I have had some horrendous and very serious lower back problems (bulging disks, cracked vertebra, spina bifida) and know all to well about very severe back pain. Fortunately, I have been able to find a way to eliminate that pain and play golf pain free. Proper flexibility training is a part of that equation.

To most golfers flexibility training is synonymous with static stretching. There have been books, videos and all sorts of contraptions developed to promote static stretching routines. Unfortunately, static stretching is perhaps the least efficient strategy for improving golf-specific flexibility and "warming-up".

Static stretching is insufficient to develop the full range of movement, power, strength, stability and mobility required by golf. Part of the reason for this is because static stretching elongates the muscle over a gradual time frame, but the golf swing is completed in under a second. If a muscle is trained to gradually stretch over 30 seconds (static stretching), but really needs to stretch in a half second (golf swing) then it is easy to see why static stretching does very little for golf specific flexibility.

In the end you get what you train for. If you stretch in a static state, you get static flexibility. If you stretch in a dynamic state, you get dynamic flexibility. Static stretching does little to improve active joint mobility, which is by far the most important flexibility quality needed in golf. Since golf is a dynamic movement, you want to spend most of your time focusing on dynamic stretches to optimize your golf specific flexibility and warm-up.