The Stress of Golf – You Might As Well Jog

Dr Clifford Caldwell, speaking at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons meeting, discussed the strains on replacement knees when playing golf or tennis. He has developed an electronic knee implant device to measure the various forces (compressive, torque, and shear) that are incurred during different sport activities; the data are transmitted without need for the implant to be retrieved. Four patients agreed to have the implant connected to their normal knee implant. Each then provided data during about 100 trials of various activities.

Walking produced forces that peaked at over twice the patient’s body weight. Some of the other activities’ peaks recoded were:

Rowing machine - less than the body weight

Biking - 1.3 times the body weight

Kneeling - 1.5 times the body weight

Walking - over 2 times the body weight

Lunges - 2.5 times the body weight

Tennis - 3.7 times the body weight

Jogging - 4.3 times the body weight

Golf - 4.5 times the body weight

The high value for golf was surprising, and a clear warning to those who have had a replacement knee. It should be noted that these forces were found for the forward knee in a swing – the other knee experienced only 3.2 times the body weight.

Not so surprisingly, Dr Caldwell recommends biking as a satisfactory post-replacement exercise – at least until this study has been replicated with more patients, or measured clinical outcomes (e.g. evidence of wear-and-tear and damage to the prosthesis). Skiers – watch this space.