New Gamepad Designed To Build Muscles?

Robmonster writes "The BBC are reporting a story about a product designed to address both exercise and videogaming in one fell swoop. According to the piece: 'A new type of gamepad from a US fitness equipment company aims to turn the couch potato gamer stereotype on its head. The Kilowatt controller by Powergrid Fitness is designed to build up muscle while playing a PlayStation 2, Xbox or PC game." The article explains: "In a racing game like Gran Turismo, the harder you push on the joystick, the faster a car goes, while pulling back slows down the vehicle."

Comments

White House Approved Lifestyle

[Eyah....TIMMY]

We might need it as the White House recommends we eat junk food (usually the preffered gaming food) as long as we excercise.

The World Health Organization recommends eating better but they have probably never played video games.

Re:White House Approved Lifestyle

[Mr Guy]

Nice FUD. The argument is over whether it is possible to be healthy and still eat foods high in sugar or fat. The US position is that diet is dependent on lifestyle and thus occasional splurging is fine for a healthy person if they exercise to burn it off. This is perfectly rational.

The WHO basically ignored factoring in lifestyle, saying instead that certain diets were optimal for everyone. The WHO isn't wrong, they are just being overly stringent with their guidlines. The US prefers to emphasize that a healthy lifestyle can also be an enjoyable lifestyle.

I don't see anything wrong with that. Calories are Calories, the only difference is quantity.

Re:White House Approved Lifestyle

[Mod Me God]

Or the WHO recognises people do not get enough exercise, so recommend a diet better suited to this lifestyle, and the White House is looking after the interests of massive US corporations, rather than the general population.

Re:White House Approved Lifestyle

[drinkypoo]

Look, if you want to talk about what the government is doing wrong, you have to look at the Food Pyramid, which codifies a government-sponsored lie in a convenient, triangular symbol. From the page:

The small tip of the Pyramid shows fats, oils, and sweets. These are foods such as salad dressings and oils, cream, butter, margarine, sugars, soft drinks, candies, and sweet desserts. These foods provide calories and little else nutritionally. Most people should use them sparingly.

(...)

At the base of the Food Guide Pyramid are breads, cereals, rice, and pasta - all foods from grains. You need the servings of these foods each day.

What they neglect to mention is that sugar and white flour might as well be the same thing. It doesn't matter if you consume 50g of carbs from sugar, or from flour, they rapidly become the exact same thing in your body.

The biggest problem with food in america is that we have a tendency to eat preprocessed food, and preprocessed food tends to have huge amounts of sugar added to it for flavor. Personally, I have always hated overly sweet food, such as the pizza sauce at Domino's... But the fact is, all this extra sugar is making us fat. Any carbohydrates you take in become fat if you don't burn (use) them.

What you need to read on this topic is a fine article in the NYT by one Gary Taubes entitled "What if it's all been a big fat lie?" Unfortunately, NYT moved that to an archive article and you have to pay $2.95 to read it now, because they are bastards. I mean seriously, I can see a dollar or something, but three bucks? In any case I condensed the article (sharply, I'm afraid) in an article I wrote for Everything2 entitled "How the Government Fattened America". Please be gentle to E2, though it has moved to a new host it is still pretty fragile in terms of overuse.

One of the important paragraphs from my article runs like so:

The run up on fat began in earnest in 1977, as a Senate committee led by George McGovern declared that Americans should reduce their fat intake to curb disease, in the report "Dietary Goals for the United States". The National Institutes for Health summarily spent several hundred million dollars trying to prove a link between being fat and contracting heart disease -- which failed. On their sixth try, though, they found something they could use to prove that the previous money had not gone to waste; a study showing reducing cholesterol via drug therapy reduced the risk of some kinds of heart disease.

The bottom line is that the government tells us to choke down the carbs. A bag of sugar (from C&H) says that "Sugar Contains No Fat" but eating fat doesn't even raise your cholesterol, eating fat mixed with a bunch of carbohydrates does. The emphasis on low-fat diets (which do not work for most people) causes many people to consume more carbohydrates. Problem is, the more carbs you eat, the more glucose ends up in your body at once. Glucose regulates hunger. Your brain will eventually build up a tolerance to it, meaning you have to eat more carbs to feel full. So, then you eat more carbs, which means you become more resistant to glucose - a classic vicious cycle.

