The amount of energy adults expend playing active video games may equal that of moderate-intensity exercise, according to a new study.  Also, Los Angeles City Department of Aging and SCAN Health Plan have joined together to provide Wii consoles to the city’s 16 Multipurpose Senior Centers (MPC).

Japanese researchers measured the metabolic equivalent values (a standard method of estimating energy expenditure) of 12 people ages 25 to 44 as they played Wii sports games and did Wii fitness programs. The study was funded by Nintendo, which makes Wii.The study found that nine Wii activities had less than two metabolic equivalent values (METs); 23 activities had two to three METs; nine activities had three to four METs; and five activities had more than four METs. The least intense activity was lotus focus (1.3 METs), and the most intense was the single-arm stand (5.6 METs).

Light-intensity exercise is less than three METs, moderate-intensity exercise is three to six METs and vigorous activity is more than six METs, according to the American Heart Association. An adult walking at 3 miles an hour on a flat surface expends about 3.3 METs.

“The range of energy expenditure in these active games is sufficient to prevent or to improve obesity and lifestyle-related disease, from heart disease and diabetes to metabolic diseases,” the study’s lead author, Motohiko Miyachi, a project leader at the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Tokyo, said in a news release from the American Heart Association.

The findings were to be presented Monday at the association’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Though yoga and balance exercises are much less intense than resistance and aerobic exercise, they help improve flexibility and reduce the risk for falls, according to the researchers.

Not only that, but here’s more about the senior centers use of Nintendo Wii:

Los Angeles-area seniors will soon have the opportunity to be bowling champions, and they don’t have to be able to heave a heavy ball down a waxed runway. That’s because the Los Angeles City Department of Aging and SCAN Health Plan have joined together to provide Wii consoles to the city’s 16 Multipurpose Senior Centers (MPC).”SCAN’s mission has always been to promote healthy and independent aging in the communities we serve,” said Roger Lapp, senior vice president at SCAN, a not-for-profit health plan. “One of the best things you can do to remain healthy and independent is to keep moving. Virtual bowling is a fun and easy way to do that.”

This type of bowling has become popular among seniors as it provides them a chance to engage in an activity that they might otherwise not be able to do. The game involves pressing a button on a wireless controller and moving your arm to mimic the motion of rolling a ball.

“Thanks to this technology, seniors who were once confined to a sedentary lifestyle due to hip, shoulder or knee pain can now enjoy the sports they once played,” said Laura Trejo, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Aging. “This is an excellent opportunity to engage in a fun, physical and social activity in support of a healthy and active lifestyle.”

Seven of the city’s 16 MPCs have received their consoles from SCAN already: St. Barnabas MPC, Freda Mohr MPC, Hollywood MPC, Felicia Mahood MPC, PCS West MPC, Theresa Lindsay MPC and Bradley MPC. At St. Barnabas an 83-year-old who had never played before was showing other seniors how to maneuver through the game by the end of the morning.

“When Wii came to our center, we believed it was easy enough for anyone to play, but we were surprised how quickly our seniors took to it,” said Rigo Saborio, executive director of St. Barnabas Senior Services. “It provides an opportunity for our participants to engage in a different kind of active program that offers fun physical exercise as well as mental stimulation. The collaboration and support of SCAN Health Plan and Los Angeles City Department of Aging will truly enrich the lives of our participants.”

Jewish Family Services received their game console last month. “Our clients have said they can’t wait to begin participating on a regular basis,” said Susan Mendlowitz-Belgrade, LCSW, director of Freda Mohr Center, Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. “We can’t thank SCAN enough for supporting us.”

In the coming weeks, SCAN will complete its donations by delivering Wii units to the nine other LADOA MPCs throughout Los Angeles.

Related Posts

• November 13, 2008 -- EA Sports Active: More Fitness for Wii
• June 16, 2008 -- Wii used for Physical Therapy, Fitness Ultimatum 2009 coming this fall
• January 21, 2011 -- Wii Fit helps Woman Diagnose onset of Parkinsons
• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts

One thing’s for sure, though.  I didn’t gain any weight over the last 30 days.  In fact, I lost .2 pounds.  What does this mean?  Well, I’m going to do another challenge next.  However, this challenge will be my own rules.  More on that in a moment.

I had some problems with the jump squats again.  I went at the game’s pace, and it thought that I was moving too fast.  It sensed my motion after each jump, and thought that I was moving into the next jump.  It gets really tiring being told that you’re going too fast, when you’re simply doing as told.  I didn’t have problems with the game locking up at all this time.  I’m hoping that is a thing of the past, though I still have to send in the Wii to get it fixed.

So, for this day, the projected calorie burn was 125.8.  Actual Burn: 138.3!

