Sunday, July 13, 2008

DID YOU KNOW THAT PLAYING VIDEO GAMES IS GOOD FOR YOU??


Active video games may help spur exercise
INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) -- Active video games appear helpful in encouraging youth to exercise, researchers at the American College of Sports Medicine in Indianapolis said. One study examined energy expenditure for active video games compared to sedentary games to see just how much more exercise 17 children about age 11 get when playing systems like the Wii. Gregory Brown and his team found that Wii Boxing, Wii Tennis and Dance Dance Revolution burned two to three times as many calories as traditional hand-held games. Researcher Viki Penpraze conducted a similar study, comparing two active games to a hand-held game and simply watching a DVD. Participants included 13 children, all around age 10. During Dance Mat Mania and Eye-Toy Boxing, players simulate actual boxers. The study found the counts of total movements per minutes were more than four times those of the DVD and hand-held game activities. However, a third study from The Netherlands found that perhaps not all active games meet recommended oxygen consumption and energy expenditure. The research team studied six gaming systems: Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Tennis, Eye-Toy Beach Volleyball, Xerbike, Lasersquash and Apartgame. They found Wii Tennis and Eye-Toy Beach Volleyball did not achieve the level of energy output recommended for children by Dutch health and fitness experts.


Copyright 2008 by United Press International

2 comments:

Cali Angel said...

well this is one fantastic game for sure! This way I can alternate between playing sports in the rain, I can do it on my TV! I think that with awesome new breakthrough technologies like the Motorokr's awesome video capability, and Windows 11 capability, one day these kinds of games can be put on cell phones. What do you guys think?

Unknown said...

It's good to know that playing video games could be GOOD for me. This gives us gamers more reason to play games on the go! Ever since I started working with Motorola I have become obsessed with the Krave (motorola.com/krave) Has anyone else seen it? With its full touch screen, I am interested to see what kind of things they can do with game play on a full touch screen.