A little a lot, or the other way around?

[Mitch S]

Hey guys, this holidays to keep up with my rampant videogaming, i'm setting myself a task that for every hour of daylight i play video games for, i need to do a set number of pushups, squats and pullups/chinups and planking

Originally i was planning on just taking a break every hour and do mini-workouts, but the thought has occurred to me that that might not be ideal. And a bigger daily or every second day workout might burn more fat and build more light muscle tone.

Coupled with a 70% paleo diet i'm hoping this will be quite effective at negating my fairly sedentary holiday lifestyle.

Either way i figure the mini-workouts arent going to do much to stress my muscles.. though i may be wrong, i would appreciate some advice on what method to choose..

Cheers!

[Guest Carjack]

Put your TV up on boxes until it's at eye level when you're standing up.

Move your couch away and only play from a standing position across the room from your TV.

Implement punishment exercises when you get killed or fail missions in the games.

[ETFnerd]

That's awesome advice in the spirit of blending exercise with what you love. Also maybe using a wireless controller and acting out everything your character does on screen at the highest intensity you can muster...

[Lachy]

If you don't do your exercise every hour or at least every day, you run the risk of building up a big debt you can't pay off in time. Like what if you had a marathon 2 days, and clocked up 16 hours? How much exercise would that be? Could you do it in one day? I like the idea though. Maybe give yourself a credit of 4 hours. If you hit 4 hours of play, you can't play again untill you knock off your exercises.

Tell us what you will owe for each hour played. I heard about someone doing something similar for Skyrim, but it was 3rd hand by the time I heard it.

[Rick]

I like the idea of owing yourself exercise for time spent playing, but if you've already got a workout routine, don't interfere with it by adding something else. Either you're working out enough and this plan will push you overboard or you aren't working out enough and this plan gives you room to continue with that if you just stop playing. Regardless, playing standing up is definitely a good idea!

[zdub]

I kind of like the mini-workout after every hour of gaming idea. It's like "greasing the groove". Also giving a +1 for Carjack's ideas. I bet you'll be a lot more careful when you're playing with one-shot kills and every time you die you have to do 10 pushups. Let us know what you decide. I'm curious as to how one could apply this to other activities... hmmmm.

[aj_rock]

That's awesome advice in the spirit of blending exercise with what you love. Also maybe using a wireless controller and acting out everything your character does on screen at the highest intensity you can muster...

Now if only we had video game systems that encouraged you to do just that...

[Mitch S]

I was originally planning to do 10 push ups, 20 squats, 1 or 2 of each pull ups and chin ups.. and then like a 30 second plank.

I think if i did the mini workouts every hour this would be great but if i were to build up a debt over a day or two that would probably be waaaayy too many.

The playing standing up i could definitely do for skyrim and AC3, the acting out of every move i make would just get irritating though i think..

Busting out a few pushups every time i die is probably great, but still leaves me with only doing a small amount of work every now and then..

This was going to replace my normal workout routine because i don't have gym access until next year.

I might trial each for a fortnight or so and see how that goes.. starting with the mini-workouts every hour... and playing whilst standing up.

Either way i should burn a fair bit of fat and tone up which is the main goal.

[Rick]

Don't forget to make the work hard. Try dead lifting your couch or doing jump squats.

[Dio]

I'm a big supporter of greasing the groove when you're doing stuff around the house. You can easily practice two exercises without hurting progress too much as long as they're different muscle groups. I try to work pushups/pullups every day and I find it EASIER to keep up with when I'm playing video games or watching marathons of tv shows instead of when I'm out and about.

[Mitch S]

Greasing the groove seems to be essentially what i'm doing, but wouldn't that just improve my technique? It seems to me that it doesn't do a lot for muscle growth and it doesnt say a lot about fat burning.

With a steady diet this may be ideal though, i want muscle definition but not to be the hulk.

Thanks

[zdub]

If you read the link I posted in my earlier post, it talks about how greasing the groove is a great way to improve your numbers for many exercises. The idea is that you are doing many sets spread out through out the day. Just don't do them to failure. The webpage recommends 50-80% of your max, but I'm curious what Pavel (who they say is the creator) recommended.