Exercise for Golf: Cardiorespiratory Exercise

It is that time of year when our thoughts go to the spring golfing season. There are still a couple of months to go until it’s ideal playing conditions - so let’s plan ahead and get ourselves ready.

I will start with the normal warning - do not initiate an exercise program without taking adequate medical advice.

Often you may think you are ready and able to exercise. Yes, you walk the golf course; You could run for miles…10 years ago; You feel good when you walk to the local pub. Even better when you walk home!

But honestly - you’re not ready. Take it slowly and get advice. Trust me - it’s better to take care of yourself rather than going full tilt and find yourself making that appalling ‘old man’ noise whenever you move for the next 2 weeks!


My aim is to provide a basic structure for exercising to improve your golf game with the added bonus of hopefully providing a guide to living a healthier, happier lifestyle.

A round of golf requires walking some 6 to 7 thousand yards from tee to green, green to tee, deviations from the fairway plus walking around the green. This amounts to approximately 4.5 miles. Add to this the carrying (or pulling) of a set of golf clubs, hitting (roughly) 40 shots (driver to wedge) all while aiming to keep you heart rate under control - especially when hitting and putting - and you can see why fitness is so important.

You might think that playing a round of golf is the best way to get fit for golf but you could, especially at this time of year, get faster progress by fitness conditioning.

The golf swing consists of a set of movements requiring balance, flexibility and power.

In this blog we will start with cardiorespiratory. Look out next week for blogs on balance and in further blogs for flexibility and power (core training).

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Aim
The aim of improving your cardiorespiratory (aerobic) performance is to ensure that you are never out of breath and that you are able to put as much effort into the drive on the 18th hole as you did on the first.


Objective
By exercising (walking, jogging, stepping or cycling) for 30 minutes, 3 times per week you should be able to improve your overall fitness.


Don’t think that by simply walking you will get much benefit - you have to literally put your heart into it.

While exercising you should aim to increase your heart rate to 50% - 70% of your maximum.

The maximum heart rate is roughly 220 beats per minute (bpm) minus your age.

So, a 40 year old’s target would be 220 - 40 x 70% = 126 bpm

A 60 year old’s target would be 220 - 60 x 70% = 112 bpm

If this feels too hard then reduce.

If it feels too easy then increase.


Remember! Don't over do it!



Target
Use a map (digital or old school) and mark out 1 mile.

Get ready to walk!

To walk at an average of 4mph, aim to take 15 minutes to reach your mile marker.

The next day, aim to walk for 2 miles at a constant of 4mph which should take you 30 minutes.

Keep track of your heart rate (there’s an app for that!) and try to improve your performance with every day you do your walk.


Currently I am aiming to walk 3.6 miles every day. For 3 days each week I’m not in a position to walk much (work commitments etc) so I aim to make it up on the other days. So far, I can feel my cardiorespiratory health improving and hopefully it will continue as I continue with my new habit!

Look out for more fitness blogs coming soon...