Are Pro Golfers Too Bulked Up?

The Wall Street Journal—August 15, 2014

Maybe this is just a midsummer rough patch, but injuries among pro golfers have never been so much in the news, or of so much concern for the players themselves. "It's not a football game. We are not taking hits out there," Jim Furyk said last week. "But we're doing a very awkward motion at a high speed and it's repetitive, that same motion, over and over and over again."

Most top golfers train directly with well-educated physical therapists and avoid this trap.

But over time, even the best training regimens wear down the body. "If you're training harder, working out harder, it's going to make you stronger and maybe help prevent some traumatic injuries," said Joshua Dines, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City who counts numerous professional golfers among his patients. "But every time you do a push-up or a lat pulldown or a biceps curl, you are risking an overuse situation. So it's a constant balancing act between letting the body recuperate and making it stronger."

This article originally appeared on wsj.com.