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Get health: Disc golf is exercise disguised as fun
HUNTINGTON -- While most people think of disc golf as a fun recreational activity, there are several healthy benefits to the sport when played at a challenging course such as the ones at Rotary Park in Huntington.
Bill Ragan, president of Huntington Disc Golf Club, said people who play 18 holes of disc golf at Rotary Park can expect to walk between three and four miles. The holes, Ragan said, were designed to feature the park's hilly landscape. While some holes are on even ground, several of the holes are in heavily wooded areas that require sturdy legs and strong lungs.
"The courses have a lot of hills, which makes for a better workout than courses that are completely flat," Ragan said.
Aside from the health advantages of navigating a challenging course, calories are burned every time a disc is thrown. According to www.healthstatus.com, a site dedicated to health risk assessment, a 200-pound individual would burn about 552 calories while throwing a disc around for about two hours.
The combination of throwing and walking equals about 920 calories burned during a two-hour round of disc golf. Next time you throw a disc into the woods, look on the bright side -- you're burning more calories than the pros.
