Gaming your way to fitness
May. 15, 2008 by Lisa Currie
Who says working out has to be a bore? Dance Dance Revolution started it all; Wii Fit and other active video games can help you get an aerobic workout while gaming. NPR reports on this booming trend…
Video games designed to provide a workout are becoming big business.
As proof, look no further than last week’s Games for Health national conference at which health researchers and game-makers showed off their latest innovations. Specialized games about protein folding and nutrition shared a venue with Nintendo’s new mass-marketed exercise game Wii Fit, set to hit U.S. stores on Monday.
The Wii fit is the latest entry in a string of exercise video games, or “exergames.” Nintendo’s Power Pad, released in the 1980s, traded hand-held controllers for a floor mat that users jumped on. But the first exergame to make a real splash was Dance Dance Revolution after it was introduced in Japanese arcades in 1998. When schools in West Virginia documented that DDR helped kids dance their way to fitness, researchers and game-makers took note. read full article…
Discussion: Have you used any “exergames” to help you get fit? What are your favorites?