When I observed the positive effects our Exergaming lab had on our elementary school, I was convinced that every student should have access to this type of lab.  Nothing I had observed before motivated students to exercise with the enthusiasm and spirit that this lab created.  The lab had a remarkable impact on our student body’s commitment to exercise and physical activity.  Students couldn’t wait for their scheduled time in our Exercise 4 Learning lab.

How and Why We Started an Exercise 4 Learning Lab:

Any teacher will tell you that, for an ADD/ADHD student, sitting in the classroom can be incredibly difficult.  They are the students that daydream, intrude, interrupt, blurt out, and have a difficult time in social situations.  As a principal for over 30 years, I recognized a pattern that existed for nearly all of our school’s ADD/ADHD students.  Each year started with a parent/teacher conference where we discussed the best ways for the teacher and the school to support their child.

There was always a high level of commitment on everyone’s part to do their best in providing a positive environment for the student to learn and grow.  What happened next was an agreed upon set of interventions that would be employed if the child was off-task or behaved inappropriately.  Unfortunately, largely because of seat time requirements, the student would begin to struggle with classroom expectations around listening, paying attention/staying focused, behaving appropriately, finishing assignments, and getting along with others.  The downward cycle had begun!!

Unfortunately, the results became predictable because the same pattern happened time and time again.  Initially, everyone tried earnestly to make things work.  However, even with best intentions, the student/teacher relationship would suffer.  This was usually do to the demand for seat time, a heavy dose of corrective feedback, and the student’s difficulty to stay continually focused.  All types of issues began to surface because tension mounted around the student’s behavior problems.

The student began to dislike the teacher, the teacher felt she was not being supported by the parent(s), and the parent(s) often looked for someone to blame because discipline and academic problems were increasing.  Everyone felt a little helpless.  Too often the student’s impulsivity and poor behavior led to unfortunate labels, i.e., “lazy”, “stubborn”, or “spoiled”.   Some years, everyone was able to hang together and have a decent outcome.  But in many other instances, spring semester rolled around and discussions began about placement in another teacher’s classroom or another school in hopes of serving the child more effectively.  Everyone was exhausted just looking for answers.

Over all those years of observing the dynamic response of classroom teachers with students having ADD/ADHD, the common denominator was a prescription of more structure, stricter discipline, and/or increased medication.  More structure often included depriving the student from recess as punishment and/or time for incomplete assignments to be finished.

The main intervention goals typically included positive reinforcement, redirection, and removal of privileges.  Time-Out, or isolation without intervention, was the most frequently applied strategy in the attempt to manage and change behaviors.  Unfortunately, all of the strategies combined, even with the best intentions, never quite led to the desired changes everyone was wanting.  Sadly, over time, the negative impact on the student’s self-esteem was always fairly significant.

The good news is that there is a more effective intervention that should be added to the school’s repertoire in responding to the needs of ADD/ADHD students.  We now know that exercise can have a far more beneficial impact on ADD/ADHD students than many of the other strategies.  And it does more than just “burn off energy”.  Research demonstrates that exercise actually “turns on” aspects of the brain that affect learning uptake and retention (Ratey, 2008).  It also decreases impulsivity and increases focus, preparing the student to learn.

By doing 10-15 minutes of exercise every 2 hours, students:” Improve attention/focus/mood/behavior” Grow brain neurons for memory and learning” Improve cardiovascular condition” Fight obesity and help prevent type 2 diabetes John Ratey, M.D. Harvard Medical School

Time-In Versus Time-Out:

Knowing that research supported exercise as an intervention to decrease behavior issues, increase focus, and increase learning, our school began to review options that would optimize the learning experience for our ADD/ADHD students.  During this time, I was introduced to a new concept in exercising called Exergaming by Phil Lawler, considered the “Father of the New PE”.  At my elementary school, our first experience with Exergaming equipment occurred when we installed two game bikes and 2 Dance Dance Revolution pads in a small resource room, creating a mini-lab.  The equipment was used as a Time-In intervention for students with ADD/ADHD.

Xavix Exergaming Equipment provided by Exergame Fitness (USA)

Students would begin their day with 10-15 minutes on the Exergaming equipment.  Before afternoon academics started, those same students would go the mini-lab and work out for another 10-15 minutes.  In addition, teachers were coached to watch for student behaviors that reflected inattention and lack of concentration and sent them to the Time-In lab for 5-10 minutes to help them refocus.

The results were remarkable.  First, the students loved working out on the Exergaming equipment, even arriving early to school to exercise.  Second, we observed what the research had indicated–students went back to the classroom less impulsive and more ready to learn.  The intervention had a positive impact on the students, promoting academic success and increasing self-esteem.