On top of all this, when you consume carbohydrates your pancreas produces insulin as part of the conversion process. The more carbs you take in, the more insulin is produced. The more insulin you produce, the harder your pancreas has to work, and eventually it will give up and you will become a diabetic. How's that for your carb-heavy payoff?

So, in summation; The government says sugar is bad and other carbs are good, when in fact all carbohydrates (except fiber, which is indigestible, and cleans out your colon) have the same effect on your system. (The less processed they are, however, the slower they are

Re:White House Approved Lifestyle

[beguyld]

Until it can be proven that overeating is caused by the food itself, and not just pure western pigginess, it's only safe to say that the WHO's dietary guidelines were right, *not* their legal recommendations.

The food itself certainly can cause overeating. The food that does that is carbohydrate foods which over-stimulate insulin production. Most sugars for sure, and for many people, fruit, potatoes and grain products. Insulin causes fat storage and also tends to create more appetite. This is an evolutionary development that allows the rapid storage of fat during times when a lot of food is available, such as during the short season of fruit, honey, etc. Excess insulin causes blood sugar yo-yo effect, and cravings for more sugar.

Some of us are quite sensitive to this, thus the popularity of the Atkins Diet. It may be extreme, but the low-carb approach in general (hopefully one a little more moderate) does in fact work for many people.

But it does not work for everyone! We have genetic differences. Eskimos do not eat the same as Iranians, and each probably would not do well on each other's diets. But on their own traditional diets they do very well indeed. That is a major problem with most diet recommendations: They want to recommend One Diet to Rule Them ALL. No can do. Does not fit the real world of different genetics.

However, guzzling Big Gulps is not good for anyone, regardless of genetic makeup. Natural, healthy, fat is just fine, and some of us need a large amount of it in our diets to stay healthy. To insist that everyone must eat little fat is crazy, as I have found for myself. There is only fat or carbs as a reasonable fuel source, and I can't handle many carbs, thus fat is where I get most of my fuel calories.

The Low-Fat mantra has been accepted by nearly everyone as THE TRUTH, when in fact it is mostly used to promote Low-Fat commercial trash foods. Some fats, such as vegetable oils that have been bleached, over-refined, and over-heated until they resemble plastic more than any actual food are dangerous in any amount. But fat as it exists in nature is necessary for good health. That's why they call them Essential Fatty Acids.

If humans are not designed to use fat for fuel, why we do store our excess fuel as fat?

not new.

[bludstone]

Its called a dance dance revolution pad, and those have been around for years.

(I obviously havnt read the article)

Re:not new.

[MoonFog]

I remember the "Summer olympics" games back in the days, where the runner ran faster the faster you moved the joystick back and forth. We (me and some friends) picked up an old amiga some months ago, and tried it again.. My arm hurt for weeks after that....

Re:not new.

[FatAlb3rt]

[whispering] Tommy, I wouldn't mess with him ... he plays video games!

Re:not new.

[micromoog]

It's way older than that . . . the NES Power Pad showed up in the 80s. It may have encouraged a bit of exercise at first, but kids quickly discovered that if you pushed the pads with your fingers instead of your feet, you could easily make the character run at instant-heart-attack speeds.

Re:not new.

[TopShelf]

Heck, we used to play Olympic Decathlon on my old TRS-80, in which you ran as fast as you could tap two alternating keys. Talk about an instant case of Repetitive Stress injuries...

It was fun, though!

Re:not new.

[ooby]

Well the Kilowatt will end up in the closet on top of the Power Pad, the Power Glove, the Sega Activator, and that arm wrestling coin-op.

Re:not new.

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

That would be Epyx..

Re:not new.

[prockcore]

I remember the "Summer olympics" games back in the days, where the runner ran faster the faster you moved the joystick back and forth.

That game was the quickest way to break an Apple][e joystick.

I remember Nintendo put out the Power Pad for that game.. great leg workout, although most people just knelt down and hit the pad with their hands.

This would be more helpful

[grasshoppa]

This would be more helpful if worked with my everyday system taskes ( build, check logs, ect.. ).

The faster I ran on this thing, the faster my compile would go. I'd buy it.

Re:This would be more helpful

[Nutt]

If that existed I'd give it about a day (max) for someone to post on here a way to hook up a v8 engine to turn/power/whatever the device and be able to compile gentoo with every package in ONLY 15 MINUTES!

I can see it now...

[tinrobot]

Geeky gamers with Popeye arms...

Re:I can see it now...

[tommck]

I thought most of them already had Popeye arms from ... well... you know...

