Exergaming and exercising
Now that I have discussed a bit about the mental health benefits by playing more video games, this I want to change things up a bit and talk about physical benefits.
I read this article about this term called, ‘Exergaming‘ in an article by WebMD’s Wendy Fries (the irony).
In that article she talked about some research in relation to the new generation of motion sensing video games. Motion sensors are becoming more prevalent in the next generation of video games. When we were kids, the only feedback and interaction we have with our Nintendo was the television screen and small buttons on the controller. There are definitely more things to pay attention to when playing games, Playstation, Wii and Xbox controllers all have built in motors that can shake to suggest some kind of linkage between what you see on the screen and the actions partaking in the game.
Now let us take that a bit further. Remember when kid Elijah Wood showed up in Back to the Future 2? Well the one line we all remember him saying was, “You have to use your hands?”, now cut back to the present time, we have the Kinect, Playstation Move and Wii Fit. In these games your body is what substitutes are physical controller.
I always feel these games are subtle messages to gamers. For example playing games like God of War has Kratos doing violent attacks against all sorts of mythological creatures, and not to mention all that escalated walking and running he had to do to get to different areas. Well now YOU have to do all these to make him move, suck it!
So back to Exergaming. So Exergaming is a term to talk about video games that combines physical exercises with physical gameplay. Here’s a diagram that shows the amount of energy you can burn out just by playing these games on your Kinect.
| Exergame |
Calorie burn/minute |
Calorie burn/30 minutes |
| Golf |
3.1 |
93 |
| Bowling |
3.9 |
117 |
| Baseball |
4.5 |
135 |
| Tennis |
5.3 |
159 |
| Dancing |
5.3 |
159 |
| Boxing |
7.2 |
216 |
Try it out, burning this amount of calories just for 30 mins is actually pretty good work!
I’ll end it here with a funny video:
Video Gains 
September 27, 2013 at 7:16 am
I would TOTALLY play Assassins Creed with my Kinect!! hahaha
October 15, 2013 at 12:02 am
I couldn’t agree more with the promotion of exergaming!
Video games have long been stigmatised as creating unhealthy minds and bodies, and it is a common known fact that the two influence one another.
I am trying to raise people’s awareness of cardiovascular disease, most notably the easily preventable factors that can be addressed through diet, exercise, and other areas of a healthy lifestyle. I think that exergaming is a really positive direction for the future of exercise. Particularly in Australia, we are subjected to extreme weather (whether hot or cold), and exergaming takes out the unexpected nature…of nature! It means we can exercise at any time, from the comfort of our own home, so we are being somewhat lazy in theory but energetic in practice!
I do have a question for you though…
While studies show that exercise enhances and clears the mind, it is also said that fresh air and exposure to the elements helps to clear the mind. Do you think that exergaming is a bit of a contradiction, in that positively, we are exercising, but can it really replace outdoor exercise?
Is it really an adequate replacement, or do we need to feel the wind and sunlight on our skin, smell the grass, and see the outside world? A very broad question but thought I’d throw it out there!
October 15, 2013 at 1:59 pm
That’s an interesting question to bring up. I wouldn’t say that exergaming can fully replace outdoor activities, it simply acts to supplement such activities. An article I read argues a similar issue but perhaps an important element exergaming does raise is an entertainment element to exercise when it could be interpreted as difficult and boring. Children these days are more interested in video games than ever before, not only can exergaming augment such activities in an indoor environment but perhaps increases their interests for real sports like tennis or boxing to.
In addition, exergaming also has a geographic component to it, surely it cannot be used to solve issues of morbid obesity, but for people who live in highly urbanised areas, exergaming allows people to exercise when the outdoor environment would not allow it.
October 15, 2013 at 12:09 am
[…] Exergaming and exercising. […]
November 13, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Reblogged this on Patty Toledo's Den and commented:
Another very interesting post about exergaming and its fitness benefits