Exergaming Your Kids

Have you got a big old kid that is acting like the most spoiled couch potato in the world?  If so then you might want to try the exercising device that is now all the rage for both kids and adults called the Gamercizer.

How does this gadget get your kid up off the couch? In essence the entire gadget looks like something that belongs in an episode of the Flintstones. It is an exercise bike or treadmill that is attached to a video screen. The only way to keep the virtual style video game running is to put your kid on it and tell him to cycle and run. 

 Of course, as most kids also love to play video games they will also play the video game at the same time. Well it seems that in order for this to run efficiently that your kid has to keep up a certain pacing of exercise or the screen on which the video game is playing will go completely black.  I think this is a great idea as kids nowadays definitely seem to be more interested in the computer screen then playing hopscotch or baseball.  Even weirder they prefer the simulated outdoors to the real one, especially if the simulated outdoors takes place inside the weird mind of some animator. 

It appears that the exercise gadget the Gamercizer made to PC Magazine's Top Ten List of Fitness Gadgets for 2007.  Your treadmill, cross trainer, cycle or stair climber, can power Nintendo and other games.  Of course the Gamercizer only really suits people who are good multi-tasking as it involves exercising and playing video games at the same time. 

If you have a couch potato for a child it is obvious how this could help motivate him or her get off of the couch and start exercising.  First of all it allows the child to develop incredible powers of concentration and stamina. It is actually quite difficult to run on a treadmill and play a video game at the same time. Of course us moms might want to try more passive versions of software on this type of device. There are non-combative and non-competitive versions of this type of bike that allow you to look at pleasant scenery as you cycle on the bike. The minute you stop cycling your adventure disappears.  

You can also get versions of these types of Exergaming programs that take you into a fantasyland where you get to cycle in all kinds of different exotic locations.  You can program the number of hills you have to climb, the kind of weather you are running in and also what you are wearing. Perhaps footage of George Clooney running just out of my reach and very fast might give me the motivation to work more weight off than usual.  There is nothing like the thrill of the chase to get a person's heart pumping.