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World of Warcraft player burns calories while questing

Health and Fitness Tools, Interviews, Video Games 6 Responses »

Jul 152010

Buried deep within the comments on one of my recent articles over at WoW.com was an interesting little bit of information from a poster named Saitenyo. She talked about how she set up a platform near a recumbent bike in her home so that she could use her laptop to play World of Warcraft while exercising. I was curious to learn more about this, because while we’ve talked about getting in exercise while playing an MMORPG like WoW, in all my years of gaming I’ve never really known anyone that has put a serious effort into doing so.

A brief exchange of emails later, and I had the full story from the player behind the avatar, one Chelsea Brown. Ms. Brown is a recent BFA graduate from the Laguna College of Art and Design and a self-proclaimed fan of a long list of things that would make her a perfect candidate for attendance at Dragon*Con. She did such a great job of explaining her set up and the benefits that she got from it that I figured I’d go ahead and let her do so in her own words.

5 ways Kinect can improve exercise games

Featured, Op-Ed, Video Games 3 Responses »

Jun 212010

For those of you who don’t necessarily follow console gaming trends, but are always looking for new ways to work out, then this may be welcome news to you. Last week, Microsoft unveiled their new peripheral for the Xbox 360, Kinect. Originally codenamed “Natal”, Kinect will enable people to play video games purely by using their own body as the controller. Obviously, when it comes to fitness games, this is a pretty large breakthrough in terms of technology.

We’re pretty excited about this here at ShrinkGeek Orbital HQ. Why? Well, join us behind the break as we run down the reasons why we think Kinect may well be the answer to some of our exercise gaming prayers.

Stop playing with yourself

Fitness Programs, Video Games No Responses »

May 032010

So, it looks like those brain-stimulating games may have had #include <hot.air> as part of their marketing source code. I know, it’s shocking – advertizing claims might be divorced from reality! But, unfortunately for the creative minds behind the brain-training game industry, a recent study of the field suggests that they’re not actually making folks smarter.

Modest effects have been reported in some studies of older individuals and preschool children, and video-game players outperform non-players on some tests of visual attention. However, the widely held belief that commercially available computerized brain-training programs improve general cognitive function in the wider population in our opinion lacks empirical support. The central question is not whether performance on cognitive tests can be improved by training, but rather, whether those benefits transfer to other untrained tasks or lead to any general improvement in the level of cognitive functioning. Here we report the results of a six-week online study in which 11,430 participants trained several times each week on cognitive tasks…. Although improvements were observed in every one of the cognitive tasks that were trained, no evidence was found for transfer effects to untrained tasks, even when those tasks were cognitively closely related.

- Adrian M. Owen, et al

However, all is not gloom, doom, and more money to spend on power-leveling services new sneakers.

Strength Buff: Snake Oil

Food, Merchandise, Strength Buff 5 Responses »

Apr 192010

Modern snake oil, from Vietnam (courtesy of w a a on Flickr)

Q: What is a dietary supplement?

A: A dietary supplement is a product intended for ingestion that contains a “dietary ingredient” intended to add further nutritional value to (supplement) the diet.

Source: United States Food & Drug Administration

This is the first installment of a multi-part series of articles, taking a look at the various facets of the nutritional supplement field. This time around, we’ll be looking at the more mundane, or at least less-freaky-sounding, end of the spectrum – stuff you’re apt to find in a casual perusal of your local drug store or supermarket. Basically, things like vitamins and less-esoteric herbs… things you won’t need to need to skill up (or head to a specialty store, either online or in the big blue room) to gather, basically.

One thing that you’ll become intimately familiar with, whether you’re looking at the latest workout-blasting powder or something as simple as a multivitamin, is the asterisk (*), which appears on pretty much every single thing that proclaims to offer a health benefit.

* – These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

What this means is that there is a whole buttload of leeway here, and, furthermore, that many of the nutrients don’t have any kind of recommended daily amount (RDA). In short, it’s the Wild West out there – anyone can say anything does whatever they want. As a result, a lot of research has been done to support or debunk the efficacy of various supplements, which has resulted in a little bit more clarity on the subject, as well as this really cool graph.

Michelle Obama is looking for health oriented applications

Fitness Programs, Health and Fitness Tools, Health News, Video Games No Responses »

Mar 162010

While the First Lady of the United States of America has no official title or responsibilities, it has become tradition for the women in this arguably influential role to associate themselves with a humanitarian cause during their husbands administration. In the past few decades we have seen examples of this in Laura Bush’s efforts in support of womens’ rights and childhood literacy, Hillary Clinton’s push for Health Care reform, and (perhaps most famously) Nancy Reagan and her Just Say No anti-drug campaign. First Lady Michelle Obama is no exception to this tradition, and she’s taken up the fight against what many feel is an increasingly dangerous threat to our overall health as a nation – childhood obesity.

According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control, the number of children who are overweight to the point of obesity has increased dramatically since 1980. The percentage of children aged 12 to 19 who fell into this extremely unhealthy weight range (generally considered to be 50 pounds or more overweight) increased from 5% to a stunning 17.6% in 2006, more than tripling the 1980 numbers. Unsurprisingly, research has shown that nearly 80% of children who are obese between the ages of 10 and 15 continue to hold that unhappy distinction into adulthood. With obesity being linked to serious life threatening diseases such as Type II Diabetes and Heart Disease, it is clear that this trend is not only bad for our well-being as a nation but that it is also puts a strain on our already financially strapped health care system.