Physical Demands of Exergaming in Healthy Young Adults

Tietjen, AMJ and Devereux, GR. Physical demands of exergaming in healthy young adults. J Strength Cond Res 33(7): 1978-1986, 2019-The efficacy of whole-body exergaming (WBE) in healthy young adults remains largely unknown. This study aimed to: (a) compare the physical demands of WBE in healthy adults with traditional exercise; (b) determine whether the physical demands of WBE were reproducible. Twenty-five healthy adults (age: 22.9 ± 6.4 years; height: 1.7 ± 0.1 m; mass: 69.1 ± 12.2 kg) completed two 10-minute experimental conditions (WBE on the Xbox Kinect and treadmill walking) in a randomized cross-over design study. Whole-body exergaming produced a significant increase in the peak heart rate (138 ± 23 b·min), oxygen consumption (40 ± 13 ml·kg·min), metabolic equivalents (METs) (11 ± 4) compared with treadmill walking (115 ± 18 b·min, 25 ± 5 ml·kg·min, 7 ± 2 MET) and a modest increase in the mean heart rate (111 ± 19 b·min vs. 104 ± 15 b·min). Whole-body exergaming produced significantly greater vertical (381 ± 118 vs. 127 ± 14 % body mass [%BM]), anterior (70 ± 22 vs. 27 ± 4 %BW), and medial (56 ± 21 vs. 7 ± 2 %BW) ground reaction forces. No difference was present in mean oxygen consumption and MET. The reproducibility of WBE was assessed in a subgroup of 11 participants (age: 24.2 ± 6.7 years; height: 1.8 ± 0.1 m; mass: 75.3 ± 10.0 kg), who completed 2 additional 10-minute WBE sessions. No difference was observed between all outcome measures. These findings indicate that WBE can reliably replicate, or surpass, the physical demands of treadmill walking and may serve as an effective addition to a health-focused exercise program.