Re:I can see it now...

[frodo from middle ea]

from pressing CTR-ALT-DEL ?

Re:I can see it now...

[tommck]

well, actually I alternate occasionally... it feels like someone else is doing it... :)

What the hell is this?

[AntiOrganic]

Do these people really think that this is going to have a substantial impact upon the overall fitness level of gamers everywhere? It's not. You want to lose some weight? You stop eating like a fatass and you go outside. We're not even talking Atkins diet here, just "stop eating when you're not hungry, not when you're full." This combined with half an hour of exercise a day is all you need. Mild muscular tension is not an appropriate method of weight loss.

Why all the gimmickry?

Re:What the hell is this?

[canajin56]

Yeah...not only is this bs made to make people feel better about not getting any exercise, it's probably BAD for you. I mean, playing video games can give you RSI and so on. Making the joysticks stiffer will just amplify it...instead of repeatedly pushing lightly, you are repeatedly pushing heavily. This will cause a LOT more wrist damage, I would expect.

Re:What the hell is this?

[kiwimate]

I agree. I can see this working your muscles somewhat, as you say, and possibly resulting in some minor weight loss. But (and I am speculating here, so correct me if I'm wrong) it seems to me it misses a fairly important component of general health, and that is cardiovascular fitness. I doubt it'd cause much of an elevation in heart rate or get you puffing.

Re:What the hell is this?

[OriginalSpaceMan]

LOL, Like sending a foot to Mars?

Re:What the hell is this?

[Lumpy]

"stop eating when you're not hungry, not when you're full."

a very un-insightful statement there.

many people that are overweight do stop eating when they are not hungry. their insulin-intolerance causes a insulin spike to last too long making them hungry too long.

Maybe if you knew much about the human diet and medical conditions that are common to cause obesiety you would have not made such a stupid remark.

want to lose weight? go to a doctor and have him/her tell you what YOU need for weightloss and lifestyle changes. only a fool believes the line of yours I quoted.

Re:What the hell is this?

[daddymac]

So instead of carpal-tunnel everyone will get torsal-tunnel, is that better? :)

Re:What the hell is this?

[haystor]

A very small minority of people that are obese actually have medical problems that caused them to gain weight. Some do have problems which make it very difficult to stay slim, but there are certain laws of the universe that govern the conservation of mass which imply that if they eat less, they weigh less.

Most people will just finish the portions they are served.

Stop being an apologist for all those poor fat people that have everything stacked against them. If they are 5'3" and 270lbs from eating at McDonald's every day, it's not the fault of McDonald's, it's the fault of the person that didn't figure it out when they were 200lbs, then 210, 230, 250, etc...

Hell, I'm overweight because I sit on my ass all day and eat too much. I finish all my fries even after I'm no longer hungry.

I read a study once that fat people don't remember what they've eaten as well as thin people.

This is great

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I can give up my total reliance on masterbating for exercise!

Re:This is great

[greygent]

Still, it's always good to include masturbation as a part of your fitness regime, for a couple reasons:

1.) It builds strong forearm muscles (Make sure to swap hands, occasionally for equal development of both forearms. Hey, it's "like a new lover!").

2.) Good for the prostrate and related muscles.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Change of tact?

[KingDaveRa]

So, we're constanly being told to go careful with mice, keyboards and controllers, to avoid RSI and Carpal Tunnel, yet this company is selling something which makes you do the opposite? Apparantly we'll all have massive arms and bodies, but not actually be able to move them.

So they're saying...

[tuxette]

...that I can get fit and strong by playing computer games the same way I can get a six pack while watching TV by wearing one of those electro-shock belts?

Woohoo! Bring it on!

Please...

[WIAKywbfatw]

This is just a gimmick to sell stuff. If you're serious about getting (and staying) fit, put down the controller for half an hour a day (or every other day) and do a physical activity.

You don't have to go to the gym and work out - you could do a sports activity or even just jog down to the shops and back to get some milk - but it'll be ten times better for you than twiddling your already overdeveloped thumbs.

Oh, and while you're at it, replace every other can of Coke/Mountain Dew/whatever with a glass of water. Your body will thank you for it.

Re:Please...

[WinterSolstice]

Actually, when I am on my cycling trainer, I am playing a game on my PS2 :)
Check it out:
The ultimate training accessory
This way, I get my needed cycling in during the rain, and I can play too.
-WS

Re:Please...

