Sunday, 22 May 2011
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Wii Fit Moves Women into Moderate Intensity Physical Activity - MPA (study)
Image by WindRanch via FlickrIn this recent Wii Fit study, researchers investigated the energy expenditure of young females across different game levels. Of course it makes sense that different levels will require different movements or more intense or more frequent movements, but until now there has been little in the area of level of game play and energy demands.
- What does the hardest level look like in terms of VO2, METS, RPE, RER?
- Did the participants enjoy the games?
- Was their any correlation between enjoyment and perceived exertion?
- Would greater number of participants change the findings?
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Exergaming and the Feedback Loop
We've seen an increased importance over the last year being placed on "implementation". This comes in the context of programmes for commercial clubs and lesson plans for schools. There's not a whole lot out there to help with the most convenient of exergame arenas - the home.
The majority of "fitness games", such as Wii Fit plus and EA Sports Active, do guide you through a workout regime in much the same way that a personal trainer might. There is of course one huge difference, there's no "personal" in a games disc. The feedback the game has is limited to what it can measure.
It can't tell you if losing 1lb per week is a great, if you goal is actually improved cardio fitness over and above weight loss. The game can't tell when you're bored, too tiered or needing motivation. With these limitations, how good can exergaming in the home really be?
What we need is feedback! Luckily there is one place we can get this feedback, Gamers for Health. We first reported on the new work group titled Gamers for Health here. Gamers for Health provides ECA members and the gaming community with the tools and resources necessary to help incorporate gaming activities into healthy lifestyles.
Friday, 31 December 2010
Study: Xbox is better exercise than Wii
Active Gaming Proved To Keep Kids Interested
Two linked studies in the United Kingdom have tackled these issues head-on by trialling active gaming in a free-play environment. Two schools in the Midlands undertook a medium term study using popular active games compared against free play in the playground.
The effort that the kids expended was converted into “steps” to make the results comparable between the playground and the video games. The initial study, over six weeks used Nintendo Wii Sports active play compared with the baseline of traditional play. The results showed that in week one the Wii was king of the calories, keeping kids 25% more active than the playground.
After the first week, the criticisms of boredom and poor exercise appeared well founded, as Wii exercise floundered to a poor 65% of traditional activity. The study was then repeated, this time using Xbox and Gamercize Power Steppers. The results, unexpectedly, turned the thinking about the shortcomings of active gaming on its head.
For the second data collection, the kids had to keep moving on the Gamercize steppers to power their controllers and play the game, which would pause if they stopped moving. Normal video games are compatible with Gamercize and games such as Lego Star Wars and FIFA were used.
The Gamercize results were similar to Nintendo’s results for week one, reflecting the kids excitement of “something new”. What happened next was unexpected. Rather than the initial interest tailing off like it did with Wii, the combination of Xbox and Gamercize kept the kids playing, engaged and active throughout the entire study period.
The Wii data supported the loss of interest and lack of exercise critisims of active gaming, but Gamercize for Xbox did not suffer a lack of interest over time or a drop in physical activity. What can we conclude from this? As a physical activity intervention, Gamercize uses the attraction of videogames to keep the kids engaged and the patented Gamercize approach of minimal interaction kept the kids active the whole time.
Results of the Gamercize study have been presented at the European Child Obesity Group. Reference: Duncan, M. J., Birch, S., Woodfield, L., Hankey, J. (2010) An evaluation of a 5-week, school-based, exergaming intervention using the Gamercize power stepper on body mass index and physical activity during school lunch breaks in British primary school children. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Workshop of the European Child Obesity Group, Nov 17-20th, Brussels, Belgium.
Sunday, 12 December 2010
The Exergame Network Award Categories
Fifteen categories cover the new generation of Active Video Games (Exergames) with nominations from industry experts. The Exergame Network's Active Gaming Awards have the following categories and nominations are:
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