Some of you know already, I’m going on a trip next week to become a personal fitness trainer. Also starting this fall, I am going back to collage to get a degree in nutrition. No, I’m not really a health nut. I just enjoy learning about better ways to live. Trust me, this post has to do with the main factor in gaming, you.
In all the games we play we get lives. Some games we even get an endless amount of lives, like in MMOs. We don’t concern ourselves too much with the repercussion of dying. Yeah, our gear might deteriorate or we might have to ghost run to our corpse, but that isn’t too bad. Ok, sometimes it’s a pain in the ass. All in all, it’s not as bad as dying in real life.
As gamers we sometimes neglect our health for the quick fix of getting in a raid. Gaming is a stagnant lifestyle. That means we are at a near-resting state while we are gaming. That leads to a slower heart rate and a slower metabolism. In the end, it leads to a bigger waist and ass.
We sacrifice our health for a quick fix. Unlike a video game, we don’t get a second chance to try again. You knew that though. Now that I told you the obvious, I’ll give you a few tip on how to kickstart your heart without interfering with your gaming.
(Note: you should never sit for more than 25 minutes at a time if you can help it. Prolonged pressure on your spine deteriorates it and makes you susceptible to lower back pain.)
1. When you die in the game you are playing, do as many push up you can in 20 seconds. Wait 10 seconds and so it again. Look at that, 50 seconds and you got off your butt and got your heart pumping.
2. Anytime you use a travel method or wait for a load screen, do as many sit up you can in 20 seconds. Wait 10 seconds and repeat. Again, just 50 seconds.
3. Look at you getting a new achievement! Get up and do jumping jacks (if you can’t do jumping exercises, alternate lifting legs 90 degrees and touch the raised knee with your hand) for 20 seconds. Yup you guessed it- wait 10 sec and repeat.
Those are three simple exercise to get you heart pumping and your butt out of a chair. Of course, if you are unable to do any of these because of medical reason, please do not attempt them. Consult your doctor and see what you can do instead.
You only get one life. Take care of it so you can play more games longer.
- funny I have no tags for a serious post 
15 Responses to “Health”
Hehe, I can so see a raid boss saying “wipe again! Drop and gimme 20.”
I will do the 20 second exercises every day before gaming and the push-ups upon death are really no problem, show me a MMO where people die often nowadays!
Gaming is dangerous. It too easily turns people into slackers. I regularly do a fitness check and recommend it to everyone. Write down your results, by the way… people also like to forget their results when they get worse and worse…
You are right, people don’t die much anymore. For a person that doesn’t do exercise at all or often the dying thing is a start. A more advanced routine would include the push up routine when a person takes or completes a quest. If a person is a PvP lover, the dying routine should be good.
I’m pretty sure that kind of from 0 to 100 in 1 second is pretty unhealthy. You should generally try to get warm before you start pushing the limit …
Yes, before gaming and doing a gaming exercise routine a person should stretch a bit. From my experience push ups and sit ups are pretty sage exercises. They don’t involve any chance of hyperextending a joint. You might get a cramp
Plus, 20 seconds is really no that long. The exercises Scary suggests here really are just a warm up.
And mind what you eat! If you sit there and throw down a box of hotpockets and a 6 pack of mountain dew your just undoing anything your trying to do. Back in DAoC days in any downtime to med to get mana back (rememebr the days before food and water and near insta mana regen…) I would do the pushup situp routine like you describe. It did wonders and honestly made me feel better and in turn i got to play more heh. I even on occasion play standing up.
Diet is a huge factor too. Replacing all drinks with water can make a person lose weight alone. Even diet drinks make you gain weight. They mess with your insulin and the sodium makes you retain water.
Also… There is no shame in doing knee pushups as a start, especially if your carrying a lot of weight. It will save your wrists and you will be able to do more of them which helps give a sense of accomplishment. I had to start that way. Im down 80 lbs at this point and looking to drop another 20. I started at 10 knee pushups. I am now at 25/30 decline pushups (feet up on a chair).
Ok NOW I feel like a slacker. I need to get working out.
Great suggestions, Scary. @sctrz and I should start doing this. And I wish I could have made up to meet you in person. Always cool to meet fellow bloggers/gamers.
Yeah would been cool meeting you guys. Siberwulf and I ate some good food and had a few beers. I had good time bull plopping. The exercises are a good way to start to get your blood pumping. Soon you’ll be doing P90X
Hey Scary, I like the new look and name for the blog. I caught glimpses on twitter a couple weeks ago of you saying you were going to do it, but unfortunately wasn’t around when you did. Anyway, just wanted to hop in and say I like the blog reboot.
Ty very much.
Fuck this shit, Hardcore geekdom is loving Star Wars so much you actually look like Jabba the Hutt, and that dude had a hot girl friend. Had to keep her on a chain, but hey alot of guys wish they could do that.