[*weasel]

You'd think gyms would pick up on this sort of thing. Network all those exercise bikes into something like a crazy taxi-styled competition.
Or stairclimbers into some sort of bizarre-o Mega-Man game.

I feel the patent office calling my name...
[j/k]

This is silly

[Schlemphfer]

You buy a game controller for one reason: to have maximum control in a videogame. Anything that interferes with that, including having to exert unnecessary muscle power, makes for a sucky controller.

As Butt Head once put it so well, "If I wanted to read, I'd go to school."

And if I wanted to exercise, I'd go outdoors.

If you want a workout

[ilsie]

try playing Soul Calibur II with a Dance Dance Revolution pad.

Re:If you want a workout

[jellomizer]

I had a friend who is a professional fighter try that. He punched so fast that it registered it as a slow one. I think it needs to be upgraded to 128bit so it can record punches faster the 90miles per hour.

Re:If you want a workout

[milkman_matt]

Funny as this may be, has anyone actually tried one of those arcade boxing games, where you have to duck and weave and you hold onto 'gloves' and actually punch? What a workout.

Yeah, that game is great, although it doesn't record your movement fast enough all the time.. and you kinda gotta slow down a bit and match the pace of the game. On that note, though, Ever seen the Eye Toy for PS2? My girlfriend's Aunt showed us that thing, it's effin' great, it's got it's own disc o' games that comes with it, nothing special, boxing, a soccer 'bounce the ball on your head' game, a game where you wash windows, a couple dancing games.. but damn it's fun, and you'll catch a good workout from it after playing a few games. I got one for my parents for Xmas this year and they absolutely love it. That thing will actually give you a little bit of a workout by the time you're done as well.

-matt

Aha!

[AgentOJ]

Now we know how the characters from Final Fantasy VII got their physiques! To gain their popeye-esque arm structure they used this gaming pad!

Sweat

[verloren]

So now you get to be the sweaty fat kid in gym class, but in the comfort of your own home.

Re:Nintendo had this in the 80's, it was a flop.

[ilsie]

RTFA. The article is about an isometric controller. The Powerpad just had a bunch of buttons. Dont get me wrong, I still think it will be a flop, especially at $700 a pop.

Re:Nintendo had this in the 80's, it was a flop.

[dustinbarbour]

I had a PowerPad! I'd play World Class Track Meet on it with my friends. My parents hated it since my room was upstairs and you could hear our pounding and running from the other side of the house. It was great!

Woo Hoo

[Saint Stephen]

I for one welcome our freakishly strong forearmed child overlords.

Seriously -- rememeber the Chris Farley Skit: "My God, these Hideously Oversized and Freakishly Strong Children Will Surely Rise Up And Destroy Us?"

Mudcycle

[Godeke]

Best encouragment I made for myself to exercise was attaching a low power (386) computer with a terminal program to a stationary bike. Strap the keyboard in an accessable place and play muds for a while... amazing what motivation to not die in a dungeon will do for you.

What's the point?

[HungWeiLo]

It's $700. Case closed. Put down the joypad for 1/2 hr and walk around in circles if you must.

Seriously, I know this chick that disconnected the power steering cable from her car so she can work out her arms while she's driving. It works - her arm muscles are spectacular, but I guess safety issues be damned.

Re:Nintendo had this in the 80's, it was a flop.

[nojomofo]

I thought that the best part was having the "full-contact 100-meter dash", where in the running races it was fair game to push the guy next to you off of the pad.

Re:We need a total body workout

[ryanwright]

DDR builds only the lower body.

Not if you hang on to a couple of heavy weights and try to keep your balance while playing on heavy...

Re:We need a total body workout

[jx100]

well, Nintendo's going to release Donkey Konga...

isometric training != fitness/strength

[teneighty]

This controller does not involve a significant range of motion - essentially the controller involves isometric holds. This is just a $10 word word meaning that you push against a static object as hard as you can (e.g pushing against a wall - it doesn't move, but it still requires effort on your part). Isometric training is sometimes incorporated as part of a controversial training style known as "super slow" (I can't say if it works or not - I get the impression that the evidence is that at best, it's not an efficient way to train). In short - sure, it's better than nothing, but it's a LONG way from being a device that seriously combines gaming and fitness. For years, I have dreamed of combining fitness and gaming (particuly for FPS games and side-scrolling arcade games). I believe it can be done, and have some strong ideas to make it work. PS: Does anyone know who might be hiring in this field? (I'm a software guy - I need to work with mechanical engineers and EE guys - building these devices is very much a multi-discplinary team effort)

Not really

[tuxette]

While aerobic exercise is good for aiding in fat loss, muscle-building exercise is better in the long run, as muscle increases metabolism and fat burning, even when you're not exercising.

