Get Your 'Game' On
By Mark Homer Tiangco, MD and Carlo Canta, CSCS
Photographs by Jun Pinzon
We think it started With Tron, a 1983 Disney movie where people were digitized to compete in a virtual world. Then there was the classic The Lawnmower Man. A mentally challenged man was able to amass knowledge with the help of the computer and harness the digital world to become a demigod. Lately, the film The Island envisioned the possibility in video games as a form of exercise.
The argument against video games is they make you passive, as shown in yet another popular flick, The Matrix. Your mind gets stimulated but your body deteriorates because of inactivity. But is a gamer’s lifestyle completely unhealthy? Not entirely.
A game is still a game
Studies have shown that video games have certain benefits, like making your reflexes quick. Machine manufacturers have even come up with some exercise equipment that combine video gaming to make fitness routines more entertaining. Since these machines are likely unavailable at your local gym, we offer alternatives that any guy can find at, admit it, your preferred pastime: the video arcade.
GAME 1
Inuno Osampo
Translated as "Enjoy Happy Walking," it simulates the action in walking your pet canine. Your child will find it cute, and so will you: the dog, your favored breed, appears on a 30-inch screen while you stand on a grade 2 (10-degree inclined) treadmill. But surprisingly, it also presents a challenging objective. You must 'walk' (with a mock leash to boot) your dog through a series of obstacles: like finding food on the street, chasing a cat, evading the traffic of cars on a street. The whole game lasts around two minutes.
Fitness Value. Physical benefits include improving hand and eye coordination. You can also get a short cardio workout, plus a sense of short-term happiness from plain amusement. More importantly, you'll start sweating on your third or fourth try.
GAME 2
Star Kicker
This is a pretty straightforward game. Just kick the ball to the farthest possible distance (which is 100 meters). If you actually play soccer, that is comparable to kicking the ball from your goal to the opposite goal of a narrow sideline (70 yards). You get three attempts at making your longest kick. Each attempt has an estimated completion of 10 seconds. There is a contraption that resembles a weighing scale to track your distances. You get best-of-three tries, and have the total distance of your three attempts in the end.
Fitness Value. Physical benefits include improving lower extremity coordination and measurement of quadriceps' strength. But we believe that a lot of technique is involved in improving your distance in this game. The average guy would probably hit this ball to around 70-80 meters per attempt and 60-70 meters for average gals. We recommend Star Kicker if you're planning to play pickup field soccer or futsal. Or for "kicks," you would want to see how far you could launch that ball.
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Men's Health Philippines
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Game 1. Physical benefits include improving hand and eye coordination, a short cardio workout, and a sense of short-term happiness that we call amusement.
Game 2. Physical benefits include improving lower extremity coordination, and measurement of quadriceps' strength.
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