Video games rival phys-ed for fitness

While video games have long been considered the foe of gym teachers, new research released Tuesday by the University of Calgary suggests that games may be as capable of keeping kids fit as traditional physical education classes.

The University of Calgary study tested the effects of a number of popular video games that incorporate jumping and balancing, such as dance games.

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After two years testing the games on Calgary elementary school students, researchers found that active video games improved balance by up to 30 per cent, while conventional physical education that included traditional games, such as badminton, had a negligible effect.

The results, released Tuesday, were on par with a six-week phys-ed program that focused solely on improving agility and balance using dance, gymnastics and obstacle courses.

“We don’t believe what we’re doing is trying to encourage kids to play video games,” said researcher Larry Katz. “We think there is an obesity problem because of sedentary behaviour and what we’re hoping to do is to get kids who are involved with sedentary behaviour to be non-sedentary, to be active.”

Often children fail to become physically active because they don’t develop balance and agility, he said.

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