Projected Total Calorie Burn for all 20 workouts: 2662.5

Actual Total Calorie Burn for all 20 workouts: 2899.7

A difference of 237.2 calories.

I’m pretty satisfied with that, but not with my overall results.  Sure, I can feel some results, but I can’t see any.  So, what’s next then?  Well, I am going to do the 30 day challenge again, though this time I’ll be blogging about it only one time per week.  My plan is to do the challenge on Easy this time.  Why?  Because I’m going to couple the challenge with Wii Fit.  I’ve had it for over a year and haven’t really used it.  In fact, it just sat in the box for many many months.  I was excited to locate a copy, but when it came to doing something with it, I never really got into that.

So, what I’m going to be doing is what I will call the Wii Fit / Active Challenge.  With weekly blogs about my progress, I think that seeing actual results will be very helpful.  Something that Wii Fit provides is what I don’t have in my house.  A scale for your weight.

The great thing that EA Sports Active has done, though, is that it’s helped me to strengthen areas that I’ll likely be using in Wii Fit.  Let me stress again that EA Sports Active is a program that works.  Sure, I didn’t lose weight, really, but that was my fault, for the most part.  I was excited to see myself a few pounds lighter, and when that didn’t happen, I wondered if it was the ten pound bag of sugar that I was holding.  Couldn’t have been that, so what was it?  Probably nothing.  I put in a solid effort, and should have been doing more on the side.  In fact, the game encourages it.

That being said, the game gets high marks for me.  It’s made me want to be more active.  It’s made me want to keep going, it’s made me want to lose weight, and it’s made me actually interested in playing.  Instead of the drab backgrounds and “yoga” (yawn) inspired trainings in Wii Fit, this game had colorful backgrounds, there were other people working out with you, in game; and you have a personal trainer to reinforce your efforts.

I’m excited by the prospect of the future with this product.  While I use Wii Fit, I’ll likely finish another 30 day challenge, though on easy this time.  After that, I’ll very likely turn up the heat to hard mode.  By September, I want to see some real physical results.

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 25 and 26 – Software Errors
• June 24, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 23 – Not a good day
• June 23, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 22 – Lots of Upper Body
• June 22, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 19 and 20 – REALLY HARD DAYS

It was a really simple one to complete, focusing entirely on the upper body.  While I was doing this workout, I decided to blast the soundtrack to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which some tracks worked better to keep me moving than others, but overall the effect was great.  I didn’t have to listen to the trainer tell me to go, when the game didn’t actually want me to, and I could still tell when to do the next rep, because of a box on the screen that flashed.

However, the game did confuse me with something that I had never seen before.  At first I thought it had frozen again, not hearing the annoying buzzing sound that came with it.  But then, in the middle of the screen popped what looked like a music player.  The controls on it were small, and I could barely make out the number 1 on it, at first.  Turns out, pressing the 1 button allows you to change the music that you’re working out too, in game.  Funny that I discover this feature after turning on my own music.

The exercises today were pretty simple, and afterward I went for a walk around the neighborhood to clear my head.  More on that in the next entry today.  I was shocked by the low estimate for the projected calorie burn, but as I went through the routine, I was grateful for it, because the routines included were all about strength, and wouldn’t burn that many calories.

Tomorrow is the last day of exercises for the 30 day challenge.  With two days on, one day off, day 30 is a rest day.  It’ll be the 20th workout of the challenge, and the trainer says that it’ll incorporate a lot various activities.  I’m looking forward to it, and to finally take a look and see if all of this work, over the past 30 days, has helped me to lose some weight.  Stay tuned for that.

Projected Calorie Burn: 86.1; Actual: 97.3!

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 25 and 26 – Software Errors
• June 24, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 23 – Not a good day
• June 23, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 22 – Lots of Upper Body
• June 22, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 19 and 20 – REALLY HARD DAYS

What caused the glitch?  Who really knows.  The Wii has moving parts, being a disc based system, and being on a carpetted floor as I was doing routines that included jumping can not have been good for it.  I really don’t think it moved all that much at all, but I think the slight motion every few seconds finally got to it.

Anyway, onto the training.  These two days were rough.  Day 25 was absolutely terrible.  I started out getting through more than half of the exercises, over 70 calories burned, and then the game froze.  There was nothing I could do at that point but cheat my way through, and do it with little to no effort.  A feat that I very easily achieved over the next ten or fifteen minutes.

Projected Calorie Burn: 106.3, after a restart: 104.6. (So the game thinks).  It was one of those things where, when I cheated, the game got my calorie count wrong by a couple of calories by the same point that I had reached before.  In actual numbers, I would have beaten the projection.  Because the game does not let you fix things, I cannot change that.

