This week kicks off the start of Walk Kansas in Stafford County as well as the State of Kansas. Walk Kansas is an 8 week fitness program through K-State Research and Extension. For more information about this program you can go to www.walkkansas.org
I will be writing a column called Living Well during the duration of Walk Kansas. The intent of this column is to give you some thoughts and ideas on how you can begin taking small steps to creating a healthier lifestyle for you and your family.
A question I’ve been asked several times, especially during Walk Kansas is “Can active video games such as Nintendo Wii give you enough of a workout to count toward the goal of 30 minutes of daily exercise?”
A new study (funded by Nintendo) and published by Tufts University, offers a cautious “yes”, suggesting that playing games included in the Wii sports and Wii fit packages can be the equivalent of walking on a treadmill at three miles an hour or faster. That’s the threshold for “moderate activity” – about 3 metabolic equivalents (METS), a measure of energy expenditure.
How do you know if you are at the “moderate activity” level when exercising? A simple way to make sure that you are not overdoing it is to take the “Talk/SingTest.” You should be able to breathe comfortably, deep and rhythmically at all times during physical activity. If you can’t easily talk, your activity is too intense. If you are so comfortable that you could sing, it’s time to pick up the pace a bit.
About a third of the Wii games tested reached the “moderate activity” level or 3 METS level, including tennis, driving range, balance bridge and rowing squat. Boxing, running plus, single-leg reach, advanced step, Hula Hoop, push up and side plank required about 4 METS, while basic run topped 5 METS. Only one game, the Wii Fit Plus single arm resistance activity approached the 6 METS threshold, which qualifies for “high intensity” exercise.
These findings were presented at the meeting of the American Heart Association. The biggest impact of physical activity is taking people from totally sedentary lifestyles to the next lowest level, which is average fitness. Active video games can be a good (and fun!) introduction to daily physical activity – or even a good substitute on a rainy day when working out may be hard to accomplish.
The Walk Kansas program logs miles walked – or exercised. 1 mile is the equivalent of 15 minutes of “moderate activity” exercise, unless you are running, then you log actual miles ran. So according to this study, if you played 30 minutes of Nintendo Wii tennis – you would log 2 miles for Walk Kansas. Now, whoever said exercising wasn’t fun? Get out there and get active!
