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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-07-02, Page 15THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2009. PAGE 15.Golf a course of action for getting fit Since the 1970s, there are several images that are often conjured up when thinking about golf: men smoking cigars, pot bellies and beer. While golf was the gentleman’s game decades ago, in the 1970s and 1980s, golf was lumped in with other booming recreation rooms games like darts, cards and table tennis. This, however, is no longer the case. With the emergence of one of the world’s most recognizable athletes, Tiger Woods, that image has been changed. Woods, who is one of the most physically fit athletes on the planet, has helped to bring golf out of the smoke-filled 19th hole and into the gym. With Woods eclipsing the field on the Professional Golf Association tour, hitting the ball further and more accurately than his competition, conditioning, body-building and physical fitness have become staples of a game where they weren’t before. That’s on the competitive side, but on the recreational side, golf is slowly becoming a fun and scenic way to get fit and to stay fit. Simply looking at the yardage total of some of Huron County’s courses, many sitting around 6,000 yards, making the choice to walk the course can immediately provide your body with 18 holes worth of a cardiovascular workout. “Even walking nine holes and leaving the power cart in the garage provides a fairly significant cardiovascular work-out,” says Adam Ryan, personal trainer at a local fitness centre. “It’s another activity for you to do, rather than just sitting on the porch for the day. You’re out burning calories and you’re having fun.” Ryan says that while the walking can do wonders for your physical health, swinging the actual club can do wonders for just about everything else. “Stretching before you golf is very important. It helps to prevent injuries, it loosens up your muscles, so always make sure to stretch before swinging a club,” he says. “Once you’re swinging a club, that’s working on your core stability. That’s your abdominal muscles, your back, your lower back and your balance, which is key to everything.” A simple golf swing works several muscles that people don’t even know they have, Ryan says. People are golfing, involving in their round and competing with their friends and they forget they’re essentially working out. With balance being such a large issue, Ryan says that can be worked on at the gym with the use of stability balls. “You can essentially go through a total body workout with a stability ball,” Ryan says. “You can do push- ups, back extensions and a whole variety of things, all made more difficult by the balance the stability ball demands.” When working with the ball, if balance is an issue, Ryan says a simple shift of the feet can change that. The further apart the feet are, the easier the workout is, so for experts, a challenge could be a workout with their feet placed beside one another. Not ignoring the upper and lower body though, Ryan says legs and hips have always been a big part of a golf swing. And lest we all forget it’s the arms and shoulders that are actually swinging the club. “A lot of explosive power comes in shooting from your hips and legs,” he says. “The shoulders get a decent workout as well from a round of swinging. I don’t golf very often, but when I do, the next morning, my whole body is sore.” Ryan says that since he began working in Wingham, there has been a shift in the interest in golf. He says he sees more seniors out on the course getting a day’s worth of physical activity, while at the same time high school students are taking up golf as a high school sport, over the traditional team sports more often played in high school. And while golf isn’t instantly recognizable as a source of fitness for youth, with the emphasis on character-building that comes with playing team sports, in recent years, children are entering the world of golf at younger ages than ever. Jim Masse, co-owner of a local course says a July workshop on hislinks, set up for six to 12 year olds,has brought children in as young asfive years old to learn how to golf.All it requires, he says, is a littlemore supervision. “You can’t have the children running freely, it wouldn’t be safe, but they’re showing interest,” he says. “As far as being on the course, I’d say they should be about eight or nine years old. There is a certain maturity that comes with being on the course, but a lot of kids have it these days.” Masse says that as long as the children are being taught properly, there is really no age limit on beginning in golf. There is also no age limit on the other end of the spectrum, as long as your physical health is in order, you’re able to walk a course and swing a club. Masse recalls just recently giving one of his weekly clinics and welcoming a new member who had never swung a golf club before in his life, doing so for the first time at the tender age of 76. The man’s reason, Masse says, was exercise. In that same group, he says, he has four men who he sees on a weekly basis who are in their 80s.He says as long as people are stillwalking, they’re still golfing, addingthat it becomes a lifestyle after awhile.If someone thinks they may be past their athletic prime, but they want to try their hand at golf, Masse does have some tips. “Hit the driving range, first and foremost,” he says. “You have to see if you can hit the ball and you have to use your common sense. There are nerves associated with actually being on the course, so you need to make sure you’re prepared. Why frustrate yourself and the people waiting behind you?” Frustration has always played a role on the golf course, whether it’s too long of a wait, or too many balls shanked into the trees, but the game can also go a long way to relieving some everyday frustration as well. While the physical workout golf affords cannot be ignored, there has always been a mental workout associated with golf that has been with the game for much of its history. Historically, the gentleman’s game has served as a mental vacation, a day away from it all. In these times of economichardship, this aspect of golf hascome to the forefront yet again.“I think that hits the nail on thehead. When you go golfing, you’reaway from your office and you’re outside and you’re clearing your mind, playing a round at the course,” says Dave Bedour, manager of a local course. “Especially now, with the economy being the way it is, golf is a stress release tool. It gets you out and it gets your mind off your problems, and there’s obviously the physical aspect of it too. The physical wellness that comes along with it.” Bedour says that he would estimate that close to 70 per cent of his course’s patrons walk the course. The nine-hole course offers power carts, but with its scenic nature, he says a lot of his patrons want to walk the course and get exercise without even knowing it. “There’s no doubt about it that people are coming out to the course to keep fit,” Bedour says. “When you swing a golf club, you’re using so many muscles in your body, add the nearly 3,000 yards of walking, and that would be quite a work-out.”Fore! Your health Golf isn’t just for recreation anymore. Many people, both young and old, are hitting the links these days to get fit and stay fit. 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