amy April 6th, 2007
I haven’t been exercising recently for a lot of reasons: our schedule has been really hectic recently, with being sick, traveling, etc.; it’s too hard to find time between work, picking James up from daycare, cooking and eating dinner, putting James to bed, and trying to keep the house in some sort of reasonable order; I’m too tired to get up early or work out at night; yadda yadda yadda.
Probably the biggest excuse, however, is not knowing what to do. In the past I’ve forced myself to go to the gym a few times a week and work out on the elliptical, exercise bike, track, or lift weights, but that is boring. I want to incorporate activity into my lifestyle and make it something that is fun, not a chore, so that I will keep it up.
I have a number of different ideas for how to do that, but my dilemma is that I also want to do something that will get Jason involved. He wouldn’t be caught dead in a NIA or Jazzercize class. We’ve thought about buying bikes and a baby trailer for James, but that would require a large investment. I’m interested in team sport like volleyball or softball, but since neither of us in good shape right now and we would basically be starting out as complete beginners, I’m not sure how we’d go about joining an adult sports team without feeling like total idiots. I like the idea of tennis because it wouldn’t be too much of an investment, (since you can get decent tennis rackets for $30 or less and there are lots of free courts in the parks around town) and Jason and I could start out by playing with each other.
The other big issue is what to do with James while we exercise. It seems like we are locked in to either going to a gym where they have daycare or somehow rearranging our work day so that we can finish our workout in time to pick James up by 6:30. Maybe we could leave work early a couple of days a week and go and hit tennis balls at the park before we get him? We’ve talked about walking together during the week at lunch (we work together so this is easy), but we keep coming up with excuses and haven’t actually gone yet. If we could walk two days and hit balls two days each week I think that would be a good start.
For those who are reading this, have you found a way to make exercise fun? What do you do to stay active while keeping things interesting?
amy April 6th, 2007
Exercise is obviously key for weight loss and good for your body, but did you know that it has many mental benefits as well?
- It can improve your memory. It targets the dentate gyrus, a region of the brain which plays a role in age-related memory decline that begins for adults starting in their 30s.
- It can lower stress, tension or anger.
- It makes you feel good. Exercising causes the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkiller, which increases feelings of happiness.
- It helps you sleep better and gives you more energy.
- It can help relieve depression and prevent dementia or Alzheimer’s.
- It can make you feel better about your body.
For more information about the mental benefits that exercise has to offer, check out:
Simple Steps To Better Mental Fitness
Mental Health Benefits of Exercise
amy March 20th, 2007
| My husband picked up Dance Dance Revolution Universe Bundle (DDR) for the Xbox 360 over the weekend because he knew I had been waiting for it to come out. I’d tried DDR at a couple of arcades and had always wanted to get it for home because I’ve heard it can be a great workout, but the availability has never quite lined up with our game console ownership (our previous Xbox broke before it came out on that platform). I was finally able to play for a decent amount of time last night in my own living room without being worried about how silly I looked (other than the occasional snort of laughter from Jason as I managed to misjudge the upcoming steps and trip over my own feet.) |
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Here are my observations on the game and its worthiness as a form of exercise:
- DDR can really get your heart pounding! I say can, because the intensity really depends on what level you play at and how much effort you put into it. I started out with their introductory mode where the steps are very simple and slow, and you have to score a D or better on your performance to unlock each song (not hard at all at this level, even for someone who generally considers herself to be a poor excuse for a dancer). This had me getting a little warm but was not very difficult. Then I switched over to quest mode at the “basic” level, where the steps come quicker and you are sometimes required to jump to step on two buttons at the same time. Quest mode is great for exercise because you dance to one song after another and the songs are chosen automatically for you, so your heart rate doesn’t decrease while setting up the next song. I did quest mode at the basic level for 40 minutes and was breathing heavier and sweating profusely at the end. I also tried to really get into it like I was actually dancing, swinging my arms and being energetic about moving from one step to the next, and I’m sure that helped.
- It can tell you (approximately) how many calories you burn in a particular session of dancing. I created a personal profile and entered my weight, then turned the workout switch on while I played quest mode. The game calculated that I burned 123 calories in my 40 minutes of play, which sounds reasonable to me if not an underestimate based on how much I was sweating.
- It’s fun! Since I was playing a game, I felt like I was having a good time instead of exercising. I wasn’t looking at the clock every 2 minutes willing it to go faster, or thinking about how bored I was. The 40 minutes really flew by. It also helped that I really like the music. There are a few rock songs but most of the music is dance/techno, so if you dislike this kind of music you might not enjoy it as much.
- You can download additional songs. Since I’ve just bought the game I am not tired of the songs that are included yet, but if I play it a lot I’m sure I will eventually want more than the 70 songs it comes with. The nice thing about the Xbox 360 version is that they will also have song packs that include new music and steps for download. This means that you can just buy additional songs instead of needing to buy a brand new version of the game to get different content.
- My only complaint is about the game pad. The pad hooks up to your console and acts like a big controller. You step on different buttons on the pad (either up, down, left or right) to perform the steps in the game. I found that the pad kept shifting as I danced on it, so I would need to straighten it between each song so that it did not get bunched up. I did find that it helped to wear socks so that my feet didn’t stick to it.
All in all, I definitely think DDR could be a good form of cardio, and I will be playing it often. If you don’t have an Xbox 360, DDR can also be purchased for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, or GameCube.
