If you haven’t heard about the latest digital gaming craze ‘Pokemon Go’, you’ve probably been living under a rock. This gaming technology sees AR (Augmented Reality), essentially a digital facade superimposed over the real world while players walk around with their smartphones, visiting specific locations and landmarks to try to find and catch cartoon creatures.
There’s always pros and cons to any kind of new craze, some of the cons include risk of injury (bumping into things/ falling down/not looking where you’re walking), annoyed property owners being swamped with Pokemon hunters, and risk of becoming a crime victim as thieves target people engrossed in their game, not paying attention to their surroundings. Funnily enough one of the cons (or pro as far as we’re concerned) some Pokemon Go players have been complaining about is sore legs from so much walking! So it has many asking the question:
Does Pokemon Go count as real exercise? In short – Yes!
We’re sure some hard core Gym junkies will hate us for saying ‘yes’, so let’s clarify it a little! Exercise should be enjoyable, and a positive relationship with exercise is the key to developing a lifelong exercise habit. You don’t have to be on a treadmill or in the gym to get the benefits of exercise. Any kind of movement is better than NO movement, so if people are getting up off their couches (or wherever they normally game) and walking/ running around outside, breathing in fresh air, getting sunshine, and most importantly – smiling, then we’re all for it. In particular if that person was leading such a sedentary life beforehand that they now get sore legs from walking a few kilometres hunting Pokemon’s!
Something else to bear in mind though, is that exercise has to challenge your body in order for changes to occur. So in order to improve your fitness/health, you need to ask your body to do MORE than it’s used to. Will walking around the city at a comfortable pace playing Pokemon Go increase your health and fitness by any substantial amount? Probably not. Can it compete with any real workout, Gym or Personal Trainer? Definitely not. Is it better than sitting on the couch? Absolutely.
Playing a video game that involves walking around IS better than playing a video game sitting on your butt, it can’t exactly lay claim to being a new workout trend. However think about where this kind of technology will lead in the next few years when designed with exercise in mind. Imagine a game along these lines combined with a FitBit and an adventure race like Spartan or Tough Mudda for augmented obstacles! Don’t laugh, it’s no more far fetched than what the idea of Pokemon Go would have been to most people a couple of years ago.
In the meantime keep technology as a helpful tool to enhance a great workout that would still be great with or without an iPhone, check out our recent article featured in Fit Pro magazine on this topic. And of course if a little more Pokemon Go fitness is needed we’re sure our skilled Personal Trainers can develop a Pokemon Go cross training program!
