Get Your 'Game' On

By Mark Homer Tiangco, MD and Carlo Canta, CSCS
Photographs by Jun Pinzon




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.



Game 3. Utilization of your upper body would require, torso movment, elbow extension and scapular stabilization

Game 4. Physical benefits include eye and hand coordination, upper extremity conditioning, and possibly a light warmup regimen lasting 10-15 minutes.
Use a glove and knock the bogey down. Like Star Kicker, you have three attempts and the highest of the three is your score. There are also totals for the three attempts in the end, with each attempt's execution approximately within 10 seconds. The scale also indicates how much oomph you had behind your punches. The grades would be between 100-600 lbs. An average guy can probably unload 400-450-pound haymakers, putting you in a welterweight class; and average gals could whip up 350-400-pound wallops, which places them in a lightweight class. Try this with your friends or with your significant other for fun. (You might also start to realize how strong your partner's punch can be. Think twice now about making her angry.)



Game 5. Improves coordination and concentration. It also gives you a cardio equivalent to an upper extremity restorator.

Game 6. Playing five games straight would be a good warmup prior to upper body strengthening.




Game 7. Aside from hand and eye coordination, count in a possible butt sore if you continue playing it for hours.





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.

GAME 3
Strong Puncher




Fitness Value. Physical benefits include improving your eye and hand coordination. Utilization of your upper body would also require torso movement, elbow extension and scapular stabilization (there are a lot of muscle groups required to coordinate for such an action). The Dragon Punch is much of the same. These games are a rough measurement of your punching technique and power more than anything else.

GAME 4
Wadaiko

Here you constantly hit two big barrel-shaped drums. You can go head-to-head with another player or by yourself. There are timing bars or beat bars you have to time with every hit on the barrel. There are also two options for hitting - whack directly on the center of the skin or tap it on the edge. The timing bars would indicate how you should hit the barrels. The game is very simple and very entertaining; it just so happens that the console is in Japanese so appreciation of the game is a little limited. The concept of sound and mad rhythm, though, are universal themes anyone would enjoy. The game also goes a long way; when playing it you have to do at least three full songs lasting around 3-4 minutes each. So you'll be banging those drums for quite a bit longer relative to other arcade games that usually last just a little under two minutes per swipe.

Fitness Value. Physical benefits include eye and hand coordination, upper extremity conditioning, and possibly a light warmup regimen lasting 10-15 minutes. Wadaiko does increase your heart rate by a notch prior to any cardiovascular fitness programs such as aerobics, treadmill or cycling. Other similar titles include the Dance Revolution, percussion, drums, and guitar simulation games.

GAME 5
Basketball




We think free throw shots should be shot with a percentage, but this game measures how many shots you've made within two minutes. The basic strategy is to shoot as much balls within the time frame. It works out as a good warmup regimen prior to upper extremity circuit training for as long as you play it for 10-15 minutes. The bad side is playing too much of it (for more than 20 minutes or so) will predispose you to a rotator cuff tendonitis or impingement syndrome. Rapid and repetitive movement in free throw shooting (no matter how small-scale it is compared to the real one), will just make your supraspinatus tendon hit the base of your acromion. So if you are genetically predisposed to an impingement syndrome, you just might be lucky enough to trade off a few arcade points for a sore shoulder.

Fitness Value. Improves coordination and concentration. It also gives you a cardio equivalent to an upper extremity restorator.

GAME 6
Hocker Stadium Three-puck Play

This setup calls for competitive one-onone or two-on-two mini-hockey games. Up to three pucks are available in certain portions of the game. Instead of a stick, you are equipped with hand paddles. Start swiping at that puck towards the opponent's goal. The pucks are "weightless", and glide through the surface frictionless. The games could be aggressive depending on the skill of your opponents. Handling the pucks can be tricky since you could end up scoring the puck against your own team, since their lightness lets them slide very fast. The pucks evidently lack the usual physics of objects having to slow down with time. A game usually lasts around 2-3 minutes.

Fitness Value. Physical benefits include eye and hand coordination, upper body movement of the shoulders, elbows and wrists, including some of the upper body torso movement. Playing five games straight would be a good warmup prior to upper body strengthening.

GAME 7
Daytona

You start to sit down, grab the handle and drive against 50 or so virtual opponents. And run a circular Daytona 500 track. This game usually lasts 1-2 minutes per swipe.

Fitness Value. Aside from hand and eye coordination, count in a possible butt sore if you continue playing it for hours.

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