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Play Games to Get Healthy

Play games? Yes, playing games can improve your fitness and overall health.  The American Medical Association strongly supports prevention and wellness efforts to promote a healthy America, including the promotion of physical fitness, and activity-based games (Exergames) offer a fun and engaging way for kids, adults, and seniors to increase their physical activity.

Physical activity has been shown to help reduce many health risks, including diabetes, heart disease, and many cancers. Walking is an easy way for the majority of people to be more active and gain the associated health benefits and is a great way to start a physical fitness program, but it, alone, may not be enough according to a new Center for Disease Control and Prevention report.  Adding Exergaming products to your program might be just what’s needed to assure fitness.

Successful commercial Exergame products and programs have been used for years at schools and outside of-school programs (e.g. YMCA, JCC, Parks and Rec, Boys and Girls Clubs, Salvation Army) across the country. 

Now health clubs are taking notice by including group Exergame classes to give their members a better fitness experience.  Group interactive fitness products likeiDANCE and WebRacing Exergame Cycles change the way members participate in, compete in, and share their fitness workouts.  The addition of these products has lead members to not only maintain their club memberships, but also to sustain their physical fitness programs.

“Members will play these games over and over because they are competing against themselves, participating in a group, and they are having fun – all while exercising,” says Ed Kasanders, CEO of Motion Fitness.  “The clubs will have engaged members who will share and network their Exergame class with friends, family, and community.  This is a powerful tool for clubs to get marketing exposure.  If they have multiple locations, they can compete against each other or accumulate scores and/or activity for a fund raiser. 

“TVs and music are great ways to get members to participate on cardio products in clubs, but the members are just doing it because they know that they have to work out to improve their fitness.  With Exergames, members want to play and can’t wait for the next workout.  They are fully involved in this interactive dynamic.  Exergaming provides perfect active game play, leading to improved fitness,” adds Kasanders. 

About iDANCE

Group dance and step for up to 32 users, iDANCE is an entertaining and motivating workout game that combines exercise with dancing and represents a great way to work out your whole body.  Feedback on one’s success during play is provided during the whole game (song), and the rankings are displayed, lending a competitive feature to this dynamic acitivity.

http://exergamefitness.com/products/item.php?cat=dance__step_games&show=idance2_wireless_dance_and_step_system

About WebRacing Exergame Cycles

WebRacing Exergame System offers the best in multi-user group cycle racing.  Experience Peloton Multi-Ride, a virtual community experience that makes workouts  engaging, fun, and effective.  Accurate workout data is calculated and displayed during the ride and recorded for review later.  (4-16 users)   http://exergamefitness.com/products/item.php?cat=gaming__bikes&show=webracing

[motionfitness1]

Gateway Unified School District PEP Grant Winner will use grant to buy high-tech exercise gear

Joe Szydlowski The Gateway Unified School District governing board signed off on using federal grant funds on interactive exercise gaming equipment at its Wednesday night meeting. The equipment features games to encourage kids to move around, said Matt Diskin, program director for the Physical Education Program (PEP). He obtained the funds from a $1.2 million federal grant for the district to build fitness labs at district schools. The equipment is the first major step of the grant in moving toward more active students, he said.

"It costs less than one open heart surgery and contributes to better learning," he said. "A healthier kid is a better student." The exercise gaming equipment includes three 100-square-foot platforms with LED lights that shine using eight games. The platforms will head to Buckeye School of the Arts, Grand Oaks School and Shasta Lake School. Three "3 Kick" games, which are similar to whack-a-mole only they use lights as targets and students' feet as mallets, also will go to those schools.

In September, Diskin said he found out he was from one of 71 districts around the country that won the Carol M. White PEP grant, a U.S. Department of Education grant tailored to improve and research fitness and healthy activities among students. Diskin said the interactive method engages kids. "It gets the kids moving. They're visually stimulated, (it) has all the bells and whistles," he said. "Our (goal) is to get their heart rates up." In 2010, around 34 percent of Shasta County fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders were obese, according to a UCLA study. The technology will appeal to students, said Jim Harrell, superintendent of the Gateway district.

