Way back in the PS2 days, before I had kids, a friend of mine introduced me to Dance Dance Revolution for the PlayStation 2. She used it as a way to work out when she got home from work around 3 in the morning. Thanks to her work hours, she couldn’t really go to a gym, so she used DDR to help. I was amazed at how much fun I had with it. So much so, I bought the game and a DDR pad when I returned home. I faithfully danced away to it every Saturday and Sunday morning, worked all the way up to the advanced difficulties, and then I got bored. I thought about buying another DDR game since there were a couple of others, but it wasn’t long before the mat became permanently rolled up. I still have it, of all things, and it’s still rolled and wrapped up with its connecter cord.
I haven’t thought of using video games to work out since then, until I played a Zumba game on the Xbox 360 Kinect at E3 in 2012. I thought a bit more about it at the time, but there was no way I was going to buy a Kinect. Now that a Kinect came with my Xbox One, I’ve been toying around with these thoughts a bit more.
I’ve wanted to join a gym, but then I quit one of my steady jobs (it’s a long boring story), so the idea of paying at least $50 a month isn’t exactly that appealing. But Zumba for the Xbox One is $50, and I only have to pay that once. And Zumba is more like taking an aerobics class, which is repetitive to begin with, as instructors often teach a class a routine so they can continually excel and then move on to more advanced classes over time. Well, that’s how these Zumba games advertise they work.
After talking over my idea with a friend, we’ve both agreed to take the plunge together, and we’re going to start working out together this week even though we live in different parts of the country (isn’t the Internet just GRAND?).
But my boring tale of fitness with gaming isn’t over quite yet.
This past weekend, I traveled to Houston for a quick trip to attend the funeral of a childhood friend. As you can imagine, I was surrounded by many other childhood and family friends for the duration of my stay, one friend of which has gotten diehard into yoga over the past year. I’ve never once considered yoga, even though I’ve heard of its benefits with stretching and relaxation. I also prefer cardio exercise, another reason why I’ve never tried it. However, hearing her talk about it, how much it has improved her core and how much physically stronger she’s gotten just in the six months she’s been doing it really made me reconsider my prejudice.
Again, I can’t really afford to go to a gym, but is there a yoga game for the Xbox One? Sadly, the answer is no, but there is one for the Wii U. It’s actually a total fitness game that offers multiple styles of working out, from dance to taibo to pilates to yoga. I’ve been told to try pilates by several people after I have complained about the difficulty I’ve had in losing the preggo weight, even with training for half-marathons. I haven’t bought that one yet as I’m about to go on a vacation next week, but I bet it will be in my arsenal soon.
I’m still worried that I’ll get bored of them like I did with DDR, but maybe, just maybe, I’ll stick with it enough to get interested in buying DLC or different games, all of which are still cheaper than joining a gym. And this has to be even a teensy bit better than buying exercise DVDs, right? I’ve gone down that rabbit hole before, and I got bored of those way before DDR bored me.
Well, either way, I can already hear Blake cackling with glee. He’s been on me about finding a game for the Kinect I would like since the stupid peripheral released for the Xbox 360. At least I never did buy it for that console.
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