Is Golf Good for Your Health? Find out the benefits of Playing Golf
I can’t believe that golf will be one of the first to think if you’re thinking of an activity for your health.
The terms “breaking a sweat” and “golf” are not commonly thought out.
However, the question of whether golf is good for you currently seems increasingly obvious in medical study.
Through playing Golf there are concrete health benefits and many people miss them.
There’s a list of eight reasons why golf is healthy.
Golfers live longer than non-golfers.
Anyone who has played golf for any length of time knows how difficult it can be. When everything goes wrong on the golf field, some days might feel like agony.
On those poor golf days, it’s difficult to believe that golf is beneficial for your health and may help you live longer, but that’s precisely what a Swedish study of over 300,000 Swedish golfers discovered.
This corresponded to a 5-year rise in life expectancy.
The lowest rates were seen in the group of players with the lowest handicap (i.e. the best golfers), which the research team discovered supported the assumption that the game is generally excellent for health because maintaining a low handicap entails a lot of playing.
Another study published in the Journal of Sports Economics seemed to support this theory.
The authors of this study analysed elite professionals who competed on the Champions professional golfer tour and discovered that their life expectancies were greater than the general male population of the United States and at the upper end of life expectancy estimates for other elite athletes.
The study, conducted by the Swedish medical university and published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport division, discovered that golfers had a 40% lower death rate than other people of the same gender, age, and socioeconomic status.
Golf is good for your heart
In terms of blood pumping to your heart, any sort of physical exercise is good.
And with its very natural golf, you can increase your heart rate by walking and sometimes tugging or carrying your clubs.
An average distance from golfers during the regular 18-hole round of around 10.21 miles (6.3 km) has been found by a study by the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine.
This activity can lead you to a lot of heart exercise and improved blood flow which can have a favourable effect, especially if accompanied with a healthy diet, on blood pressure and ‘bad’ cholesterol that can naturally reduce your risk of heart disease.
The cardio workout offered by golf was also highlighted in another study by ageing clinical and experimental research as especially advantageous for ageing adults.
During their studies of golfers aged 25 to 75, their heart rate was below 50% of the individual maximum heart rate for younger golfers just 18 percent and for the mid-age 16 percent of the time.
And it was revealed that the heart rates of older golfers in the study group were never lower than 50%.
Golfers also dropped their average level of blood glucose in the young by 20 per cent, in the middle-aged by 10 per cent and in senior by 30 per cent following 18 lunches.
Golf can help you Reduce your weight
The magic number of steps a day is 10,000. Weight loss is always discussed as necessary.
Research reported at Mayo Clinic The results demonstrate that, independent of the disability, sex or course, every golfer has taken an average of roughly 12,000 steps in an 18-hole rounds of golf.
Thus, 18 golf holes are recommended as part of any overall exercise plan for a daily accumulation of 10000 steps.
A further analysis in the British Journal of sports medicine showed that total calorie costs during golf were between 531 to 2467 kcal for 18 holes, with more than 5,000 research items by an expert group of 25 individuals, including leaders of public health and the golf industry. Other studies found that the body weight decrease in golfers across all age groups was 0.7 per cent from 25 to 75.
Depending on individual and golf-related characteristics, individual energy expenditures can vary widely but golf surely can offer some player moderate and even high physical activity.
However, the golf cart was found to earn far fewer benefits compared to playing and driving.
On average, they were just 6,280 steps and the course could be expected, as compared to the journey on a golf course, to twice the calories.
Leasing a golf cart is definitely a simpler option and a need for many to navigate about a golf course.
Research also reveals that even when utilising a cart, there are still possible weight loss advantages.
Studies also show, however, that weight loss and improvement of your Aerobic fitness can be achieved far better by carrying your clubs on the golf course.
Golf is a Breath of new Life and fresh air
Golf is, by definition, played outside. It enables all players to get outside and enjoy the fresh air in any weather conditions.
There are golf courses next to seas and beautiful beaches, courses through forests and parklands, courses with stunning mountain views, and even courses that end within a minute walk of town centres.
Wildlife enthusiasts can expect to see birds, deer, foxes, squirrels, butterflies, eagles, geese, rabbits, ducks, and even alligators and snakes.
And any activity that brings you outside in the fresh air is good for your health.
Vitamin D acquired from sunlight strengthens individuals’ immune systems and, in particular, supports bone and cell growth in children.
So merely by playing golf, you will wind up spending a lot of time outside, on average approximately 4 hours, and as a result, you will enjoy some health benefits simply by being outside.
You'll Fall sleep better After
Playing Golf regularly
As previously stated, a regular 18-hole round of golf can result in a walk of around 10.21km and nearly 12,000 steps on average – well above the magical number of 10,000 – independent of handicap level, gender, or course played.
All of that exercise time is spent outside in the fresh air, and exercise and fresh air are a terrific combo for getting a good night’s sleep.
Walking a golf course on a regular basis can offer you a decent workout, and regular exercise will help you not only fall asleep sooner but also stay asleep for longer.
Sleep allows your muscles to relax and rejuvenate.
One of the primary advantages of golf is brain stimulation.
Bobby Jones, the renowned US golfer, once quipped, “Golf is mostly played on a five-and-a-half inch course… between your ears.”
While he was clearly referring to the importance of controlling the mental part of the game for scoring, golf also has a number of health benefits for the brain.
The potential benefits of golf go beyond the physical.
Your brain benefits from increased blood flow while your body is in motion.
Walking on a golf course throughout a round, as a result, activates your brain and enhances your vitality.
There are numerous ways in which golf stimulates your brain that you will certainly overlook.
These are some examples:
Playing strategy — No matter what level of player you are, the game requires you to think about and create a strategy for getting the ball to its desired goal or into the hole. This mandatory exercise on the golf course necessitates problem-solving abilities, which are a terrific workout for the left side of your brain because it necessitates the application of geometry as well as an analysis of environmental variables.
Shot visualisation — When you visualise where and how far your next shot will travel, you are actually training your right brain, which is responsible for creativity.
Focus and concentration – When hitting a shot, a golfer must concentrate on the ball while blocking out any distractions, both movement and noise, from their immediate surroundings. Another wonderful brain exercise is the obligation to focus and concentrate on the task at hand.
Visual workout — As soon as you strike the ball, you must focus on it as it sails (ideally!) into the distance. And it takes strong vision to focus in on that 1.68-inch-diameter ball that could be hundreds of yards away. Golfers’ ability to focus on small targets from vast distances continuously offers their eyes a visual exercise and activates the nerve
Final Thoughts
Golf, as we’ve shown, can help players meet and surpass minimal health standards for activity while also providing an opportunity for golfers to reap a variety of health advantages.
The level of the health benefits you can gain from the game will, of course, depend on a variety of criteria such as gender, age, existing fitness, the layout of the course you are playing, and the frequency with which you play.
Playing golf on a regular basis will certainly bring more benefits than playing golf on a sporadic basis.
However, if you can try to play on a regular basis, you will hopefully be more healthier as well as a better player.