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Weight Loss through Dance Dance Revolution?
An anonymous reader writes "Looking at the beer gut that's developed over the winter, and the excercise schedule that I haven't kept for more than two days at a time, I realize that I need a new plan. A gym isn't the answer; I can't keep a schedule for working out in my apartment, there's no way I could make it to the gym on any regular basis. I've had multiple people in the last few weeks tell me stories involving weight loss through Dance Dance Revolution, and it sounds like a great idea to me! working out is hard, playing video games is easy, and dancing is fun. But a Google search turned up way too much info, and way too little of it was useful unless I want to spend the next four weeks researching this. Does the Slashdot community have any ideas, suggestions, or personal experience that they cared to relate on any of these topics?"
"First, what's the best pad to get? What kind of differences are there between pads? Is it worth spending $100+, or will the cheaper pads do? Second, what software is best to use? Ideally I'd like to have something expandable, which means getting a PC rig rather than a PS2 one. Are there any open source DDR-type programs? How does one acquire songs?"
I used to work out, then I stopped out of laziness but kept playing DDR frequently. My legs, abs and a good bit of my torso actually got in BETTER shape as a result. My upper body has declined, but everything else is great. I just started working with a personal trainer and she was amazed how well DDR kept the rest of me in shape. Oh, stop playing if it starts to hurt, good tip :-D.
Photos.
see?
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I'm down about 50 lbs from my heaviest, about 30 of which I can attribute almost directly to DDR.
Arcade play beats home play, for the most part. Home pads that are actually good quality run several hundred dollars. And if you find an arcade community you like, the social aspects are a lot of fun too.
The key is to have fun. As long as you manage that, everything else will be easy.
Having said that, I don't exercise if it's boring. I cannot stand walking for long periods of time unless I have music or company with me. Obviously, exercise is hard work, and because exercise is fundamentally the most effective way of losing weight combined with sensible eating, trimming down to that size 8 or whatever is hard work too.
I don't do DDR becuase yes, it is harder than it looks and I feel stupid everytime I try. My friend has a DDR mat which she connects to her PC and she has a go at that but it's painstaking work to set it up, put the disc in and wait for it to load. Going out to the city to Intensity or Playtime is just too embarrassing because I'm terrible at it.
I dance, choreograph dance, do competition aerobics and play all sorts of team sports because it is just that much more fun and it's never monotonous and repetitive (no I'm not gay, I'm a girl - sorry but that stereotype exists, sadly). Unlike DDR, which I get bored of after about ten minutes, sport and dancing to music without jumping around on a crazy mat is a lot more appealing. Sure, DDR can improve your co-ordination skills and make you sweat a bit but that's about it in my opinion. You can achieve better co-ordination skills in playing sport as well as dancing and aerobics not to mention the benefits of flexibility, improved cardio-vascular system, creativity and social skills.
Of course, it's ultimately up to the individual. I understand that what is fun to me, isn't necessarily fun to everybody else, as there are other factors to account for such as fitness level, personal interests and expenses etc. There are so many ways to exercise it's not funny, so experimenting with different methods will surely find the right one for you.
By the way, try Capoeira - Brazilian martial arts which combines self-defence and dance!
In true Slashdot style, I'm going to presumptively answer a request you didn't ask: "Help me lose weight."
Also, you're doing what I used to do, so I'm going to be harsh. Very.
YOU'RE PROCRASTIPLANNING!
Close your browser.
Now.
Do ANYTHING that works up a steady sweat for 30 minutes.
Then do it again tomorrow.
Unless you've exercised in the last 72 hours, researching "the best pad to get" (oh my god) is bullshit, and I think you know it. STFU and sweat. Now. Go on, scram. Posting questions to slashdot about exercise is like the salesman who optimizes his contact management software instead of picking up the damn phone.
Trust me. I know how good it feels to plan out the good things you're going to do. That way, you're not really procrastinating. No, no. You're preparing. The project is underway.
No, it's not. "Research" isn't "doing".
If your question to Ask Slashdot is anything other than delusion and procrastination, you will be sweating each of the next five days, whether or not you've (again, oh my god) found an "open source DDR-type program".
About what to eat...
There's a lot of confusion about how to eat to lose weight. Here's the nutshell.