The traditional way of doing aerobics (low impact long duration) only burns fat for the duration of the session but it doesn't do anything for after you have exercised. It has been shown in lots of peer-reviewed studies that high-intensity interval training (mix of sprints and lower intensity running/cycling etc) is superior for fat burning because after a workout session, your body continues to burn fat, whereas you do not achieve this during a low impact low intensity workout.

One thing to think about - look at sprinters and look at marathon runners. Sprinters are lean and mean. They train for explosive power. Marathon runners on the other hand, while skinny, are rather flabby...

Re:Not really

[djeaux]

One thing to think about - look at sprinters and look at marathon runners. Sprinters are lean and mean. They train for explosive power. Marathon runners on the other hand, while skinny, are rather flabby...

Actually, there's a genetic difference between sprinters & distance runners, which is why very, very few people successfully crossover between the two sports. And the difference in appearance betweens sprinters & marathoners is the difference between someone who can focus on "bulking up" muscles for a short-duration activity and someone who focusses on oxygen transport & nutrient loading for a long haul. (I might also point out that those "flabby" distance runners can't afford to haul a lot of extra mass.)

Sprinters have a higher proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers, while distance runners have a higher proportion of slow-twitch fibers. Muscle tissue of an "average male" is about 55% fast-twitch. Sprinters are about 63% fast twitch, and marathon runners are about 18% fast twitch. The distance runner doesn't need to "bulk up," because his/her slow twitch ratio is already so high. A sprinter bulks up to increase the fast twitch mass.

The difference is hereditary. Elite athletes are "freaks" compared with average people. I might also add that anabolic steroids are popular with sprinters, while they are actually detrimental to distance runners because they increase the runner's weight.

Fast twitch fibers supply their energy anaerobically (mainly through glycolysis), because during very fast exercise, there's little time for complete aerobic cellular respiration. After exercise, they have to pay off oxygen debt. Slow twitch fibers have a rich blood supply & rely on aerobic respiration for their energy.

Depending on the game, a presssure-sensitive game controller might require fast action, but I rather doubt that there would be enough sustained "exercise" involved to do much to build up either fast or slow twitch fibers.

The fundamental problem with this

[Illissius]

is that your average gamer doesn't neglect exercise because he can't exercise, but rather because he doesn't *want* to exercise. If he does, then in that case he'll use equipment specially designed for such, but no one will want to use an almost certainly inferior gamepad just because it happens to also be almost certainly inferior exercise equipment as well. (The traditional "do one thing, but do it well", argument... whose applicability is debatable in the case of closely related and easily combined electronics stuff, but not in the gamepad + exercise equipment case. What's next, an all-in-one flat panel LCD + screwdriver? :/)

Excuse the exercise, or a way to participate?

[dexterpexter]

The system works on the principle of isometric exercise, which contracts the muscles without moving any joints. After just a couple of minutes of playing Gran Turismo with the joystick, you can feel the strain in your upper arms and shoulder muscles.

This sounds to me like another item to add to the hundreds we use that cause carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive stress disorders. Now, instead of just mildly turning the joystick over and over again, there is resistance that will add to the strain. This doesn't see like its at healthy as it first appears. Exercise indeed, but what I believe these sports medicine professionals are missing is the fact that unlike lifting weights or other people who exercise for health reasons, gamers do not typically stop playing after a short one-hour workout. (Good, healthy workouts are usually about that long) Gamers sometimes sit in front of those games for hours and hours; having repetitive moments with muscular tension could actually harm the muscles instead of build them up. It would seem that this is a great idea for the health nut looking for an interesting way to lose weight as these people would play for an hour and stop, but this is not a particularly great excuse for gamers to exercise. The company should stick with the idea of putting these in gyms, but perhaps skip the idea of a marketing this to a hardcore, overweight RPGer.


However, I think that if used in moderation, I suppose this is an excuse (note: I said excuse, and its not a particularly great one) to exercise. But perhaps they should look at marketing this, instead of as a piece of exercise equipment, as a way to physically enjoy the games. Anyone remember when Nintendo made the the large floor pad so that you could really run and control the track game? It was great not because of the exercise but because one got to really participate in the game. Maybe applying this to VR, anyone?