"To me, it's kind of like 'Just Dance.' (My kids) go hog wild all over it," he said. "(This equipment), it's even more than that." Diskin said active students at Grand Oaks Elementary School saw test scores rise from the mid-700s to 826 last year. He said part of that increase came from students participating in healthier activities at school. He said he understands how parents may worry about spending in the face of an uncertain economy, but the grant is tailored to a specific regimen. Harrell said the grant's funds can only be used on the plan Diskin developed — the size of the purchase means the board had to give its OK, he said.

"As a superintendent, I can't go in and say, 'Sorry Matt, I need money to offset budget cuts,' " he said. The fitness program is an improvement on one Diskin put together in 2004. He said this one upgrades those gyms with "state of the art" equipment. According to a 2008 survey by the California Department of Education, 53 percent of 10- and 11-year-old children spent at least an hour watching television each day. Around 75 percent said they exercised at least four days per week, though the survey didn't measure how much time they spent exercising. 

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Exerlearning Lab-Motivating the Student in Academics AND Physical Activity

[motionfitness1]

Healthy Families Healthy Communities Program Starts at Port Discovery

Port Discovery Children’s Museum is ranked as one of the top 12 children’s museums in the country by Forbes and offers three floors of educational, interactive exhibits and programs for children ages birth through ten years.  All of the Museum’s programming aligns with the Maryland Model for School Readiness and the state curriculum, with a focus on five core Platforms of Learning:

1.   Early Childhood Learning

2.   Healthy Families/Healthy Communities

3.   STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)

4.   Financial Literacy

5.   Creative Arts and Culture

In Maryland, obesity is an escalating concern, with the percentage of adults who are overweight or obese doubling over the last 20 years. About 177,000 out of 615,000 Maryland children ages 10 - 17 years are considered overweight or obese. This is 28.8 percent of youth. Obesity is even more common among African-American youth, with a rate of 34.6 percent. There is a critical need in our community to educate children at an early age on the importance healthy eating habits and participating in daily physical activities.

Port Discovery is committed to providing families with young children in Baltimore City and beyond, the opportunity to engage in physical play and adopt healthy habits through its Healthy Families Healthy Communities platform of learning. Responding to health issues such as childhood obesity, Port Discovery offers programs such as Healthy First Saturdays, a monthly community health fair andCook and Tell – an interactive cooking demonstration where children create a healthy snack based on a children’s story book; as well as exhibits such asKidWorks, a 3-story urban tree house and its newest exhibit, Kick It Up Brought to you by UnitedHealthcare, that promote physical activity and provide greater awareness to practice healthy living.

In recognition of the significant strides the Museum has made to promote health and wellness to all children and families in our community and beyond, Port Discovery has been named a Good to Grow! Museum by the Association of Children’s Museums. Port Discovery is only one in five out of over 300 children’s museums in the country to receive this national designation and is proud to help reinforce the message that Baltimore is on its way of becoming one of the healthiest cities in the United States!

Kick It Up is an indoor soccer field that transforms into a fitness arena featuring innovative, interactive games developed by Exergame, including:

·         iDance: test how accurate your dance steps are against other players  

·         WebRacer bikes: compete against others in a virtual bike race

·         iJoy Balance Boards: see how long you can stay balanced on a moving board that simulates surfing and skiing

·         Touch Wall (T-Wall): test your reaction time by using their bodies to hit lit targets

Port Discovery’s exhibits team researched several companies that specialize in electronic fitness games and chose Exergame products for its wide variety of age appropriate experiences, excellent customer support, and solid record of product durability.  As a children's museum and a trusted community resource, it is our mission to be an advocate of one of the biggest issues today – the health of our children. The Exergames we chose to include in Kick It Up! provide an interactive and engaging environment where children and families can experience firsthand that exercise can be fun!

[fatshawnkemp]

Dream Team Video Game Ad

Submitted by Aron of howtomakeit.com

[coppercurls]

I earned 543 points for my workout on Fitocracy!

Walking (treadmill) +94 pts

0:30:00 || 2.1 mi (+94 pts)

C25k, W5, D1. Think I need to update my running playlist.

