A Videogame Exercise Triathlon!

Last night I believe I completed the first-ever videogame exercise triathlon. Three events, one game console (PS2).

First, I completed my scheduled half-hour general daily workout using Yourself!Fitness. (Maya recommended I work on lower body, since I'd done upper on Monday).

Then, I did some upper-body strength training by playing Prince Of Persia:Warrior Within for a half-hour on the Kilowatt Sport.

Lastly, for additional aerobic exercise I brought out the DDR pad and played Dance Dance Revolution Extreme for a half hour, working through a variety of "Nonstop Mode" and "Challenge Mode" routines. Now that's a workout!

Could one use this series as a real competition event? Not without some substitutions. You can't use Maya in a competition - there's no point-scoring component - so we'd have to substitute a different third event. An EyeToy fighting game would be ideal - either Boxing or Kung2. As for the Kilowatt Sport, we'd want a game that's a little more hard-core and score oriented than PoP. How about Gran Turismo? Okay, so now we have three exercise events that require wildly different skillsets. Gran Turismo (in arcade mode, with a specified exercise level, track, and car), DDR (with a specified nonstop-mode sequence), and Kung2. The final score for the triathlon is the sum of the scores for each set, possibly with some multiplier to deal with scalability.

Clearly I'm going to have to try this out, work out the rules in more detail and see if it can actually be held as a competition. Seems like it would be a good candidate for the next PAX, either on its own or as a feeder event into the Omegathon.