Thursday, November 26, 2009

Get in Shape by Playing Golf

By Mick Euan Tait

Most people know that you need to exercise to maintain good physical health, yet many people simply have no wish to exercise. Often you will hear the excuses are that they do not have the time to exercise or it is too much hassle trying to find something that is interesting, and not boring. Conversely, there are also people that are conscious of the growing problem with an overweight and obese population and they want to do some exercises.

Most people do not like the idea of just doing exercise to get in shape as it becomes a dull routine. So they do some thinking about a sport to begin to get fitter, but if you are middle aged or a senior, you can't be thinking about taking up triathlons or marathons. Golf, on the other hand, is a sport that can cater to those both young and old, and male or female.

Playing Golf as a Sport to Keep Healthy

Golf, as a sport, is relatively easy to get into in the sense that you don't have to train for months to take part - like a triathlon. Once you get started with golf, you will discover that it is greatly enjoyable and fun. This is the important part to actually getting up and doing some exercise, because if you enjoy what you are doing, you will be surprised at how often you look for reasons to play. For these reasons, golf has become a sport that provides those many formerly inactive people with a good excuse to go out and get started with some exercise.

In the Beginning

At the start it is best to start playing shorter courses, maybe 9 holes, until you can improve your general physical abilities to permit you to be able to handle the physical requirements for a full 18-holes. As we are discussing golf as a sport, we have to discard using golf carts as this defeats the benefits of golf to get fit. This makes it necessary to have the physical strength to be able to walk the whole golf course before you can think about playing a round of golf. You may discover that for your first games you can only manage hardly any of the holes. This may seem discouraging but by constantly playing, you will manage to build up your stamina and strength to permit you to walk and play a full course.

Increasing Your Fitness Level

Generally, golf is rather a good sport for allowing you to slowly get started with an exercise schedule. When you first start golf you will be taking golf lessons which will let you to start off gradually by working on your swing. You will start to develop your flexibility and golf muscles at the same time you practice your golf swing.

Even though some folks say that you can play golf when you are overweight and unfit, this is not accurate. True, you could get around the course in a golf cart and just get down to take a stiff looking swing to move the ball a little distance along the fairway, but this is not golf. If you are at all serious about improving your fitness through golfing, you will want to ultimately play golf skilfully. After you are able to shoot a few pars and birdies, you will look forward to working on your fitness and flexibility so that you can get improve even more.

If you love playing golf then you will not mind getting up early to go to the course. If you really want to take your game to the next level, you will not mind the little bit of effort to exercise your golf specific muscles and a flexibility schedule to develop your limberness. Once you are passionate about golf you will discover that because you want to improve your golf swing you will additionally be working on getting fit for golf and keeping fit.

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