DDR as exercise

[Lucky_13]

not sure how many of you may have heard of it, but there is a game called Dance Dance Revolution. its a Japanese game, most popular in arcades. you stand on a platform with 4 arrows that you step on, forward, backward, left, right. on the screen, there are 4 arrows across the top, and as music plays, more arrows scroll up the screen. when the scrolling arrows overlap the 4 at the top, you hit that button with your feet.

it can get very intesnse. i have the game for playing at home, with a dance mat that is a soft foam version of the metal arcade platform. when i used to play every day, i would always work up a sweat, breathing hard, heart pumping. then my memory card broke and i lost all my high scores and my favorite songs. i stopped playing for a while. now i finally got a new memory card and can work on getting all my high scores back and unlocking my songs.

does this sound like it would be a plausible cardio workout? i can't just do monotonous mindless copying of a video or whatever. i don't have enough endurance to get anything out of running or jogging and i hate doing that too. but this, with the music, i can forget about how hard i'm breathing or how much i'm sweating and push myself a bit farther than i would if i were running or following an exercise tape.

 

[calcium]

Sure it counts as cardio. Why not?

~Nicole

 

[trainerbob]

That's definitely plausible. Especially if you like it and will do it regularly. Take a pulse once in a while while dancing to make sure you're in your target heart range. That range would be 220 minus your age, then multiply that number by 55% to get the lower end of the target range and 90% for the top end of the range. Where you actually want to target in the range depends on how fit you are, so shoot near the 55% and work up.