study, they asked for Douglas College
students to volunteer to spend two hours
playing the Nintendo Wii, while the
measured their heart rate and breathing.

As a volunteer test subject, I got
to give Wii Boxing a try (other subjects
also played Wii Tennis). Having a
breathing mask on my face and a heart
rate monitor hooked up to my ear and
another one around my chest was a little
awkward at first, but it wasn’t too much
of a distraction as I proceeded to duke it
out with virtual opponents. During the
study, they first measured me playing
against a human opponent, Ryan the lab
tech. I was told to try as hard as I could
to beat him, and he was sure to trash-talk
me in order to keep my motivation high.
After my heart rate returned to normal,
they had me play against the computer
while sitting on a chair, to simulate the
many players who just sit on the couch.
After that was another round against
the computer, this time standing up. By
the end I was quite a pro at the game,
and it was also the best workout I had
experienced all winter!

As someone who doesn’t own a
Wii (I’m what you call a retro-gamer,
my newest system is a Nintendo 64), I
can easily say that playing a Wii would
help me burn more calories than just
merely holding a controller and pressing
A to jump, B to shoot. Even during
the portion of the study when I was

sitting down and trying to minimize my
movement, I still found myself having
to move my arms quickly to throw a
combination of punch or to block my
virtual opponent’s attacks. And while the
game will have your character throw a
punch anytime you move the controller
forward, I found that in order to KO my
opponent I had to put real force behind
virtual punches. So being more active
does help you be more successful at the
game, no matter how you play it.

That being said, the results of what
came next made me questions how
effective exercising on the Wii really is.
For the final portion of the study, they
had me walk on a treadmill to see how
much effort it would take me to match
the average heart rate I had when I was
playing against a human opponent on the
Wii. It turns out that I matched it when
I was walking at 3 kilometres per hour.
That’s a pretty brisk walking pace, but
it’s much lower than the speed I would
set a treadmill at if I wanted to doa
serious 15-minute workout. So even
when I was playing the Wii as hard as I
could, from a physical fitness standpoint
I was short-changing myself compared
to what I’d do if I went to the gym.

But more importantly, I thought I was
expending more energy than I actually
was. If results like that are the norm,
many people could actually become less
fit if they play the Wii as a substitute for

 

 

 

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their regular workouts. At the conclusion of the study,
Katrina and Laurie gave me questionnaire to ask how
much effort I thought I was expending, and seeing the
results of that questionnaire for the other subjects in
the study will be what I’m most looking forward to
when I see the results of their study.

Student Research Day will be taking place on
| March 31°. The resutts of this aiid Several OuieT
studies done by Douglas College students will be
on display in the concourse. The goal of Student
Research Day is for students at the college to have a
chance to share what they have learned as developing
researchers. It also gives students that participate in
it a chance to be exposed to doing serious academic
research. This is the first year the event has taken
place but the plan is to turn it into an annual event at
Douglas College.