5 Ways Golf can Improve Your Health
Golf is a popular sport with people of all ages for good reason! It can develop an immense feeling of accomplishment, challenge your mental stamina, and improve your health in a variety of ways. From stretching your muscles to fostering a more positive mindset that transfers to other areas of life, here is how playing more golf could be the solution to living life to the fullest!
1. Grow Your Strength and Flexibility Without Realizing It!
While you don’t have to be a bodybuilder to enjoy a round of golf, the more you play the more you’ll be increasing your strength just the same. Best of all, you won’t even realize it as you are doing something rewarding that you enjoy. Golf engages your whole body from the approach to the follow-through. Then, practicing your swing over and over again will warm up and expand your arm muscles, stretch your core, and open your hip flexors with a consistent reward of sending the ball soaring farther and farther down the fairway. This reward keeps you coming back for more and wishing for more daylight to hit one last bucket of balls before calling it quits for the day.
2. Burn Calories While Doing Something Fun!
Of course, if you walk the course instead of using carts, you are also packing an excellent low-impact workout into your day while strength training by carrying your golf bag. In fact, you can burn between 800 and 1,500 calories just by walking an 18-hole course with your golf bag! Plus, the more clubs you have, the more weight you will need to lift and the more calories you’ll burn. Talk about a fun way to get in your cardio training, especially if you have planned a heavy lunch or dinner for after your game.
3. Perfect Your Balance!
When you speak with a golf professional about how to swing a club, there will be a lot of talk about shifting your weight. This is an essential part of any stroke on the course. Even your short game will require some level of weight shifting and balance to ensure your club connects with the ball in the proper location with just the right amount of power. Moreover, this action is often carried out on soft or uneven surfaces resulting in a greater need to improve your balance in order to hit the ball accurately and consistently. Therefore, each time you play or hit balls at the driving range, you are practicing your balance.
4. Work on Your Hand-Eye Coordination!
Have ball games like softball or baseball, lacrosse, or field hockey always been a source of frustration for you because you believe you lack the hand-eye coordination to be competitive? Perhaps you feel you have lost some of this ability over the years due to age-related issues or a lack of practice. Either way, golf is a wonderful way to regain your confidence and build this valuable skill as you focus on connecting your club head to the ball in that sweet spot that will control your game and make you feel you can accomplish anything. Suddenly, what once made you hesitant about joining in the fun is now a strength you can transfer to another game without dread.
5. Alter Your Mindset and Attitude to Take Over the World!
Okay, maybe you won’t take over the world. But, you can at least tackle those “To Do” items on your annual goals list that keep multiplying each year with the confidence, support, and energy you gain from a sustained positive champion mindset. There is a reason golf is considered a mental game. This sport is grueling on the toughest competitors’ attitudes and mental fortitude. Only with patience, perseverance, and releasing all of that self-doubt and fear that holds you back will you be able to hone your skills to achieve a lower score and a new personal best.
Is Your Mindset Your Biggest Area of Weakness?
If you find yourself frustrated, angry, timid, or hesitant, you are in the wrong mental space to achieve your goals on the golf course or, for that matter, have a great time enjoying the day with friends while playing a round. Remember, golf should be both mentally challenging and fun! If it was not a challenge, there would be no reason to continue playing. Therefore, developing a healthier mindset is a significant part of the game that should be addressed and monitored by every player. Check out the Golf Positive! upcoming courses to discover why golfers are raving about LPGA professional and published author Debbie O’Connell’s ground-breaking strategies and tips that start changing your game and improving your health in the process from Day 1!
