Do Exercise Video Games Work?
Are you looking to get in shape without having to step foot inside a gym? Do you prefer playing video games to exercising?
If so, exercise video games might just be the answer. You may have heard of or even played video games that are designed to help you burn calories while having fun! But with their increasing popularity, the question remains: do exercise video games work? Will exercise video games help you lose weight and stay fit?
If you’re curious whether they actually work or not, stick around; as we explore this topic of exercise video games and why they may or may not work for your fitness goals!
The Benefits of Exercise Video games
When it comes to any consumer experience, it is important to remember the manufacturer’s goal. With exercise video games in particular, the goal is to make a healthy activity fun and addictive. While exercise video games haven’t reached the same level of dopamine response in the brain as battle royal games like Apex Legends, Fortnite, or Call of Duty, they want to get you hooked.
PSAs aside, exercise video games are more than just a fun distraction from daily life. They can have numerous benefits for your physical and mental health. These games provide a convenient and accessible way to get moving without leaving the comfort of your living room.
They can also be more addictive than traditional exercise, leading to increased motivation and longer workout sessions. The variety of exercise video games available can also help keep you excited to workout, and the different games can offer various benefits.
For instance, using motion controls in games like Beat Saber or off-brand Dance Dance Revolution can improve coordination and rhythm. While the social aspect of multiplayer games like Fitness Boxing 2 or Ring Fit Adventure can enhance your sense of community and support.
The games have most of the benefits of traditional low-intensity calisthenics exercise. They can improve sleep, lower the risk of diabetes, decrease depression, improve sexual and cognitive function, and aid in weight loss.
As long as you get your heart rate higher than resting and keep it there for twenty-five minutes or more, you can experience all these benefits just from playing games at home!
However, if weight loss or gaining muscle, we’ll have to talk about the limitations of exercise video games.
The Problem With Exercise video games
While exercise video games can be an entertaining way to stay active, they are not without their downsides. One major issue is that people tend to overestimate the calories they burn while playing these games.
On average, the calories burned playing one of these video games is similar to those burned on a brisk walk. Calories burned per minute are not the measure of good exercise, although it plays a role in weight loss.
Weight loss is a product of calories in being less than calories out, so if video games are your sole form of exercise, it just means that your diet has to be on point.
Additionally, these games can be pretty repetitive and may not offer the variety required to keep a fitness routine interesting and challenging. There aren’t that many different moves you can do without weights or equipment. However, if you are out of shape and looking for some way to get started with working out, these games are functional.
Moreover, it is hard to build muscle with exercise video games. When it comes to bodyweight workouts, the best exercises are push-ups, pull-ups, single-leg RDLs, and squats. Unfortunately, at this point, they’ve really only managed to incorporate squats into these games.
Many games focus on fighting, and shadowboxing is a great way to practice technique and tone your shoulders to a point. Once you can shadowbox for 30 minutes, you need to up the intensity to see any muscle-building benefits. Egg or hand weights are a great option, but if you are holding those, you can’t hold a controller. So if you want to build muscle, you still have to lift weights outside of playing video games.
Finally, let’s talk about VR exercise games. Virtual reality exercise games are really cool. They look fantastic, are challenging, and can be scaled for difficulty. However, they are expensive, and you have to wear a heavy thing on your head. One of the biggest problems among desk dwellers is forward head posture, and a weighted headset perpetuates this.
All that being said, we need to look at today’s exercise video games as a jumping-off point or a proof of concept for the future. We’ve learned that people will play gamified exercise, and they enjoy it. Once the games incorporate resistance training with weights or weighted controllers, have lightweight headsets, and maintain an elevated heart rate throughout the game, exercise video games will be viable workout options.
Until that point, let’s answer the question this article is based around:
Do Exercise Video Games Work?
A little bit. No matter what anyone says, some exercise is better than nothing. Exercise video games are a big win if you get up and move around when you’d otherwise be sitting and gaming. Although the truth is that exercise video games can be used as a beneficial supplement to exercise, but they shouldn’t replace traditional exercises like running, cycling, or weight training.
While some of these games can provide an adequate workout for specific muscle groups if played regularly and improve mental health. Most of them cannot simulate the intensity required for weight loss or significant improvement in cardiovascular health.
Additionally, playing video games does not promote muscle growth like weight training. Ultimately, people should use exercise video games to burn a few extra calories in conjunction with regular exercise to obtain the best results.
Are you having trouble staying fit as a gamer? Check out this article from last week about staying in shape as a gamer.
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