Dad Hack: Video Games and Working out

I love playing video games. While that may have been something shameful to admit 20 years ago, I believe that nowadays it isn’t surprising. It is a massive industry with total revenue hitting $91 billion in  2016. I am part of the generation that was young when NES hit the market then came of age when Playstation and Xbox were new on the scene and competed for our entertainment dollars.

While I can no longer play for hours on end, I still love picking up my PS4 controllers as often as I can. Sadly, there only are so many hours in a day and for a dad with six kids, a wife, oh yeah, and a career, there just aren’t many hours left for video games. Besides, at 37 I can no longer just eat as much as I want and maintain a slim physique so exercise should find some time so that I can look good and feel good.

That’s when I decided to combine two activities to save on time. I figured out that I can work out and also play video games! Here’s how I do it:

I pick a game that has regular intervals in it, sports games are best for this,  and I establish what I want to work on. My main focus has been arms and chest, but I have also included legs and abs and honestly you could even work in light cardio. I then play my game while completing sets of exercises during the intervals. Brilliant I know!

My favorite game for this is MLB the Show. Obviously baseball has 9 set innings which allow for quick breaks. I began with 10 repetitions of push-ups in the middle of every inning and 10 repetitions of triceps dips at the bottom of every inning. That meant I was completing 90 push-ups and 90 dips during one game. It was a struggle at first and my arms burned, but I got stronger and upped my repetitions to 12 and now 15. So now, I am completing 135 repetitions of push-ups and dips during one game which takes about 45 minutes. Honestly, this has been enough to show some actual results. My arms, chest and shoulders are larger now than they have been since I served in the army more than ten years ago. My wife notices. If you don’t believe me ask her.

But that is just my system. I have incorporated squats and sit-ups into my routine and alternated days like one should if going to the gym daily. It really does work. Any exercise is helpful so don’t mock it if you aren’t doing any push-ups, you little weakling! JK.

I even figured out it is easy to do if you’re a TV guy and not a video game guy. Every commercial complete a set of something to give your body some exercise while enjoying your favorite entertainment! You don’t even have to get off the couch to do crunches! You’ll be surprised at the results, honestly. I know it seems silly, but if you’re having trouble finding time to work out and also play your favorite video game or watch your favorite show, try it. My kids know I do this and sometimes while I’m doing “Dad’s Workout” they drop down and do little kid push-ups, it’s adorable.

Well that’s my tip for the day: video game work outs brought to you by this Super Dad! Have a fantastic weekend and let’s get swoll!

Games, Games, Games

I admit it. I love video games. While I don’t play as much as I once did (five kids and a job or two will cut into a man’s time) I have been known to spend a massive amount of time playing games. It’s fun. I feel it can be a problem solving challenge (I enjoy strategy games the most) and again, it’s fun. So keep that in mind as I pose the following dilemma.

Today I gave a test in my accelerated (honors) world history class and I instructed the students that they could fiddle with their school issued tablets when their test was completed. I noticed one student already had some sort of “temple run” game up before I could even pick up her test. The object of the game is to dodge left, right, duck or jump as needed. It’s kinda dumb but I probably would have played it as a kid. Anyways, when I graded her short answer test she got a 1/30. That’s 3 percent. That’s basically saying you didn’t know anything we learned this unit but she didn’t seem to care as she jumped, and dodged left or right. I was disappointed. Is it possible that games are distracting our kids from their studies? Probably.

Eli loves videos games too! I have used it to motivate him; as an incentive. So far it has worked. He gets stuff done so he can play; including homework. He gets ready in the morning so he can play, he plays hard at soccer to earn video time and is generally better if I threaten to ground him from video games. I’m a firm believer in using as leverage whatever will work with kids. I’ve seen more than one student go from failing to excelling in a short period of time because they were grounded from their phone etc. It works.

I am worried however that excessive screen time is somehow diminishing our kids’ ability to learn, to focus and to achieve in an education system developed over a hundred years ago. That said, districts are making strides to try to modernize education to the 21st century, unfortunately, the technology we put in their hands, today at least, was the distraction while a student failed a test.

I don’t have the answers, I’m afraid, only questions.