Remember the 3 Cs...
Not easy, not simple, but straightfoward and effective.
Result: Your body has a steady supply of just-in-time fuel. This discourages fat storage, big time. It also prevents energy spikes and crashes, big time. The 5% deficit is pulled from the fat stored while you were procrastiplanning.
Am I a bodybuilder? No. Am I shredded? No. Am I a trainer? No. Was I a contract programmer for someone who was? Yeah.
(Attention detail-mongers and nitpickers: Shhh! Go do something useful! These are generalities!)
Godspeed, anonymous sweating guy. Stop planning and start sweating.
P.S. Feel free to curse that asshole Grabble all the while. Just as long as you're sweating.
I use stepmania with a pc and a solid dance mat, mainly for exercise rather than enjoyment. I try to do 40-50 minutes of pretty fast dancing a day, which used to be enough to knacker me out, but these days I have to hold 5kg weights while dancing to get a decent workout.
I wasn't fat to start with, just unfit, but it is most definitely good exercise if you can get fast enough and do lots of songs one after another. Most of the stories on the internet about people losing weight with DDR seems to be from obese people getting down to normal weight, which I guess doesn't require one to get so good at DDR, nor spend much money on arcades/mats.
Whether it is any better than just going out running is debatable; I guess it depends on your personality whether you will find an hours DDR more boring than 40 minutes running, and whether you have enough money to get a decent mat. I've moved on to alternating between DDR and running; running for endurance training, DDR for quick intense sprint type bursts and a better upper body workout (with the weights).
Okay, now that that's out of the way... don't listen to these people that say "forget DDR, just go outside and run!" If you think the game is fun, that motivating factor will be much more important than how "efficient" your workout is. Even if running is 10 times as effective as DDR (and I doubt it's more than even one and a half), if you don't actually DO IT it doesn't matter.
As for the game itself, if you've got a PS2 or XboX, pick up any of the mixes available for that system (MAX or MAX2 for PS2 or Ultramix for XboX) in the pack that comes with a pad; that pad will work fine for a beginner. After you wear it out playing on it, then worry about getting a $100 pad or two. If you're going w/ PC, get StepMania or PyDance (as other have already suggested) and hit DDRUK to get the songs. Pick up a cheap ($30) pad and a good PS2->USB adapter (again, other folks posted good advice about that earlier).
As you play, constantly stretch your limits, and take advantage of playing at home instead of the arcade. Turn on the "event mode" option so you can play continuously w/o returning to the main menu. Turn failure off, (it's unmotivating). Try at least one song that you KNOW you can't pass each time you play.
And remember, it's always a good idea to check with your doctor before starting a new exercise regime; they can tell you a lot better about water and nutrient intakes than anyone on slashdot; they're better educated on it plus they know your medical history and condition better than we do.
Oh, and have fun :) I've played this game about 5-15 hours a week for almost two years, and it never gets old.
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
So since MMORPG's are infamous for addiction, all one needs is to connect it to use a DDR pad as part of the input. Instant weight loss. I imagine the legal warnings - people with health problems will have problems - to be issued will be prodigious. Clearly, you'll need a keyboard for chatting between fights otherwise you'll loose the community which is why people keep playing games with horrific gameplay value and poor graphics. I'm envisioning using the DDR pad to either move around or to fight and do special attacks.
Currently, in Everquest, we smack the auto-attack button and maybe one or another button every few seconds. Yet with the DDR pad, perhaps you could have certain rythmic steps to *keep* autoattack up and have other steps to move your character around (reposition them) and to keep other things going, too. Obviously, you'd need difficulty settings.
Actuallly, maybe the DDR pad would work better as input for a fighting game, or a sports game (how ironic). Trouble would be, in one player versus another human player mode, the more physically fit one would have an edge - the degree of which could be tweaked by game mechanics.
Nevertheless, somebody (not me) should take advantage of the new DDR as an input device for new, other, games.
If no one is doing this already (which I doubt) it would be a great opportunity for an open source game.
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a war on terrorism? How can we end a war on a method?
