aderfp633
Inscrit le: 27 Sep 2011
Messages: 7915
Localisation: England
|
 Posté le: Jeu Sep 26, 2013 5:48 pm Sujet du message: Just Dance 4 is a bestseller but is it a workout t |
 |
|
{Just Dance 4 is a bestseller but is it a workout too?}
Photos View gallery zoom Featured VideoClose More Video Police announce attemped murder charges in boy's beating Diabetic Dogs Canadian Police Say Boys Strangled by Python Navy Uniform My dancing isn’t the greatest at the best of times. And when I try to rock them in the University of Toronto’s kinesiology centre — with a blue oxygen mask strapped to my face, a heart-rate band wrapped around my chest and the eyes of four respected physiologists on me — it’s harder than usual to have moves like Jagger. I’m here to settle a debate: Do exercise-based videogames count as a workout? It’s a question that is on the minds of an increasing number of people: 166,000 Canadians bought Just Dance 4 this December, making it the third most popular game. VIDEO: Watch Tim Just DanceBut they’re no substitute for traditional exercise, according to a consortium of Canadian experts called Active Healthy Kids Canada and Participaction. They recently released a position statement together that came out against so-called active videogames like Just Dance 4. “Current guidelines recommend 60 minutes a day moderate to vigorous activity. It’s unlikely these games can make a meaningful contribution to that — but they certainly may provide short bouts of activity,” said Guy Faulkner, a professor at the University of Toronto and one of those involved in the study.The panel reviewed 1,[url=http://woolrich-parkaoutlet.blogspot.com]Woolrich Parka[/url],367 published, peer-reviewed research papers. They acknowledge that active games are a good way to break up periods of lazing around, but caution that time and money would be better spent on traditional outdoor exercise. Faulkner also says people may grow bored with the digital drills. “The novelty of these types of things does wear off after awhile. They may be lots of fun over the Christmas period but eventually they don’t hold people’s attention,” said Faulkner.The organization’s official position is that active videogames aren’t a good way for kids to become more active.But Ira Jacobs, dean of the faculty of kinesiology and physical education at the University of Toronto, thinks there’s more nuance to be had in the discussion.“My concern is that that’s kind of a blanket statement that doesn’t represent something else that’s kind of a new phenomenon,” he said, adding that a facility called Fitness 4 Success in Vaughan that is working with commercial-grade exercise games that use alternative controllers — like a pressure-sensitive floor — to encourage more movement.Christine Hansen is one of the many parents who gave her kids Just Dance 4 for Christmas this year. She’s not convinced of the fitness benefits, but likes that it gets them off the couch while playing indoors. “We tend to play them in the winter, colder months when the kids aren’t able to get outside. It gives them something to do to keep them moving while we do other things,” said Hansen, who added that the game isn’t their main source of exercise. My unofficial, unscientific experiment in Jacobs’ lab suggests the game does have some fitness value. A team of graduate students fitted me with two monitoring devices — a heart-rate monitor and a mask to check the amount of oxygen my body is using per minute of exercise, a reliable measure of workout intensity. When it comes to Just Dance 4, the intensity of your workout is in your hands, a lesson quickly learned by this Star reporter.For simplicity’s sake, we picked three songs to test — Call Me Maybe, On The Floor, and Moves Like Jagger.We tested the Wii version, which uses the remote as a motion sensor as opposed to the full-body sensors on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Still, it’s hard to hold back.“I can anticipate people who really get into it, that their movements will get bigger,” said Jacobs, adding that this would increase the health benefits.My dance session — which lasted a little over 10 minutes — left me feeling like I just ran up the stairs, and not too tired. But the monitors told a different story. I had been working harder than I thought, at times reaching the exertion level of a light jog.“If he could do it continuously, which he can’t because of his fitness level, he would reap health benefits,” Jacobs said to Star cameraman Paul Irish.Looks like I could stand to play a few more sessions.
_________________
People watching the forthcoming beginning of the German half of the inhabitants of Berlin are no interested in co-optation |
|
