Last week we introduced the importance of flexibility in relation to developing an efficient golf swing. We know flexibility is one of the most important physical characteristics in the golf swing and in order to properly implement flexibility exercises into a golf improvement training program, we need to understand a few flexibility principles. Learning these principles will help you perform flexibility training correctly and allow you to get the greatest benefit out of them.

The goal of flexibility exercises is to stretch (elongate) muscles that are tight (shortened). The easiest way to picture this is imagining a rubber band when we talk about flexibility exercises, muscles, tendons, and ligament tissue. These tissues are very much like rubber bands in terms of behavior and how they function. They have a very elastic-like behavior. If you stretch a rubber band, it goes back to normal when you let go and muscles and connective tissue are very much the same way. When you stretch a muscle -- again, picture that rubber band -- the muscle or connected tissue elongates. Once you stop stretching, those muscles and connective tissues return to the length they were previously, just like a rubber band.

So, for example, think about when you do the rotational hamstring stretch that we discussed earlier this year. If you perform this exercise, reaching your hands down toward your toes and holding it for 10 seconds, once you return to the start position of the exercise, those hamstring muscles return to whatever original length they were before you began the exercise. This tells us two things that we need to be very aware of when doing flexibility exercises:

1. In order to get the maximum benefit from flexibility exercises and stretching muscles that are tight, we have to be consistent with our training and flexibility exercises. We know muscles and connective tissues will return to their original position after the stretch is completed. The great thing about flexibility exercises is if they are done over time, the muscles will elongate providing more flexibility. The simple way to think of this is, again, picturing the rubber band. The more your stretch it out, the looser the rubber band (or in this case, the muscles) gets.

2. The tissue tension point is our friend. The tissue tension point is the position within a stretch where if you go beyond this position, you can easily induce a permanent strain, pull or tear of the tissue. For example, doing a rotational hamstring stretch, as you reach your hands toward your toes, you will at some point start to feel a stretch or tightness in the hamstring or lower back. This feeling is your own individual tissue tension point. This is a position where if you go beyond it, you can possibly tear or strain muscle tissue. If you do not get to this point, you’re not getting greatest benefit from your stretch. The point is with all our flexibility exercises, we must take it to our individual tissue tension point. This is where you first feel the stretch in muscles. This guarantees not going beyond the position. I often see people try to push through tissue tension points and put themselves in jeopardy of straining. Or I see them not going to the tissue tension point and, consequently, not getting the greatest benefit available. Know your tissue tension point, you achieve the greatest benefit from your exercises.

Again, it sounds simple, but it’s so important. Knowing muscles act like rubber bands, you must be consistent in your flexibility training to stretch muscles that are tight. Every flexibility exercise we use to stretch tight muscles, we must take the movement to the tissue tension point. It’s the only way to get the most out of the exercises and elongate those tight muscles. Over time, this guards against any tear or strain.

One exercise that starts this process is the rotational hamstring stretch, which we used earlier this year. It is a simple exercise, but a very important one when it comes to starting the flexibility training that can improve your golf swing.

Sean M. Cochran is the personal strength and conditioning coach for 2006 Masters winner Phil Mickelson. He is co-owner of BioForceGolf.com and the author of several books, including most recently, Your Body & Your Swing.

Cochran, who has worked as a strength and conditioning coach for the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres as well as working individually with players like Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior, started working with professional golfers, most notably Mickelson (who won the 2004 Masters and the 2005 PGA Championship), in 2002.

Recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities in golf-specific strength training, he has spoken at numerous seminars and clinics around the country. BioForceGolf.com was founded in late 2004 to respond to the need of the amateur golfer for quality information on golf-specific-strength training. The site provides subscribers the highest quality information in the areas of golf training, nutrition, and general instruction.