5 ways to stay in shape while gaming

The media tends to overhype the risks of video gaming, it’s true. In China right now, games are even being blamed for a drop in college kids’ physical fitness. But at the same time, as gamers we should be honest with ourselves: sitting in a chair staring at a screen for long periods every day may be good for our brains, but not so much for our bodies.

Thankfully, it’s not that hard to keep in shape even as you game. Here are some easy ways to be sure you’re not hurting yourself when you game.

1. Take breaks

Marathon gaming sessions are terrible for your body, and guess what—they’re not great for your in-game scores, either. Every few hours, take at least ten or fifteen minutes to get up, move around, and get your mind and body focused on something other than the game for a little while. You’ll find that when you come back you feel refreshed, and often you’ll notice yourself actually playing better, too.

2. Work out during loading screens/deaths/pauses

If you really want to be healthy while gaming, this is a really easy way to fit in workouts without changing your schedule at all. Almost any game you might be playing features pauses in the action like the between-games lobby, the long MOBA death timer, or the single-player loading screen as you move from area to area. Use these short breaks to get in a quick workout.

Since working out isn’t fun for most people, this can even be used as a way to motivate yourself to do better in the game. If you hate pushups but you start doing ten pushups every time you die in Dota, pretty soon you’re going to be in better shape and you’re going to be dying less—that’s a win-win! Jumping-jacks, sit ups, and even quick exercises with free weights like curls are all good things to do during these short breaks in your gaming.

3. Work out while you game: motion gaming

If you have any kind of motion-sensing game system, then there are lots of games that’ll give you a pretty good workout while still making things fun. My advice is skip the workout games and play a dancing or sports game; they’ll still get your blood pumping but it’ll be way less boring.

Of course, if you’ve got tons of money to blow, there are also high-tech solutions like the Omni out there for you. Very few people can afford to blow $500 on gaming accessories like that, but if you’re one of those very few, that’s probably the best possible way to get exercise while gaming.

4. Work out while you game: exercise bike

If you have an exercise bike at home (you’d be surprised how cheap you can find them used), then you can play almost any single player game while riding it, to give yourself a good workout. I beat the entire game of Dishonored, for example, in 30-minute increments while riding an exercise bike. Obviously, since you’re holding a controller in your hands rather than the handlebars, you’re not going to be getting an extreme workout this way, but it certainly beats sitting in a chair and not moving at all.

(If you’re really techy, I’ve also heard of people doing stuff liking wiring their exercise bike to the computer so that it registers your pedaling as pressing the W key. That would probably result in a lot of great workouts, but I don’t think it’s very easy to set up. There are some consumer products that claim to do this as well, but I’m not sure how well they work.)

If you don’t have an exercise bike at home, you can still play mobile games while riding the bike at your local gym. Obviously you’ll want to be playing a game that’s fairly simple, but it’s totally doable even on a tiny screen. I’ve put in hours of exercise on the bike while playing games like Jetpack Joyride and Plants vs. Zombies on my phone, for example.

5. Gamify your exercise