A fourth grade teacher, who used this strategy with a particularly challenging student, said the following about her experience: ”I couldn’t believe the positive difference that 10 minutes of exercise made for one of my ADHD students who was previously off-task, unfocused, and created many disruptions in the classroom.” Terry Deniston, Ph.D.Classroom Teacher

Certainly, Exergaming as an intervention is a very powerful and proactive strategy that will help ADD/ADHD students be more successful in school.  The initial key was the students’ motivation to use the Exergaming equipment.  Eventually, the students were able to understand and correlate how a “turned on brain” improves focus and attention.  Students were excited to conduct their workouts and always looked forward to the experience.  That is why every school should have a lab or mini-lab to support these students who, for so long, have had such a difficult time succeeding in our schools.  Your parents, teachers, and students will applaud you for your new intervention and the positive effects it will have for these students.

Research findings indicate that nearly 7,200 students drop out of school each day (Wingert, 2010).  I would suggest that a segment of the 1.3 million students who drop out annually struggle with the effects of ADD/ADHD.   Schools can afford this intervention (I encourage you to contact Exergaming Australia for equipment information), and it can have a huge pay-off for the students, teachers, administrators, and parents.

References:
Ratey,  J.  (2008).  Spark:   The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.  New York:  Little, Brown and Company.  Terry Deniston  (personal communication, Sept 10, 2009)Wingert, Patrice.  ”The (Somewhat) Good and (Mostly) Bad News about High School Dropout Rates“. www.newsweek.com.  2010.  June 14, 2010

All Exergaming products mentioned are available through Exergaming Australia | 0418 146 818 | Email

Activity-oriented videogames can help users to become more engaged in other physical activities, according to a survey backed by the American Heart Association. The health organization allied with console manufacturer Nintendo to conduct the poll, which showed that 58 per cent of respondents have taken up a hobby such as jogging or tennis since playing games such as Wii Fit or Wii Sports Resort. According to data from the survey, users consider such titles to be good ways of remaining active when in the home, with men more likely to play the games than women.

Dr Barry Franklin of William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan, an American Heart Association volunteer, said: “As people get up off the couch to play Wii games, they’re likely to stay up and do more.” The American Heart Association grants Nintendo permission to display its logo on the packaging of Wii Fit Plus.

In the UK the NHS has endorsed ExerGaming, particulary rhythm dance games, as an option to increase activity in its Change4Life program.

Australia, now the most obese country on the planet would do well to follow the lead of the US and UK and embrace the tremendously engaging nature of exergames and begin similar initiatives here, what do you think?

You may be surprised to know that the two most powerful motivators in getting or keeping fit are FEAR and GUILT. Are you surprised? The times of the year when guilt and fear rear their persuasive heads is less surprising….*drum roll*…the end of Spring and New Years Eve!

FEAR: When our health deteriorates we instinctively seek to gain back control. Our anxiousness drives us to sign on the gym contract’s dotted line and we enter a 3 month period of fear-fueled determinaton.

GUILT: 70 – 80% of us never return to the gym for the duration of our contract, incredible figure! Those that do return often do so out of guilt! A re-awakening of the promise we made on New Year’s Eve or the guilt associated with wasted gym payments or our friends comments about redoubling their efforts to get back in shape – don’t confuse guilt with determination.

Does it really matter? Do we really care what propels us back into a mindset of health and fitness? It’s a good question, fear and guilt are certainly powerful motivators, but surely we can do better! There must be a way to create sustainable levels of health and fitness in our lifestyle that don’t involve bullying ourselves!

Well for some of us who love working-out, going to the gym, attending boot camp, running half marathons or playing competitive sports there is little need for badgering. These people seem to manage their personal or family wellness year after year. However, I would hazard a guess and say these people are in the vast minority. For the rest of us, we need to find powerful and frequent sources of inspiration or motivation to improve our lifestyle behaviours – welcome back fear and guilt.

Wow, that just seems so dire! Surely we can be inspired by people who have successfully changed their own behaviours; surely they can persuade us to improve our own?! Well of course they can, for a few days, weeks goodness maybe even months! But inevitably we need to find the trigger within ourselves.

Watch children play and ask yourself what’s their motivation? How do they play with such enthusiasm for such long periods of time? Think outside the obvious answer of “..they’re kids, that’s what kids do!”, true, but what motivates them? Could it be as simple as it’s just fun?