.
In the end, however, one thing holds true:
This device makes a perfect symbolic comment on our culture.

Re:Excuse the exercise, or a way to participate?

[teneighty]

In a society that strives to remove effort from anything that might seem like - the horror - work, we need every excuse to exercise that we can get (most people don't even get out their car to open the garage door, after the quick run down to McDonald's drive-thru two blocks down the street).

Let's face it - if we don't carefully diguise the exercise as fun, few people will do it. This is why obesity is a growing problem (pun intended). So game controllers that involve genuine exercise are definitely something we ant to see.

That said, the device in the article isn't going to help, and yes, I agree it has potential to cause injury.

While everyone is saying "go outside"

[Dracolytch]

So, I'm reading a lot of reponses that are angry people saying "WTF is this? Go outside if you want exercise". Well... I guess it's time to relate what's going on with me.

I don't like gyms. They're expensive, and between going there, getting my exercise, and coming back, they take up too much of my time. Oh yeah, they're REALLY boring, which means I won't go.

I hate jogging. It sucks, especially in the winter. It's boring, and it's not safe in my area (thugz & moron drivers).

I ~love~ swimming, but I can only do that during the summer. Swim at a gym? See gyms above.

I'm a dedicated gamer, and I'm a bit overweight. I've been wanting to change that, and I have.

Every day, after work, I come home, and I put in Dance Dance Revolution Max 2. I'm getting up to "normal" difficulty, and am now burning 600 calories a DAY. As I get better, I may increase that, or I just may do my 600/day in less time.

I've already 6 pounds lighter since the first of the year. The only change I've made in my diet is a reduction to 1 soda a day (instead of 2-3).

So, while I read a lot of people sitting back and yelling "Go outside fatass", this fatass is giving y'all the finger, staying home, playing videogames, and getting fit.

~D
http://www.dracosoftware.com

Kill your Playstation?

[FreshFunk510]

The phrase often used about 10 years ago was "Kill your TV" as response to the mindlessness of people who watch TV like drones for several hours a day.

The fact that they are developing this for, what would be my guess, a substitute to "real exercise" makes me wonder: Have we gone too far?

Will people 10 years from now be saying:

Kill your Playstation!
Kill your Computer! Kill your Internet Connection!

I tried this thing at CES

[ChristopherD]

Some friends of mine and I took turns trying this device out at CES running Gran Turismo. It looked like all games should work on it, because it has a full complement of PS controls and buttons on it, including dual shoulder buttons. The consensus among the group after using it for a few minutes each? BLECH! I found it unintuitive as to how to move the device to control the car in a specific direction. It sort of made sense, but required hitting one of the gamepad buttons to put the car into reverse or to perform any of the other actions that games require during play. So, that meants that during your "strenuous" workout driving the car around, you would have to jump out of the workout abruptly to get the car back onto the road if you got turned around, then start back up again. I suppose if a game were built specifically for the device, then a continuous workout could be achieved, otherwise I thought it required too much switching between working out and playing the game. Having used this thing and DDR dance pads I can say with certainty that DDR integrates working out with fun gameplay FAR better than this device. If I may quote the horse from classic Ren and Stimpy, "No sir, I don't like it!"

Must Move!

[DumbSwede]

Call me a snob, but I work out often, and I don't believe this isometric system will do much for overall health.

I do three types of exercise:
Free Weights
Machine (Nautilus)
Aerobic

Now I'm not saying isometric is bad for you, just that I've never seen anyone build muscle with or or get good cardio vascular from it. It can provide toning when used in conjunction with other exercise types.

I personally think people will be bored with isometric exercise, because you don't feel any movement (granted here you have game feedback). But motion is what really gets you the next immersion level. I used to do computerized rowing machine, and I really enjoyed chasing my computer opponent in the other boat.

Isometric won't condition you for real athletic performance in the real world. The same reason I use a mix of machine and free weights. The free weights train your body for how to lift against real mass in the real world, and though you may not realize it, you will be be adapted to say helping your significant other move the couch around the room a dozen times until its "Fung Shui"

I suppose its possible to get the heart rate up for cardio with isometric, but it seems unlikely for most. Again, motion is the key to health. Get moving until you work up a moderate sweat and maintain for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to really get cardio benefits.