Here's something I follow: Monday: Bench Press (12,10,8) Incline Press (12,10,8) Pullovers (12,10,8) Chin-ups (25-30 reps) Bent-over Rows (12,10,8) Deadlifts (Power train) (10, 6, 4) Crunches (3 sets of 15 each) Wednesday: Barbell Clean and Rows (12,10,8) Dumbell Lateral Raises (12,10,8) Heavy Upright Rows (Power train) (10,6,4) Push Press (Power Train) (6,4,2) Standing Barbell Curls (12,10,8) Seated Dumbbell Curls (12,10,8) Close-Grip Press (12,10,8) Standing Tricep Extensions with Barbell (12,10,8) Wrist Curls (12,10,8) Reverse Wrist Curls (12,10,8) Reverse Crunch (3 sets of 15 each) Friday: Squats (12,10,8) Lunges (12,10,8) Leg Curls (12,10,8) Standing Calf Raises (12,10,8) Straight Leg DeadLifts (Power Train) (10,6,4) Good Mornings (Power Train) (10,6,4) Crunches (3 sets of 15) All in all it should take you about 45 mins every other day to do these exercises. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: Cardio for an hour. (split cycling/treadmill) So there you go, good balance of aerobic and anaerobic exercises. It builds your endurance and strength. However, a forewarning, if you're not doing for health reasons, you're likely to fail. I've toned down quite a lot and lost 30 pounds in a year.
Activists United
If I just do DDR, and don't diet as well, I don't lose any weight. However, I do feel better, feel happier, look better, and I'm much fitter. If I also diet, then I lose weight. I've been doing DDR at home for about 18 months now; I rarely play in the arcades (I have small children). I'm not a great player, but I have a lot of fun and work up a sweat. I have a PS2 (bought, essentially, specifically to play DDR on -- cheaper than the gym), several games, and ignition-type dance mats (the ones with padding in them and easily feelable edges to the arrows). I'd take issue with the chap who said 'just run'; running's way harder on your knees than DDR (as long as you use padded mats), and it's harder to integrate into your lifestyle than in-house exercising. Plus, as a result of the DDR, I can now run when I need to -- to catch a bus or catch my kids -- without getting out of breath. And my walking speed has gone from 'slower than most people' to 'faster than most people'; I'm only 5'1", so catching most people up when walking is a really good feeling. Plus it makes you feel more empowered when walking alone at night. Although you can get DDR working on your PC, you risk using up tons of time that you could be exercising in finding songs, getting the set-up working, sourcing exactly the right sort of adapter (I recommend Lik-Sang), and so on. You need to be careful that you're not attempting to find a time-spinning exercise-avoidance strategy. Getting a console's not expensive; you can pick up a second-hand PSOne for only a few dollars, and get a mat and game bundle. If you're doing DDR for weight loss, then I picked up a tip from an occupational health specialist, who explained to me that exercise that shifts your body weight (like walking or running) is better for your general health than exercise that doesn't. Ordinary one-mat DDR is pretty static. But if you do double, where one person dances across two mats, you have to shift your body all the time. Result; it's much harder exercise. It's also a greater intellectual challenge, which I like. (DDR is as much work for your brain as your body; something that isn't true of most exercise). If you're a beginner, you should probably leave double until you can do four foot dances straightforwardly. Home DDR is better for exercise than arcade unless it's easy to fit a visit to an arcade into your routine. Even so, the home versions have more and better non-stop features, and the key to making an effective exercise routine from DDR is to increase the time you spend dancing and reduce the time you spend fiddling with the controls, choosing songs, checking your records and so on. DDR's not the only video game that gives you a workout. Eyetoy and Eyetoy Groove exercise your upper body, as does Samba De Amigo. And we found that playing SSX on a snowboard controller was great for balance. Have fun
After my kids got hooked on DDR at a Nickel-Nickel arcade, I called Red Octane who makes one of the best DDR dance pads available. They were very helpful. I bought a bundle with Konami's DDR MAX 2 and Red Octane's Ignition 2.0 Pad. The dance pad has sensors over the entire area, and doesn't slip on the floor (the cheap mats do slip & wear out quickly). Konami makes DDR games for PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, XBox, & PC. There is a USB adapter available (about $15 US) to connect the dance pad to play the PC version. The game comes with several levels, probably 100 songs, & can be enjoyed by beginners and up. The game also also has a training mode to teach technique, and a workout mode. Konami is releasing version 3 of DDR Max this fall.