Okay, so kids play, that’s no revelation but think about it, they play to explore their imaginations, to socialise to investigate new possibilities and they have a LOT of fun doing so. Fun and Play are inseparable. So let’s link them together with a game and let’s control the game with our body. Now we have an extremely powerful combination of motivators:

Play + Fun + Game + Body = ExerGames

Exergames are unconcerned with age, ability or fitness levels. They are made to benefit everyone. So now Fear and Guilt can be removed from our list of motivators. We can now feed our willingness to improve our wellbeing through positive measures, brilliant!

Fun is a terrific word, unfortunately its meaning has been diluted through overuse and misuse. For adults, fun isn’t as ‘fun’ as it used to be. Media and advertising have adopted the word to sell everything droll and boring. TV Shop fitness equipment ads are a perfect example. The latest Ab machines are promoted as “the best ever”. They are all easily setup, hit every muscle group, get results in minutes and pack away in seconds and they are all fun – NO, THEY ARE NOT!
I was fooled by a slick TV Shop presentation years ago and went ahead and bought a Chuck Norris endorsed contraption. Did it work? Yes it did, badly. It was built poorly of low quality materials but it did what it said. Was it fun? Absolutely NOT! It was uncomfortable, it took up a lot of space and it was boring. The best workout I got was carrying it from the Post Office to my home over 1 km away, nearly killed me, that wasn’t fun either!

Promoters love using the word ‘fun’ to peddle their wares. Fun has become a lightweight, insincere and superfluous word indiscriminately thrown into any and all product advertising. It’s like white noise, we hear it but it doesn’t hold any value, which is a shame because it’s our best ally in changing our wellness habits.

So it’s time to give FUN back its true worth and power. Next time you embark on your journey to the gym for weights, treadmill running, rowing or a Power Pump Aerobic class, take note of:

• How many times you smile,
• How often you laugh (genuinely laugh)
• How much of the time were you immersed in the exercise, the world disappeared.
• Did the time just fly past
• Was the exercise easier than you expected

If you answered ‘not often’ or ‘no’ then you need to re-evaluate your fitness programs. Life is too short for ‘not often’, this is YOUR leisure time and you deserve more!

You must have fun to make these behavioural changes stick. Work doesn’t have to be fun, cleaning the house doesn’t have to be fun, but damn it, getting fitter to improve the quality of your life MUST be fun, otherwise you simply will not sustain the effort.

Challenge yourself to seek activities that are Fun. If you have trouble accepting this, introduce a second word to add credibility – Serious. A suitably adult word. Let’s put it together with our new favourite word and we get – Serious Fun.

What’s your immediate reaction? I would hope you are smiling and taking that smile very seriously. I want you to believe that fun is acceptable, in fact it is mandatory and further to that, we deserve it! So tomorrow, chose activities that make you smile, laugh and immerse you in that moment as if you’re watching an entertaining movie.

Some Tips:

1.      Perhaps you’re already doing step classes well try Zumba it may be more ‘fun’.

2.      Like to try dance classes but lack the confidence or time, get Kinect for your Microsoft Xbox 360 and play Dance Central, it’s much more fun with friends and family – great workout!

3.      Instead of running on your home treadmill, grab a friend and power walk to Hudsons coffee shop for a low fat latte, perhaps that’s more ‘fun’.

4.      If you’re in Hobart go to the Hobart Aquatic Centre and try iDANCE2 it’s the world’s best group fitness Exergame and a LOT of fun!

5.      Exergaming is very effective at stepping up the challenges while still remaining fun.

Don’t underestimate the power of Fun.

The true test of an exercise or fitness program is not feeling satisfied, pleased, nicely tired, suitably fatigued or utterly smashed you can achieve those results running on the spot or do endless burpees. No, the true worth of a fitness program is your willingness to do the program again and again, day after day and year after year. When an activity is fun, we do it willingly and we do it frequently.

Make your fitness fun and don’t accept anything less. If you’re stuck for ideas, send me an email and I’ll do my best to get you sweating and laughing in equal measure

If you are curious or you are already a convert to the amazing fitness potential that exergaming offers, then you are very welcome to be an active ‘vocal’ participant in the Skype session. You are equally welcome to follow proceedings as a silent spectator in the background should you feel more comfortable. We can only take a max of 24 people for the event, so please get in early as you may miss out otherwise.

The next session is on Saturday 12th 9pm GMT and will be our 5th discussion. The major topic relates to defining exergaming; what is it, how do we describe and define it, what’s its purpose etc. These discussions are informal and far from elitist, so join in and have a say in the direction of exergaming globally.

“The government expects these investments will catalyse the nation’s Serious Games sector growth to reach a market value of $400 million by 2012.”

The South Korean government and associated partners are to be applauded for the foresight. The market in Serious Gaming, Gaming for Health and Exergaming seems patently obvious, I hope the Australian government is being approached by lobby groups and can take some inspiration to what is happening elsewhere in Australasia.