I like the idea of linking computer games and workouts, I have a friend that is hooked on Dance-Dance-Revolution and it works well for him. I just don't think this cheap-o scheme of isometric will catch on, or more importantly really give the advertised benefits.

BULLSHIT

[Anonymous Coward]

The US government doesn't care about obecity, and it is apparent to anyone who pays attention. Recently on C-SPAN there were lots of experts discussing it intelligently, while the FDA was absent. Actually, they sent someone there to share "his own" opinions, which translate to "obecity is a result of progress, therefore good". At one point he actually said something like "my argument sounds right because it is" and everybody laughed (including me) because it seemed like he was joking. He wasn't. The FDA represents lots of people with deep pockets, making tons of money off food that is little more than flavored wheat starch and sugar. They will continue to do so as long as possible.

Re:BULLSHIT

[3terrabyte]

Yep, the American Heart Association (AHA) has their stamp of approval on every Sugar-Flakes cereal in the aisle!! How can you trust anything from them?

Just because you fortify it, doesn't mean it's healthy!

The main problem with today's health is the myth that "fat is bad". So they make all this fat-free foods that people gobble up. Their blood sugar spikes from all the carbs and they're hungry again too soon.

Enriched flour is a terrible misnomer. It means that for the food companies to save money, they've taken wheat, ground it down to a powder, losing all the vitamins. Then fortify it with vitamins, and make cereal, bread, cakes, cookies, and pastas. The bad thing is, it's only 1 step above sugar.

Complex Carbohydrates, protein, and fat all satiate your hunger for much longer than sugar and simple carbs.

I'm no Atkins fan, but I did learn a lot from it. I only cut out simple carbs and counted calories when I lost my 150 pounds.

York has a new fitness game for geeks...

[Anonymous Coward]

...called 'Gravity Warrior.' Instead of a joystick, it uses a metallic bar as the gaming device. You load a series of 'mass regulators' onto each end of the game controller. It creates a very dramatic simulation of gravity that is much more realistic than some force feedback joystick. I've played Gravity Warrior until my arms could no longer move! Its most safely played with two players. The post-game ritual includes a series of high-fives and mutual butt slapping irregardless of who actually won the game as show of good sportsmanship. Gravity Warrior gamers greet each other with the secret code words 'whatcha bench?' in sign of community brotherhood.

I want Prop Cycle!

[kisrael]

Prop Cycle was a cool looking game that had a built in exercise bike...you're onscreen character was a flying bicycle glider thingy and you had to burst balloons. I was always surprised there wasn't a home console game that had hardware to connect to an exercise bike, seems like a decently written game could be pretty engaging, like Pilot Wings on the N64... ...better for people than the Donkey Konga hardware...

Is it really $700?

[The I Shing]

Oh, man, for $700 you can go to a place like Sears and get a nice little corner workout center, or, even better, you can join a friggin' gym.

Your whole body needs a whole-body workout. Working out your upper arms and your wrists just exercises your upper arms and your wrists. Don't count on that to reduce your pants size anytime soon.

If this idea is going to succeed, what they need to do is build the videogame into the exercise machine, not the other way around.

I'm picturing it... like a wall-sized screen that has orcs coming at you and you have to defeat them by lifting a 120-lb weight in three 12-rep sets. After the first wave is complete, you have to win a Nascar race by running on a treadmill for twenty minutes, followed by destroying the One Ring by enduring two gruelling sets of inverted crunches.

The gym that installs that system will have a loyal membership of fit and healthy nerds as its reward.

Oh yea?

[tacokill]

Puffing? I get plenty of that already. That's the reason I smoke when I play video games...

Why buy?

[TheConfusedOne]

Just go into the local bar and insult the biggest guy in there.

The reason this will flop

[Dracolytch]

DDR, the boxing game at some arcades (name escapes me), and a couple others have shown that it is possible to have a commercial success when blending games with exercise.

But this thing is still gonna flop. Why? Very simply... It gets in the way of the game.

Unlike DDR, or the boxing game, the controller hinders the users' ability to play the game effectively. The controller gets in the way of the game, instead of enhancing it. It is for this reason that people will ditch it... Not because it's a bad idea, but because it's a bad gaming device.

~D

This is not a good idea

[brundlefly]

Practically speaking, repetitively working a muscle is NOT the same thing as exercise. Not only is this "exercise" anaerobic, but it also opens up a huge potential for injuries resulting from RSI. Imagine a mouse with a button which required a 1/2-pound of force to click instead of 1/20-ounce. Or a keyboard with such 1/2-pound buttons. We would all be crippled by now if we had been using these instead of our current devices.

