Your boss invites you out for a round of golf. You’ve never played before but after your first time doing so, you’re thinking of going back. It was a lot of fun to play and you got to know your boss a little better.
You’re also feeling surprisingly sore even though you feel like you didn’t exert much energy. Golfing like swimming. You don’t realize how much of a workout it is until much later when your muscles are complaining.
A good workout isn’t the only shocking benefits of golf. Keep reading for an entire list of reasons why you should pick up your own set of clubs.
1. It Exposes You to Sunlight
Like many other sports, golf is done outside. This exposure to nature and sunlight does wonders for the body and mind. Being out on the green grass has the potential to reduce stress and anxiety while also calming your body.
While the green is calming you, the sun is giving you a healthy dose of vitamin D. Vitamin D is, what promotes bone growth and reduces your risk for heart disease and Cancer.
2. Social Health
It may be hard to see golf as a social sport because of how quiet it stays on the course but there is actually no better place to meet new people. Golf isn’t as intense or loud as most other sports. You don’t go there to cheer loudly for a team.
That gives you the chance to turn to the person next to you and have a conversation. There is a reason why bosses taking their employees out to the golf course became a stereotype in movies. Many business deals have been closed on the green.
3. Burns Calories
If you decide to opt out of using a golf cart, you have the potential to burn about a thousand calories each time you play a game. It won’t feel like it because it’s such a low-intensity sport but you’ve got to figure how much walking you do during a single game.
If you carry your own clubs that adds on to the workout. Not sure when you last carried a bag of clubs from Power Golf but they aren’t light. It’s sort of the same effect you get when you spend a day hiking with a bag on your back.
4. Good for Heart Health
Golf isn’t just a workout for your body. It’s good exercise for your heart as well. All the walking, swinging, and carrying you’ll be doing gets your heart pumping.
Your increased heart rate will get your blood circulating throughout your entire body. Other than the obvious benefit of decreasing your risk for heart disease, this will also reduce the amount of bad cholesterol in your body.
5. Mental Health
When your heart rate increases the blood flow to your brain increases as well. This will stimulate the nerve connections there and reduce your risk for mental illnesses like dementia.
When you’re on the course you’re not only competing with other golfers, you’re competing with your own best scores as well. The feeling you get when you beat your own score can boost your confidence and self-esteem. The exercise you get from golfing also releases feel-good endorphins that will lift your mood and put a stopper in depression.
Tallying scores and coming up with new golfing strategies takes a lot of brain power. This keeps your brains logical functions on their toes. Lastly, all the swinging you do on the course is great for hand-eye coordination.
6. Improves Your Vision
Before you even hit the ball you’re actually training your vision. You have to be able to focus on the direction of the hole before you start strategizing right?
When you hit the ball it’s going to gain some distance. You have to train your eyes to be able to hone in on it so you go to it to hit it again. Soon, you’ll find that you’re able to do this with more than a golf ball.
7. Golf is a Low-Risk Injury Sport
Golf is a pretty chill sport when you compare it to others. Nobody is tackling anyone like with American Football. With golf, you’re calmly walking to a ball and swinging at it.
That’s all there is to it. It incorporates enough movement to keep your muscles busy and your blood pumping. The worst injuries you can expect is being sore for a few days from twisting the wrong way or getting sunburned because you forgot to put on sunblock.
8. You’ll Sleep Better
All the effort you put into golfing will tire your body out. You’ll find that you’re able to get to sleep faster and sleep longer after a day of golf than any regular day of the week.
Your body needs this extra rest to repair your muscles and tissues and begin the process of cell repair. This means that not only will you fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow but you’ll also stay in REM sleep longer.
All the Surprising Health Benefits of Golf
On top of being a fun way to spend the afternoon, there are a ton of health benefits of golf. It can help you sleep at night, lift your mood, improve your vision, help you meet new people, and allow you to get in your daily dose of exercise.
So, go ahead and pick up a set of clubs and hit the green. Your body and mind will thank you for it.
Golf isn’t the only good source of exercise out there. Visit our blog for even more health and fitness tips.