With Rudds emphasis on bringing our region in from the Broadband abyss, the time seems ripe to develop parallel offline and online technology driven businesses. Australia could be very well placed to deliver worlds best practices in the brave new world of gaming, both for pleasure and enterprise.

Should any Australian ‘games’ practitioners/developers/innovators etc, be reading this, please lend your weight to our fledgling Exergaming google groups at http://groups.google.com/group/exergames-australia?hl=en

In short, it does so many things right, that you can excuse most of what it doesn’t do, or what it does poorly. Comparison with Wii Fit is inevitable, and you can well understand the logic behind the comparison, but they are apples and oranges. Wii Fit is light-hearted, with its BMI heart in the right place and a fantastic, simplistic and joyous sense of humour. It’s a fitness game, but certainly more of a game than a fitness solution. EA Active is its polar opposite. For the very hard too please or those people needing exceptional motivation and incentive to train, a morphing of EA Active and Wii Fit would be near perfect, as both have ingredients which would work very well together.

However , there is no doubt about it, what ‘Active’ does well it does very well. It is instructional perhaps overly so, but it must err on the side of caution for a multitude of ‘safety and litigacious’ reasons.  The graphics suffice, they don’t offend but aren’t terribly inspiring either; best described as ‘functional’.
One thing Active does well, is with exercise choice. It has dozens of variations and months worths of combinations before boredom would settle in. It has four main areas from which you can choose your activities, one of which is a ‘sports’ catagory which I played volleyball and tennis. Both games were fast paced to keep the heart rate elevated, and for me, fun, but I’m easy pleased with sports sims and very forgiving. By blending combinations from all 4 zones you have a great selection of aerobic and anaerobic exercises.

This is definitely not a ‘game’. It is an instructional, interactive fitness program. That isn’t a complaint merely a fact. If you were expecting gameplay then look elsewhere.

Oh, you’ll need more room than you think as well, so give yourself a larger area to move round to avoid jumping on all the ‘bits n pieces’ you use during the program.

Standard comments over with, now let’s talk about re-engineering, adaption and a tad of innovation. In other words, let’s critique this baby from the Hardcore Exergaming perspective Quite simply, EA Sports Active has MASSIVE ‘Exergaming’ potential. How so? Well first of all, throw out the ‘elastic band’ that comes packaged with the game (it would suffice for few weeks for the very beginner, at best). Go out and buy more effective bands. Sure, that’s more money but it’s worth it. Exercise bands can be found at any Sports shop, just ask the staff as they often vary in resistance. My band of choice is the outstanding Finnish designed GymStick. This ups the intensity of all upper and lower body exercises dramatically, get one now!!
For the ‘track exercises’ (running, kick backs, knee raises etc), use a minitrampoline and your own treadmill for running if you have one. I have an adaptor which allows use of any Crosstrainer for running simulations, it works incredibly well. For Active, I’ll be making adaptors to fit standard dumbells, to which I can attach the Wii mote and nunchuck. This will allow a much superior workout and infinitely adjustable resistance and intensity as a result.  Put all these adaptions together and you will have a superb workout that would make the most hardened cynic weak at the knees, literally.

If you haven’t already, buy a wirelessly connected nunchuck and wiimote. That cable dangling between the two is just too short, especially when doing jump squats and full extension movements.

With some adaption and lateral thinking, Active has the potential to be a VERY serious fitness alternative even for the ‘serious’ trainer! As it is, it’s an excellent intervention, and will certainly get people off the couch and on a very well laid out fitness course (the 30 day challenge).

As I said at the outset, what it does well, it does very well. The worst I can say about Active is it’s ‘functional’. In the next few weeks I’ll be giving it a serious ‘Exergaming overhaul’. It will then rise from functional to fantastic…Let the  Games / Exergames begin!

So what, you say, content customization is standard fare for many products and services, that’s true of course, however Exergaming’s rubbery nature compounds the difficulty in characterizing it. Ironically, it’s a victim of it’s strengths in that respect. Exergaming’s inherent adaptability and ease in adopting technologies, create a chameleon like identity, which morphs to suit its environment readily and rapidly. This was exemplified recently when my business advisor asked me to choose a business plan based on two ‘fitness challenges’ and a commensurate solution and strategy for each. Since our business model can incorporate any ‘Exergaming product’ and we use a flexible method of service delivery, I found choosing just two challenges VERY difficult. One challenge seemed patently obvious – PE alternatives for primary school aged children. An Exergaming Hardware/Product based solution would be an effective strategy. However, with a little thought, and broadening the scope of the model, Exerlearning offers a cognitive, behavioural and fitness benefit that is hard to ignore. Thinking further, and an ‘Active Playground‘ solution, from companies such as Smart Us, in Finland, are an exciting alternative. Which to choose?

