ShareThis1 |
Play Dance Dance Revolution for at least 1/2 hour per day, 5 days / week, for one month. |
2 |
I will add this to my daily checklist and record compliance there. If I am getting the exercise I'll consider that enough of an outcome for this experiment. |
3 |
I will be done January 30th, and re-evaluate then. |
4 |
I like playing DDR! |
Create an Experiment
Brock Tice
- Member Since
- 08/10/09
- About Human, husband, father, (atheist) zen buddhist, tidy, good neighbor, thrifty, starting a cardiac simulation services company, doesn’t worry about current events, reads for pleasure, tries to keep his home and his things safe and sound, occasional home improvement DIYer, trying to keep ties to close friends and family despite moving all over the country.
- Web http://virtuallyshocking.com
- Experiments 19
- Observations 297
Comments & Observations
Matthew Cornell Neat! First I heard of the game :-)
Dec 31, 2010
Matthew Cornell [A comment from my Facebook page]
"I tried that once...it's quite a workout! Then I got fussy about the quality of the dance pad controller I had (it slipped around), and couldn't quite bring myself to upgrade to the one that would have made it really worthwhile, so I stayed fat :)"
Dec 31, 2010
Matthew Cornell [another FB comment]
The other great workout arcade games are Mocap Boxing and Police 911, which are incidentally also from Konami (the maker of DDR). You might be able to find these in your local arcade / kiddie fun palace. There's a sensor over the arcade gam...e that figures out where your head is (so you can dodge and duck with your whole body), and in the boxing game you wear two gloves and have to punch directionally in the air. The combination of major muscle group movements is exhausting. For a while, I tried these games as a 3x weekly exercise experiment (75 cents per play, or $1.50 for one session at each). The combination of gameplay mastery and the need for physical endurance was very compelling. Almost dangerously so...these are games for people in great cardiovascular shape.
Jan 01, 2011
Brock Tice I got a used metal pad on Craigslist for $75. it's pretty good, a little creaky but the hardware is simple. I may mount it to a thick sheet of plywood per other recommendations. I've wanted to do this for a long time but I hated the cheap-o foam pads it normally comes with.
Jan 01, 2011
Brock Tice This is day 2 and I'm finding the goal of 'beating' a song to be really good motivation to keep exercising. I like this set-up because it's a 3-second walk from my standing desk to the DDR pad, and not much longer to get up and runningl.
Jan 01, 2011
Matthew Cornell Lowering the barrier to exercise is important - I completely agree, Brock. There's a related psychological trick of "just picking up the pencil" (say for writing). You tell yourself that you're just going to X, in your case maybe turn on the TV or step on the pad. Good work.
Jan 04, 2011
Brock Tice Missed yesterday, got too absorbed in work, but today I did my 30 minutes before meditating. Still wearing me out and making me want to quit 10 minutes early. Got to work on that endurance!
Jan 04, 2011
Rofellos nice, the metal pad is a lot better than the plastic ones! keep it up man. After this experiment you can go tear it up at your local arcade!
Jan 05, 2011
Brock Tice My wife has now also taken an interest in DDR (she was recovering from a C-section and couldn't before). We're doing well at it though not always hitting 30 min. each, just because we don't have much time free from the kiddos.
Jan 20, 2011
Matthew Cornell Are you doing each session simultaneously? That would be awesome.
Jan 22, 2011
Brock Tice We don't have two pads, but we take turns. We hit some bumps when upgrading to a new TV because it added some lag, but we finally have that sorted out, so we're trying again this wek.
Jan 25, 2011
Matthew Cornell You might find interesting this experiment example from a paper I report on: "Exercise three mornings a week with spouse." - http://quantifiedself.com/2011/01/how-to-experiment-guidelines-from-stewart-friedmans-be-a-better-leader-have-a-richer-life/
Jan 29, 2011