Cardiovascular exercise for Golf
Make no bones about it Golf is a physical sport! There is a lot of walking involved and most of it is on uneven ground, up and down hill. There is also the explosive movement of the muscles during the Golf swing. How many times have you completed a round and known that you have worked?
All this movement puts stress on the whole of the body and the heart and lungs as well. If they do not work well then they will not feed enough Oxygen to the muscles and the muscles will not work properly either. This can lead to a decrease in performance on the round that you are playing. Not to mention other health risks that could happen as a result of the heart and lungs working too hard.
By having a set of lungs and a heart that work better than your opponents then you will consistently play better and more controlled shots then they do. You will also enjoy more energy and better health.
There are really no Golf specific exercises for the heart and lungs (cardiovascular system) But there are exercises that can be done to improve their performance and as a result your game and overall health.
Some could argue that a game of Golf is walking and therefore not a lot of stress is placed on the heart and lungs as say running would place. Whilst this is true, it must be remembered that for all the time that you are playing a round of Golf you are using muscles all the time and with more vigour than you would normally do. This requires fuel and Oxygen.
In order to get the best out of your game you need to be able to get Oxygen to your muscles efficiently and this means having a cardiovascular system that can cope. This means exercising it.
All Golf fitness plans should include cardiovascular exercises to get you fit for Golf. Unlike stretching and resistance exercises here we are concentrating our Golf fitness plan and Golf exercises on our basis to get Oxygen to our muscles.
The more common type of cardiovascular exercises that will improve your Golf fitness are:
- Jogging. As a lighter, more gentle form of running. Running is good, but at the start is a lot to put the body through. Start slowly with a pace just above walking and build up over time with a faster pace. Time does not mean over one jogging session. Increase the pace to shorten the time once you have established a comfortable jogging speed. The idea is to always be putting small amounts of stress on the heart and lungs to make them work harder than you normally would. This can be done as said already by increasing the pace over the same distance or increasing the distance. I, personally like to increase the distance. Jogging on grass or other natural surfaces has also been argued to be better on the skeleton as it does not suffer the same through impact shock of the foot striking the floor.
- Walking. A lower impact version of Jogging. This should be done as with jogging, in that you start slow and build up the pace or the distance. All walking of this nature should really be done faster than you would ordinarily walk at.
- Swimming. Although supported by the water tends to be a good exercise in that we can not breath underwater so the breathing has to be controlled yet allow us to deliver enough Oxygen to perform the activity well. Also the water acts as a resistance to our muscles thereby increasing their need for Oxygen to work better.
- Cycling. Very good form of cardiovascular exercise in that it does not put as much shock through the skeleton as running does.
To obtain the best results it is advisable to have a mixture of these exercises in your Golf fitness plan. Work out a proper and realistic Golf fitness plan with a professional instructor, and consult your doctor so the Golf fitness instructor is aware of any health issues that may prevent different exercises from being performed.
By including a cardiovascular exercise plan and exercises to strengthen your core muscles and increase your flexibility you will have the best Golf exercises for you. This will result in an improvement in your game, your overall health and your energy levels will increase as well.
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