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[DaRatmastah]

Hey guys, here's another cross post from my blog, Be a Game Character! A fun workout program for all you gamers out there that don't have time to work out! Hope you enjoy, and, as always, feel free to post questions or comments.

Alright, if you’re anything like me, you love playing video games. If you’re also like me, you frequently have to choose between playing video games and other, more “responsible” things, like exercise, or sleep. These choices suck. Luckily, on at least the workout front, you have another option!

Something that drives me nuts is load screens. Playing Skyrim, walk through a door and…looooaaaad…. Same goes for League of Legends. Champ select, lock in, aaaaaand…wait…

These different problems provide their own solutions! Work out during your load screen time!

“But Dan,” you say, “What good is a dozen pushups while I wait for a door to open in Skyrim?”

“Well dear reader,” I reply, “We’re not going to be doing just pushups. We will be taking advantage of high intensity interval training to get fit while we play!”

So here’s the deal. I’m going to give you three different categories of exercise. You’re going to perform these exercises in a cycle, in 20 seconds on/10 seconds off increments. For example! You open a door in Skyrim. As the loading screen pops up, you head into the loading screen. You immediately get up, and perform an exercise from Category “A” for twenty seconds. You then rest for ten seconds. The barrow you were entering hasn’t loaded yet, so you begin an exercise from category “B.” By the time you finish your twenty seconds with that exercise, the game has loaded, you stick your butt back in the couch, and continue playing. After beating the dungeon and acquiring a new thu’um, you head back out into the overworld. The loading screen pops up, and so do you, heading into an exercise from category “C.” You finish this exercise, rest ten seconds, and then begin one from category “A” again, starting the cycle anew!

Voila! Fitness while playing! You don’t even lose any gaming time this way!

Here are your exercise categories:

A:

• Jumping Jacks
• Mountain Climbers
• Running in Place(keep your knees high!)

B:

• Standard Crunches
• Bicycle Crunches
• Russian Twist Crunches(legs held out straight, six inches off the ground, crunch your shoulders up, and twist back and forth for twenty seconds)

C:

• Bodyweight Squats
• Pushups
• Burpees(can be with pushups/jump, or without)

Now, keep in mind, these are high intensity drills, so you should be performing the repetitions as fast as you can. Remember to keep hydrated, and have fun with this, you’re gaining fitness instead of fat while you’re gaming!

This program works because of the way high intensity intervals boost your metabolism beyond the period of actual exercise. So even when you finish a set and continue playing your game, your metabolism remains elevated for a while while you play, burning more calories even “at rest!” You’re not going to gain big muscles this way, but combined with a proper diet, you will see your fat melt away!

This is a non-character week, so the next post will be another grab-bag post on Thursday! I’m hoping to get a video together between now and then, so hopefully it will be a video post! Until then, continue to be awesome.

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace

[UrbanVermin]

I think they'd be better off just doing a regular exercise routine? Because they're skipping a warm up which increases blood circulation, you're preparing yourself for these intense drills, and when they sit back down they're essentially cooling down, right?

[improvised]

Yeah, but there are plenty of people who don't want to spend 45 minutes in a sweat session, so while that would be ideal, this idea is far from poor. I've done similar things myself while watching a movie and such, and I still managed to lose weight.

[Drazhar]

It feels like this relies on having a slow computer or playing exclusively console games....

[DaRatmastah]

Originally Posted by UrbanVermin

I think they'd be better off just doing a regular exercise routine? Because they're skipping a warm up which increases blood circulation, you're preparing yourself for these intense drills, and when they sit back down they're essentially cooling down, right?

Yes, a normal, full-developed workout routine would be more ideal. But the idea is a "better than nothing" solution for people who feel like they don't have time to exercise. You'd be surprised what it can do, even in a non-traditional format!

Originally Posted by improvised

Yeah, but there are plenty of people who don't want to spend 45 minutes in a sweat session, so while that would be ideal, this idea is far from poor. I've done similar things myself while watching a movie and such, and I still managed to lose weight.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by Drazhar

It feels like this relies on having a slow computer or playing exclusively console games....

Well true, this is more for the console gamer than someone on a mega-gaming PC. But even on those, you still sometimes have load screens(particularly in multiplayer lobby games like those in the MOBA or FPS genre).

[UrbanVermin]

Oh, of course. Didn't think of that for some reason..sorry about that.
Well, ill be keeping an eye out for your videos!