Tag Archives: exercise

Treating Parkinsons Disease with the Wii Fit

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Jorge and Samuel are doing it wrong. Image courtesy of hdaniel

Jorge and Samuel are doing it wrong. Image courtesy of hdaniel

Health care is big business.  Just ask President Obama.  Even with our twenty-four hour news cycle being overrun with updates about the Iranian Elections or the latest round of tragic celebrity deaths, there is still almost daily coverage of the debate in Washington about the future of health care in America.  While there is a great deal of conflict over what exactly the cure is for our ailing health care system, it seems as though everyone agrees that something needs to be done to reign in the rate at which health care spending continues to grow.  If nothing changes the current estimates indicate that by 2017 health care expenses will top nearly $4.7 trillion dollars (nearly 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product).

With all of that money floating around in the health care system it should not come as much of a shocker to learn that in the last 18 months exergames have generated nearly $2 Billion dollars in worldwide sales.  Despite our ever-expanding waist lines (or perhaps as a direct result of them) video game fans are flocking to fitness related video games like Wii Fit and EA SPORTS Active.

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Nintendo Announces Wii Fit Plus

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Fly, Chicken Man! Fly!

It appears as though the battle for supremacy in the exergame field continues!  Not content to sit back and let EA SPORTS Active steal all the thunder when it comes to fitness gaming, Nintendo recently announced an expansion to the popular Wii Fit title during the E3 conference in Los Angeles, California.

The appropriately named Wii Fit Plus is scheduled to be released this Fall in time for the Holiday shopping season.  Available as a complete package with the Wii Balance Board or as a stand-alone expansion for those who already own Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus includes all the exercises of the original game along with 15 new balance games and six new yoga and strength training activities.

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In Pursuit of the Pull-Up

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Photo by uuzinger

Photo by uuzinger

I have never, in my entire life, done a pull-up.

This is not an easy revelation for me to make.  The truth of the matter is that it’s downright painful.

Back when I was in Middle School (6th to 8th grades down here in Florida) physical education was a mandatory class that everyone had daily.  For some kids it was an excuse to get outside and have some fun during the school day.  For me it was a daily reminder of how much I sucked.  It was an opportunity for me to get picked on for how slow I was, how much I was sweating in the hot Florida sun, how I was horrible at team sports, and how ugly I looked when I didn’t have my shirt on.  The latter, of course, only happened on one of the very rare occasions when I would actually get up the nerve to “dress out.”  When I didn’t, which was most of the time, I got picked on instead because of how badly I smelled due to not taking a shower after class.

The absolute worst humiliation I had to endure during that time, however, was a direct result of The President’s Challenge.

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Workout of the Day – June 17th

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65 Minutes Treadmill at 4 MPH (5 minute intervals on level surface followed by 1 minute intervals at 6% incline)

Assisted Pull Up – 190 pound counterweight (5 sets of 5)

Pulldown – 80 pounds (5 sets of 5)

Dumbbell Rows – 25 pounds (5 sets of 5)

Bicep Curls – 25 pounds (5 sets of 5)

100 Pushup Challenge – Week Two, Column 1, Set 1 (4-6-4-4-8)

200 Situp Challenge – Exhaustion Test (80)

I have decided to re-boot my situp challenge  paying close attention to form and allowing the full one second hold time on the crunch.  While I can still do 80 I’m not getting 200 in at this point methinks.

Workout of the Day – Monday, June 15th

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60 Minutes on the treadmill at 4 MPH

10 Minutes on the treadmill at 3.2 MPH

5 sets of 5 Assisted Pull-Ups with 200 pounds counterweight

5 sets of 5 Pulldowns – 80 pounds

5 sets of 5 Dumbell Rows – 25 pounds

5 sets of 5 Bicep Curls – 25 pounds

100 Pushup Challenge – Exhaustion Test (13)

200 Situp Challenge – Week Six, Column Three, Set Three (39-39-50-50-39-39-33-33-218)

18 Minutes EA SPORTS Active

Win A Copy Of EA SPORTS Active For Dad

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EA Sports ActiveActive_Girl just announced over on Twitter that EA SPORTS is giving away a copies of EA SPORTS Active in honor of Father’s Day. She did not provide any links to a rules page so I cannot offer specifics in that regard, but the description of the contest she gave on her Tweet about it was “Father’s day giveaway – kids – why should your dad win a copy. Dad’s – why should you win a copy? email active@ea.com.”

Father’s Day is next Sunday, so hopefully Active_Girl will pick the winners soon and get them shipped out in time for those of us who have waited until the last minute to grab something for Dad.

Update! According to the notice on the EA SPORTS Active Facebook fan page they are giving away five copies.

Bringing a NewU To The Exergaming Field

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newULogoThere has been a considerable amount of innovation that has surfaced over the last few years in the fitness gaming market.  From dance pads to balance boards game developers are constantly thinking up new ways to get us moving in order to get healthy while we entertain ourselves.  “Exergaming” seems to be one of the next great things in the video game realm and those of us who enjoy the genre eagerly look forward to the next big thing that is going to come down the line.

The folks over at Black Bean Games are hoping they have found the new hotness.

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