Day 26 went better.  TONS better.  I didn’t have it lock up one time.  Projected Cal Burn: 102.1; Actual: 104.3!

It incorporated a lot of lower body exercises, though, and I again ran into one recurring problem.  The game tells me “jump now” so I do, and it tells me to do that three more times, so I do, and then it tells me “You’re going too fast.” Followed by “You’re setting a great pace with this exercise.”  All of the contradictions were really frustrating me.

Not only that, but when I pause on something, sometimes I move around a little bit from side to side, after finishing a move and when I’m standing up straight.  The game waits for me to stop moving completely.  I thought this was a workout.  Instead it’s sometimes a manikin workout.  Let’s see the game loosen up a little bit on movements after you stand up.  Somehow, it’s gotta be able to sense when you’re really ready to do the rep, without forcing you to stand totally still.

Overall, though, I’m happy with myself for keeping up with the software and not getting too discouraged, although sometimes I wanted to quit.  I walked around for a while to cool down.  I realize, however, that when I send my Wii in for repair, I might lose 60+ hours of game saves, from such titles as Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Nights: Journey of Dreams.  And that’s really unfortunate.  Nintendo should allow copy of ALL data for emergency back-ups.  There are records there that will probably take even longer for me to complete again.

But that’s neither here nor there at the moment.

Two workout days remain.

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts
• June 24, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 23 – Not a good day
• June 23, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 22 – Lots of Upper Body
• June 22, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 19 and 20 – REALLY HARD DAYS

First: I had to cheat to get the number of calories that I had already burned up until that point, and I managed to find a way to cheat with zero extra exersion on my part.

Suggestion: Have an emergency entry, so that the exercises that you have completed, as well as the number of calories, can be entered in times of crisis.  Without penalties toward your record.  If people use it to cheat, then it’s on them.. have it on an honor system, where the game doesn’t recognize it as your entry, but rather sees it the way it would if completed normally.  This would have saved me time getting back to the exercise I was ACTUALLY on.

Second: This is a problem that I have faced time and again, and today was no exception.  I would complete a rep, and the game didn’t recognize that the rep was complete, forcing me to do extra reps of the same move.

Suggestion: Add a button press that allows you to confirm the completion of a rep.  Make it difficult to do that, or something.  And have it generate the number of calories burned based on an average of the other reps in the exercise.

Third: I had problems, today, with the Wii Balance Board for Inline Skating.  It didn’t recognize that I was crouched down, when I was the entire time.  I should have been seeing the calories going up, but because I didn’t, I wound up cheating my way through that.  I didn’t want to get short changed on the calorie burn from that workout.

Suggestion: Use Wii Motion Plus for greater accuracy we the calorie counting. It gets kinda old when you’re in the middle of a maneuver and the calorie count stops moving.

Today, I also completed the last of all of the workouts that are involved in the game.  So I’ve done litterally everything that this game has to offer.  I’ve only got about four workouts left to go in this challenge, so stay tuned to find out what happens next, and to see how much weight I have lost from doing this program alone, without a change in diet.

Projected Cal Burn: 135.8; Actual: 133.5.  Boo.  Thanks, game, for freezing.  This is the second time the game has frozen on me in the middle of working out.  I blame the game, as no other games have ever done that prior or since.

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 25 and 26 – Software Errors
• June 23, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 22 – Lots of Upper Body
• June 22, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 19 and 20 – REALLY HARD DAYS

There are some exercises, like the standing leg lift crunches (?) that I have no idea what they’re for.  It’s hard to tell why it’s even a workout.  Perhaps I’ll figure it out someday.

The point that I forgot in yesterday’s entry was about the encouragement of the trainer.  Throughout each exercise, he encourages you to set a great pace.  He tells you to push your limits, and he says to keep up the effort.  But when he tells you to go a little faster, and then he tells you to slow down immediately after you do, that’s something that I get pretty annoyed with.

And the earlier complaint held true today as well.  During alternating side lunges with toe touches, I got to the top of one lunge, and decided to just go into the next.  The game of course, has to read the remote as not moving in order to know to move onto the next rep.  Please please please incorporate the new Wii Motion Plus so that the game really does know when you’re doing things.  It’ll make for a much more accurate calorie count on many of the exercises as well.

Projected Calorie Burn 116.1; Actual: 128.6

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 25 and 26 – Software Errors
• June 24, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 23 – Not a good day
• June 22, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 19 and 20 – REALLY HARD DAYS

For day 19, there wasn’t anything new, but there were amplified workouts, to the point that I was doing so many things for so long that I was getting exhausted about half way through, wondering how I was going to make it through.

It seems that the developers of the workouts recognized that this would happen though, as they changed things from lower body to upper body at just the right time. I was very thankful for the thought that went into that.

