body golf keeps turning one way.
• Forward bends and rest to finish: to calm down, and to help recovery.

Every pose is done on both sides, and the teacher looks for the side that works harder. Usually you will feel it yourself within a few weeks.

Can yoga help focus on the golf course?

It trains the same skill. Iyengar yoga asks for close attention: where are your feet, is the back knee straight, what is the breath doing? A 2017 review of nine trials with 290 athletes found mindfulness practice improved athletes’ mental performance, and actual performance in precision sports such as shooting and darts.

A putt is a precision skill too. And a slow out-breath before a shot is the body’s brake. “Learn to remain composed in chaos,” Prashant Iyengar, Mr Iyengar’s son, told a class in Pune in 2002. “That is important.”

Is yoga safe for older golfers?

Hour for hour, it is one of the gentler things you can do. A 2019 German survey of 1,702 yoga practitioners counted about 0.6 injuries for every 1,000 hours of practice. Mary Flaherty sets that beside older figures of about 2 for golf and 2.5 for running. The studies counted injuries differently, so it is a rough comparison, but the gap is wide.

The same survey found the risk was higher for people who practised alone, without a teacher. That is one reason we teach in classes, with poses adapted to each body.

Where can golfers do yoga in Darwin?

For golfers in Darwin, Flametree runs Iyengar yoga classes at Woolner and live online. One of our lunchtime students told us, a few months in, that his range of movement was so much better that his golf had improved. He joked that we should not tell anyone. He wanted to keep his secret weapon from his playing mates.

About a third of Flametree’s students are men, so you will not be the only one. Keep your golf. Add yoga. Read more in Yoga For Stiff Guys.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my golf swing feel so stiff?

Because golf is one-sided and most golfers also sit a lot. The swing turns the body the same way thousands of times, and chairs take away the hip’s backward movement. In a small 2019 study, six weeks of yoga improved golfers’ pelvis rotation in the swing.

Why do so many golfers get back pain?

A golf swing twists to one side thousands of times. In a 2023 survey of 1,170 male golfers, more than a third had low back pain in the past week. When the lead hip will not turn, the lower back tends to turn for it.

Can yoga add distance to my drive?

No trial has measured it yet. Dino, an Australian golfer quoted in Mary Flaherty’s Does Yoga Work?, started yoga at 52 and reckons he gained at least 20 metres on his drive. That is his own report, but better hip turn and shoulder range are exactly what yoga builds.

Which yoga poses help a golf swing?

Standing poses such as Warrior 2 and Triangle build leg strength and hip range together. Chair twists even out one-sided turning, and a leg raised on a rail lengthens the hamstrings with a tall spine. A teacher sets them for your body.

Is stretching before golf the same as yoga?

Not quite. Stretching alone can leave you loose but weak at the end of your range. Iyengar standing poses stretch and strengthen at once, because you hold your own weight in the stretched position, which gives range you can control in a swing.

Can older golfers start yoga?

Yes. Hour for hour, yoga causes about 0.6 injuries per 1,000 hours in a German survey of 1,702 people, against about 2 for golf in older studies. Classes with props and a trained teacher suit stiff bodies, and Dino started at 52.

How often should golfers do yoga?

Once or twice a week is the usual pattern. The sport trials ran two classes a week for six to twelve weeks. One of our students noticed his range of movement, and his golf, improving within a few months of weekly classes.

Where can golfers do yoga in Darwin?

Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner in Darwin and live online across Australia. About a third of our students are men, and the beginner classes suit stiff golfers well.

Where to next

• New to yoga, or coming back? Start with our half price 10 class pass with 2 classes free, in Darwin or live online.
• For a workplace, team or group: book private yoga classes for groups, online, at a Flametree studio or at your venue.
• Want to see class times first? Look at the beginner timetable.

Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and live online. This article is general information, not medical advice. Choose an advisor you trust: your yoga teacher, a yoga therapist, and your doctor if you wish.

Sources: Effect of a 6-week yoga intervention on swing mechanics during the golf swing: a feasibility study, International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 2019 (doi 10.1080/24748668.2019.1566845); survey of musculoskeletal complaints in 1,170 male golfers, BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine, 2023; low back pain and lead hip rotation in amateur golfers, Physical Therapy in Sport, 2009; Cramer H and colleagues, survey of yoga injuries, 2019; New Zealand rugby trial, 2021; club cricketer trial; Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work? (2020); BKS Iyengar, Yoga for Sports and Astadala Yogamala. Full references are in the Stay In The Game ebook.