Elliptical Trainer +65 pts

0:12:00 || Broke a Sweat (+65 pts)

Machine Shoulder (Military) Press +84 pts

16.5 lb x...

[physicsphysics]

[motionfitness1]

Brain and Fitness Games to Improve Cognitive Response

[motionfitness1]

Several schools across the country have adopted early morning physical education classes in order to assist students with learning. In Naperville, Illinois, District 203 has been conducting a Learning Readiness Physical Education program for years. Their approach has received national attention because of the positive impact it has had on literacy scores. More and more evidence points to the reasons why this intervention is so successful. Primarily, when students are introduced to an early regiment of exercise, they become more focused and ready to learn due, in part, to an increased oxygen flow to the brain combined with an increase in neurotransmitters. The other side benefit of exercising in the morning is that it improves mood, lowers aggression, and increases attention. What is beneficial in introducing exercise as a part of a student’s preparation for learning is making sure that what the students engage in triggers their attention system. ExerGaming is an excellent tool because it provides immediate feedback, is a challenge leveled to the individual’s skill set, is pleasurable to the brain, and is motivational so kids stay with the routine more easily. In a recent case study that I conducted at my school, we found duel benefits to utilizing ExerGaming as the medium for exercise. We chose one of our most unfocused and often disruptive students and introduced him to a new ExerGaming lab we had implemented in our school. What resulted was an increase in motivation by simply working to receive ExerGaming lab time. The teacher set expectations for the morning. When the student achieved those goals, he received, as a reward, extra time in the lab. The teacher commented that it was the most leverage she ever had on motivating this student’s behavior. He enjoyed the lab so much that he worked harder than he ever had about following directions and completing assignments. The other benefit was derived from the physiological effects of the exercise. The teacher said that, when he returned from his workout, he was more calm and successful in the class. He now was benefiting from increased dopamine and serotonin to the brain which helped regulate his mood and aggression as well as activating his attention system. ExerGaming provided a huge motivational tool and also created a more focused student. The teacher was so pleased with the results that she has become a strong advocate for using the ExerGaming lab as an intervention for kids. Next year our elementary school will start a morning physical activity class for all kids who struggle with behavior and attention. What was clear this year was that when we improved the behavior and learning for a struggling student, we improved the learning for everyone. Recently, there is evidence that states are noticing the link between exercise and learning. As the research becomes more widely known, Utah legislators are beginning to pay attention. For example, Rep. Paul Ray and Rep. Eric Hutchings, are considering several approaches to improving the fitness levels of kids and improving school test scores. They have introduced a program that promotes high heart-rate physical education classes before the school day begins. The novelty of ExerGaming is a key strategy in this pursuit. Today’s students enjoy and are motivated by video games. ExerGaming blends their interest in this medium and, at the same time, engages students with unique and exciting workouts. As more is known, we expect schools to embrace the concept of exercising before instruction.

[motionfitness1]

[motionfitness1]

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Exergaming and technology implementation in physical education programs at SUNY Cortland.

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[motionfitness1]

The exergaming business focuses on kids ages 5 to 17 and grew out of Logrecco's previous work as a personal and professional coach in the San Diego area.

[motionfitness1]

The AAHPERD National Convention & Exposition is the only event of its kind; encompassing a trade forum of over 350 products and service providers, organizations, and manufacturers in the health and physical activity fields.

On average more than 5,000 physical and health education and fitness professionals attend the AAHPERD National Convention and Exposition each year. Two-thirds of the attendees work in K-12 schools settings. The exhibit hall showcases the latest in athletic and physical education equipment; textbooks; teaching aids; curriculum materials; athletic training supplies; health and nutrition products; assessment tools; outdoor adventure, adapted physical activity, and aquatic equipment; and this year…exergaming.

Motion Fitness is known as one of the leaders in implementing technology into a physical education setting. Our mission is very clear at Motion Fitness, to inspire physical activity through the most cutting-edge active game experience – AND – to provide fun, sustainable solutions to fight childhood obesity. Our high-quality Exergaming products are designed to provide outstanding physical performance and a beneficial learning experience.