Projected Cal Burn: 144.3; Actual: 156.3

Day 20 was a different story, and one that I hope that EA Games rectifies for the next release. Again, I had trouble with this. There are times when your workout intensifies, and holding your arms and legs completely still during the exercise is something that can not be asked of someone, nor should it be. It could cause injury to the person doing the reps. Not only that, but it takes down the accuracy as the game does not record the calories burned from repeating the same motion for a second time so that the remotes pick up on it. This has been a problem about 75% of the time on lunges and squats, as I am building strength there, and able to hold longer, the remotes wait until you’re completely still. How do I know this? Because I’ve run into trouble with reps as my body decides to fight back, and had to cheat my way to the finish of the reps that I already had completed. Sure, a couple extra won’t kill me, but I want an accurate calorie count.

Perhaps, for the next one, they can add Wii Motion Plus to it, and allow for a little range of motion instead of complete stillness. I’m not the programmer, so I don’t know if that’s possible, but give us something. I had one other thing go wrong today with it, but I can’t remember what it is now. It’ll probably happen again, though, with 6 workouts left to go in this challenge. If I stay on course, June 30 is the last day of this challenge. And I’m looking forward to it.

Projected Cal Burn: 148.3; Actual: 164.5

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 25 and 26 – Software Errors
• June 24, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 23 – Not a good day
• June 23, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 22 – Lots of Upper Body

There is an interesting dichotomy happening right now, as I have completed 12 full workouts out of 20.  I’m seeing results in my ability to do more of the reps with less of a struggle, sure.  But I’m not seeing the physical results that I want to see, yet.  I’m sure that will come with time, though, and I plan to do more things with this as well as other stuff after this first challenge is complete.  My goal for this one was to see what would happen if I change little else, and just do the program.  It seems to be working, but I’m hoping that I can start to see a physical transformation by the end of summer.

Today included both Tennis and Volleyball with the Wii Balance Board.  If you don’t have the Balance Board, then you probably get regular Tennis and Volleyball, as it’s not a requirement of this game, just extra if you do have it.  Both of those exercises were great this time around, and with Tennis in particular, the pace didn’t seem too quick to actually be able to do what they ask.

One thing that seems to be part of the daily routine in this program, however, is the sensitivity to the Wii Remote and Nunchuck sometimes seem a little off.  I’ll be doing something, and it won’t register with the game, and I’ll end up doing it for longer than I should, or I’ll miss a rep.  It’s something that I’ve noticed if I’m holding the remote only slightly in the wrong direction, and we’re talking very slightly, it doesn’t register that I’ve completed the rep.  Hopefully this is something that is overcome by the expansion pack that is coming this fall.

Overall, today, I did much better than yesterday.  I had a high goal to hit, and I made it.

Projected Calorie Burn: 167, Actual: 179.6

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 25 and 26 – Software Errors
• June 24, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 23 – Not a good day
• June 23, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 22 – Lots of Upper Body

Today also included the first foray into baseball, which included catching and throwing, pitching, and batting.  I really enjoyed this exercise and look forward to doing more baseball.  I think that when the 30 day challenge is over, I’m going to put together my own workout involving the sports, so that I can play more of that.  I didn’t want it to end so soon.

Today included very little running, as well as more dancing, as well as many other simple exercises, which probably added to the fact that I simply didn’t burn as many calories as I’m used to.  Today was the first day that I was close to falling in under the projected calorie burn.

Projected Calorie Burn: 109.1, Actual: 110.4

That sure was a close call.  I hope that tomorrow’s workout, I can do better.  I fully expect it to get more challenging to meet the projected burn, however.

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 25 and 26 – Software Errors
• June 24, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 23 – Not a good day
• June 23, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 22 – Lots of Upper Body

These ones did include some basketball, volleyball and tennis, and pushed me to the limits again with some really difficult exercises.  The game also included a video congradulating me on making it this far.  It also told me about some of the things to come.  This includes stepping up the intensity level of the workouts.  I don’t know of it was a warning or not, but I might as well take it as such.  I’m not looking forward to that, but hopefully I can make it though.  Anyone reading this, supplying words of encouragement as I go through the next workouts would be terrific.

For those keeping score at home, here are the calorie burns from the past couple of days:

Day 13: Projected Cal Burn: 136; Actual: 143.6

Day 14: Projected Calorie Burn: 127; Actual: 136.2

Order EA Sports Active at Amazon.com

Related Posts

• June 30, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 29 – Final Day of Challenge
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 28 – Upper Body Workouts
• June 29, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Days 25 and 26 – Software Errors
• June 24, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 23 – Not a good day
• June 23, 2009 -- EA Sports Active Blog: Day 22 – Lots of Upper Body