Golf: The Perfect Sport

Golf could quite possibly be the perfect sport. Did I just say that? My avid-golfer-of-a-husband must be feeling giddy right about now.

And I know some of you may be thinking, "That is the slowest moving activity around, how could it possibly be the perfect sport?"

Well, hear me out and you just might begin to believe. There are other sports, like soccer and basketball, which obviously require lots of energy, strength, and endurance. Golf, on the other hand, does not require too much of those...at least not at first glance. Golfers can have a caddy carry their clubs for them, hop in little carts and take off to the next hole, having really only walked to and from the cart (possibly even with beverage in hand). And then it's off to the snack shack. Not too demanding, from a fitness aspect at least.

But having a caddy, using a cart, and/or heading for the snacks and beverages are choices the golfer makes. Yes, it is often the norm, but no one is forcing this. You can easily turn golf into something much more advantageous to your fitness plan. For one, you can choose to carry your own clubs. Lugging that bag around will build strength and challenges your aerobic and anaerobic capacities. You can also choose to walk part -or all- of the course instead of hopping in a cart. Nine or eighteen holes add up quickly. In fact, if you walk the entire course for one round of golf, you will be walking as much as four miles.  

As stated in a Harvard Men's Health Watch, "If you walk 18 holes three to five times a week, you'll get an optimal amount of endurance exercise for your heart. If you pull your clubs or carry them, you'll burn more calories per round, and benefit even more."

And golf can be especially helpful for the elderly and people with ailing hearts. A study published in a 2004 issue of Aging Clinical and Experimental Research set out to figure out how much time was spent at different exercise intensities for male golfers, in relation to age, while walking a typical 18-hole golf course.

The researchers found that walking an 18-hole golf course is equal to moderate and high exercise intensity for the elderly, mainly low to moderate for middle-aged men, and low for younger men.

Another study, published in the American Journal of Medicine, looked at the effects of regularly walking a golf course on various health and fitness indicators in middle-aged men. For this study, healthy male golfers aged 48 to 64 years who had been largely inactive during the 7 months leading up to the study were compared with age-matched, similarly sedentary controls. The study participants in the intervention group were encouraged to play golf two to three times a week over a 20-week period.

At the conclusion of the study, it was found that, again, "Regular walking had many positive effects on the health and fitness of sedentary middle-aged men. Walking during a golf game is characterized by high adherence and low risk of injury and is therefore a good form of health-enhancing physical activity."