Lower Spine Screening in the Shooting Sports

In brief: Rifle and pistol shooters often experience low back pain during or after competition. As a first step in determining the extent and possible causes of such pain, a questionnaire and a rapid screening test for posture and flexibility were designed and administered to 80 shooters. It was found that 78% of the shooters had experienced back pain during competition and 63% had experienced pain afterward. Of the 11 posture and flexibility tests, only the results of Ober's test for tightness of the iliotibial band and tensor fascia lata muscle correlated significantly with reported back pain.