We are spoilt for choice and our choices are increasingly steadily, if not daily. How we apply the plethora of available options becomes more important than any one particular product or service, this wasn’t necessarily the case in the recent past. Exergaming must remain innovative and adaptable and not be labelled a niche fitness alternative. This is somewhat problematic in establishing a ‘standard’ or even a definition forExergaming. We currently have a number of serviceable definitions for Exergaming, but as the genre is in constant flux, creating a concrete definition becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible. So whether we define this new ‘chameleon’ fitness alternative as Active gaming, Exergaming or Interactive gaming is perhaps irrelevant. Identifying the ‘fitness problem’ or challenge, case by case, and applying the imperatives of innovation, evolution and revolution will see this new genre continue to expand and become an entrenched, accountable fitness alternative.

I welcome your feedback, and please remember, this is purely my opinion and I’m certainly not precious about being criticised or questioned, far from it. If nothing else, I wish to merely continue the debate on the what, who, where, why and how of Exergaming.

In Part 2, I’ll look at how Exergaming can be integrated into conventional fitness environment, thereby transforming the fitness experience creating a highly motivational and effective training session that is effective at any existing fitness level! Enough theorizing and speculation, it’s time to get down and dirty

The UK government has released a new anti-obesity ad using the services of Aardman Studios (of Wallace and Gromit fame). This in itself isn’t so interesting, other than seeing the Aardman crew’s intelligence and unique skills directed into a Health initiative, but seeing how they are promoting active gaming/exergaming in the ad certainly is!
This seems to be an about-turn for the UK government but regardless of its motivations, the current ad is certainly a welcome endorsement for exergaming. The full report is at the Guardian

In recent times, the Wii has released several rhythm based games centred around the sport of Cheerleading. The reviews seemed encouraging but of course the games are reviewed for the mainstream game user with only cursory reference  to the fitness component of the game. The games did seem to offer a workout component, due to the choreographed dance/aerobic/calisthenic nature of cheerleading, I just hoped, as I normally do, that the game didn’t get in the way of the fitness experience (I really do judge games from a very different perspective).

Step up Namco Bandai’s ‘We Cheer’. Obviously marketed to the youth-tween market, driven by Bratz type animations and storyline, and fair enough….but did it have the scaleable, cross-generational, age irrelevant and dual gender appeal? In short – a resounding YES! A youtube search for the We Cheer shows a multitude of ages, genders and skill levels plodding, pounding and bounding their way through the choreographed scenes. Have a look here at a random example of two guys (most videos show teen to early 20′s adult men!): Beng and Chris

The game is extremely scaleable offering no to low impact moves, rhythm enhanced with the predominance of movement in the upper extremeties. With an increasing skill base, the lower body is utilised more increasing the cardio effect commensurately. To increase intensity, it is a simple matter of applying weighted resistance (aerobic wrist and ankle weights).

The game requires concentration to play effectively but is inherently fun to play and even moreso as a spectator it seems The multiplayer aspect allows up to 4 people to join in with the choreography. This raises the fun/motivation level accordingly and allows for scheduled ‘group/family’ fitness activity…another winner.

It is all too easy to dismiss games based on cursory or superficial analysis. Try this game, rent it if you can, and apply a fitness bent to its use. There are practice and workout modes within the game which are repeatable and fast loading. Put a sincere effort into utilizing your whole body and not just synchronising your upper body. Give it 30 minutes, and then tell me you havent broken a sweat! Just be careful you don’t unconsciously start humming ‘walking on sunshine’ and whooshing mini pom poms at family and friends at every opportunity.

A four year old technology is still at the forefront of Exergaming methodology, and four years is a long time in this arena. In conjunction with Kinetic SCE London Studio and Nike Motionworks, the Eyetoy and Kinetic are a credit to its designers. Many of todays game producers could do much worse than to use this inception as a yardstick for successful Exergaming implementation.

At Exergaming Finland we’ve been promoting the outstanding high intensity workout that can be achieved by the Eyetoy, particularly in relation to Kinetic and Kinetic combat. Exergaming can offer a total body workout which will tax the fittest of individuals…don’t believe me!? Watch this: Exergaming Finland Eyetoy Solutions

Like everything in life and fitness, you get out of it what you put into it. Eyetoy/Kinetic is a symbiotic fitness relationship that has the potential to get the very best out of you. If you’re after muscular endurance and a cardio maximised workout, it is hard to beat…period!