This is a step from the wrong direction.

[Hoplite3]

Bah, home fitness videogame gizmos indeed. What they REALLY need is to hook up the old Paperboy game to a stationary bike. You'd have a screen to see a first-person view of the neighborhood, a "mirror" region to see the dogs chasing you, and a button to throw papers. You could have fun while riding the damned bike. How hard is that?

I'm serious. They already as gizmos about calories burned, heart rate, miles traveled, and other crap to these bikes for infotainment. Why not take the next step? Hell, you could make people pay for rides with quarters and turn every fitness club in the country into an arcade.

don't gamer's already have that motion down?

[dh003i]

I mean, don't most people who sit around and game all day basically have the motions dealing with lower arm strength all pat and down? After so many repetitive...strokes...they must have pretty strong brachioradials.

Even older...

[phorm]

It's called pr0n. It's been around for a very long time, and geeks have been exercising their arms with it since near the beginning. Modern versions included usage of such tools as "edonkey" or "newgroups"

A PC version would be better...

[thatguywhoiam]

I don't see this working out for a gamer that wants to perform well. Obviously you can twitch your thumbs a lot faster than you can push whatever weighted system they have implemented.

Now on the other hand... I've always been surprised that no one had implemented a stationary-bike kind of setup for a PC workstation (that I've seen anyways - feel free to add links). It wouldn't even been that hard; off the top of my head, you could hook the mouse wheel to a sensor on the bike wheel, so you had to pedal to scroll while browsing. Backwards and forwards. Imagine you'd burn a few calories that way...

Anyways, the invention is a compelling idea, but they should have bundled specific games with it... a MechWarrior kind of thing would be neat...

Re: In other news...

[fafaforza]

The progress of technology crawled to a halt after the performance of software compilers and other critical system functionalities were tied directly to the physical performance of software engineers.

Experts in the field were quoted as saying that the majority of software development is now done on the equivalent of 486/MHz machines.

Re:We need a total body workout

[GTRacer]

It does not build any muscle.

Tell that to my legs...my calves and thighs are incredibly toned and solid after many moons of DDR and not much else exercise. I used to have the typical pasty flabby geek legs - now they're pasty beefcake geek legs!

GTRacer
- Also uses hand weights to balance out the toning

Re:We need a total body workout

[GTRacer]

Or even better, set up a nonstop course of low-difficulty songs with alternating footsteps, and then "box" while holding hand weights. As long as the steps are fairly alternated, you can get a pretty smooth workout top and bottom.

Trying to mix in uppercuts however, tends to cause misses because of the vertical weight shift.

GTRacer
- Hey Yo Captain Jack!

whatever...

[supabeast!]

How do the guys who sell this junk even manage to get the product to market without dying from laughter as they bilk stupid investors out of millions of dollars? And why is it that investors still haven't caught on that specialty video game controllers without mainstream game support-lightgun games, ddr, steering wheels-don't make money?

Funk dat!

And people wonder why I refuse to invest in stocks...

Damn! I thought of this.

[AlecC]

I though of this years ago. Except I was going to take it at a lower level. And it was the bad old days of dial up with a 14.4K modem. Stop pedalling and your screen goes dark. Pedal gently to keep the screen alive. Pedal faster for net access - the faster you pedal, the greater your baud rate. Trouble is, I was frightened of a heart attack as you try to load pages from a slow site, not realising that it is their fault, not yours, that the download is slow. And the danger of downloading prOn is frighting ("just a bit fastaer and I'll see....").

Another right handed exercise..

[phelix_da_kat]

"In a racing game like Gran Turismo, the harder you push on the joystick, the faster a car goes, while pulling back slows down the vehicle."

Ok, you get a strong right hand, right arm, right everyting..

There are other exercises you can do to achieve the same result :-D

We should stick to Dance Revolution, at least the side effect is that you can pretend to have a fit.

Here's a game for the upper body....

[Arcanix]

Every other day lift pieces of metal (sometimes called weights) with your biceps, triceps, shoulders, neck, etc., keep increasing the number of repetitions until it becomes incredibly easy then increase the weights and do it again!

Note that this game is my invention and I do charge a royalty to use it.

Re:We need a total body workout

[Guppy06]

Unless you're one of those mythical female geeks, I do not want to hear about what your legs look like.