![\"naga](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9c7729f3-5a73-4608-8392-2adf023e5e8a.jpeg\" "\\"naga")
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When asked what she loves about the game so much, she replied: \u2018It teaches you not to lose your temper. And it\u2019s a game which you play against the course \u2013 so it\u2019s a very mental game, as well as requiring precision and skill. You have to keep practicing; you\u2019re never going to beat golf.\u2019 <\/p>\n
As for helping you to live a longer, healthier life, one landmark study<\/a> compared 300,000 golfers with non-golfers and found a 40% lower mortality rate in golfers, which authors noted was equivalent to a five-year increase in life expectancy. This effect was the same across all ages, sex and socioeconomic groups. <\/p>\n They put this down to several factors. Golf provides moderate-intensity aerobic activity<\/a> (walking<\/a> 18 holes is the equivalent of 5-7 miles), helping people meet or exceed the national physical activity guidelines, which are a major determinant of mortality risk. <\/p>\n They also cited associations between golf and improvements in many cardiometabolic risk factors, like cholesterol levels, insulin-glucose regulation and body composition \u2013 all of which are drivers of chronic disease, such as diabetes. <\/p>\n Other benefits included improved lung function, better balance, muscle<\/a> function and endurance, and improved mental wellbeing and social interaction. In an interview with The Guardian<\/a>, Naga said golfing with her husband gives them \u2018a few hours together when we\u2019re walking and talking\u2019, helping them to stay connected. <\/p>\n Crucially, the study authors emphasised that golf is played well into older age. It’s one of the few sports that people stick with, and the biggest driver of longevity is consistent activity over decades.<\/p>\n For Naga, golf is both a hobby she enjoys and a performance pursuit. The longevity benefits are a bonus. <\/p>\n RELATED STORIES \u00a0As Women\u2019s Health UK\u2019s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism. She secured her first role at Look Magazine, where her obsession with fitness began and she launched the magazine\u2019s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!. Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner\u2019s World and Red.Now, she oversees all fitness content across womenshealthmag.com.uk<\/a> and the print magazine, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as \u2018Fit At Any Age\u2019, where we showcase the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise. She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks \u2013 all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how.Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While it\u2019s probably not news to you that running can boost longevity by improving your heart health, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[147290,5218,197271,2117,565,134,2116,111,139,69,197270],"class_list":{"0":"post-378807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-collection-fitness-app","9":"tag-content-type-default","10":"tag-contentid-4a683e07-b6ba-42c0-8301-aac8e4b87b3b","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-fitness","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-locale-gb","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-shorttitle-how-naga-munchettys-go-to-workout-boosts-lifespan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Headshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776162920_989_3c8d88e6-1a98-41e9-804d-2de8b0b9d75a_1741783208.file.png\" "\\"Headshot")
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