Why exercise video games?

Well let’s see, what are the different alternatives available today for exercising?

I could join a gym, but a gym has too many minuses for me. First of all, it costs $250-$300 a year; I think some memberships are even more. Second of all, it’s not at home, meaning that I have to invest some time getting there and back. So instead of spending 20 mins to do some exercises, I have to plan on 40+ minutes; to go there, exercise, and come back. Another down side of it being somewhere else is that I would eventually break my routine because of laziness. For example, I come home after a long day at work and I have a choice of vegging out in front of the TV or going back out into the cold to go for 40 minutes of exercise, there is a good chance that I will just skip it that day. The same could be said about exercising at home, but it is still easier for me to force myself to do 20 minutes of exercise and go back to watching TV.

There is another aspect of the gym that I don’t particularly like, and that’s the social aspect. After a whole day at work I don’t really feel like going back out and mingling with more people, I just want to retreat and relax.

Which brings me to my next alternative, an exercise machine at home. This is kind of like the gym but without all of the annoyances that I listed above. The problem with an exercise machine at home is also one of having to force yourself. Running on a treadmill is pretty boring. You can watch TV while you run on the treadmill, but you can also watch TV without running on the treadmill. Which means that you have to force yourself to run on the treadmill while you watch TV. And again, when I come home from work it’s very hard for me to force myself to use the treadmill.

The problem of forcing myself into an exercise routine is that I can’t maintain it. I can decide that from now on I will run on the treadmill every other day. And I can probably keep that up for 1-2 weeks. But on the 3^rd week I’ll come home and I’ll be really tired, or sick, or grumpy, or I had a bad day…. and I will skip the exercise. And then it just all falls apart. It takes an enormous power of will to force yourself to do something consistently. And that’s the main problem that I see with having an exercise machine at home.

Another alternative is to go exercise outside. I tried this alternative for a while, I rode my bicycle to the park 3 times a week. It also has the “need to force myself aspect” of course, it’s fun for the first few times, but eventually it also becomes just exercise. Also there is the problem of weather and time of day ( hard to ride your bike in the dark ). Some people like to jog before going to work, but I have a hard enough time waking up as it is.

Team Sports - that’s a really good alternative if you can hook that up. I play tennis and I actually really like this alternative. Unlike the other alternatives above, I don’t have to force myself to play tennis, I like the competitive game aspect of it a lot. But it is kind of hard to set up. You need to have a group of people that are close to your level and you have to be able to organize a routine schedule with all of them. So if you don’t have a group of people to play a sport with, you would have to go through the hassle of trying to find a group. And you might find that the time that they get together is not the most convenient time for you, or that you aren’t as good as them, or the other way around…. Basically it involves coordination, because it’s not just you exercising by yourself anymore, it’s you exercising in a group.

Finally, the entire point of the article comes down to this, video game exercise. The way I see it (1) I like video games (2) I need to exercise (3) if there is a good combination then I wouldn’t have to force myself to exercise and would eliminate all of the problems above. I think that’s where exercise is going, something like the treadmill but more interactive. And it would have to be something that forces you to exercise. Dance Dance Revolution is a great example of a game like that, it forces you to really exercise and it’s also really fun, now if we could only see more games like that.