Hmmm... I imagine that I burn a lot more calories (even moving down to 15lb these days) throwing a ball than say, someone who plonks the same weight ball up the boards, but here's some estimates...
Calories Burned Bowling
Calories Burned During Sports | LIVESTRONG.COM (refers to the first one and throws a not-entirely-undeserved jab our way...)
Exercise for weight loss: Calories burned in 1 hour - MayoClinic.com The Mayo Clinic has a higher estimate than the first ones. I'm inclined to go with that estimate in a rapidly repeating shot scenario.
I wore a heart rate monitor (just for fun) at last year's Nationals, and kept a 100-110 heart rate through my squads, except for teams, where it would lull back to under 100 between shots. Still, 110 bpm is moderate activity, burning some calories, according to the chart at
Heart rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I know that when I had the front 11, I had a glance and my heart rate was 130, which was reassuring, as I top the hell out of that on the bike regularly. I still muffed the last shot though, so fitness isn't everything!
What's interesting is that what I do as a power player with higher speed and stronger than usual release is a lot more than what most people do while bowling and rates as moderate exercise. I would estimate that the most players are barely out of the warm-up range of the chart mentioned above.
Most interestingly,
one can of Coke in that hour of bowling (and no doubt a US sized can which is a bit smaller) and all that exercise is gone. Now everyone knows I like to give George Frilingos a rev-up on this site (and whenever I see him!) It's OK, he likes to rev me up too.
But here's a bouquet to old mate George. Has anyone ever seen him get tired? I doubt it and he must have been sick if you have seen it. George takes good very care of himself in terms of diet and exercise. His record speaks for itself. Jason Belmonte, Jason Walsh, Michael Little, Jarrod Lean, Andrew Macarthur, the list goes on. These guys can bowl all day and come off looking ready to do it all again. They're in good shape and I guarantee they're doing more exercise than chucking the rock. Think about it.
I've gotta get some work done now. Then walk the dogs. And fit a ride in this afternoon. And some light Pilates tonight while watching the news. (Gotta get back into that stuff slowly!)
Cheers,
Jason
