It's too soon to say whether the trend of including games like Dance Dance Revolution and stationary bikes with game screens at home and as part of school physical education programs is going to help kids get fit. But the trend is picking up anyway at schools and gyms.
As with everything though--some experts aren't too sure. Experts from the Mayo Clinic and the University of South Florida have tracked children's physical progress while gaming, and it's been shown that gaming burns calories, but other factors like heart rate and motivation are still being studied. And at UCSF, the Pedatric Obesity Clinic's study, where children kept diaries of their progress, showed that the kids got bored playing Dance Dance Revolution on a daily basis, and eventually quit all together.
Some gym owners are excited about exergaming and are shoving cardio and weight machines aside to make room for gaming mats. But at one children's gym that uses such games only as a reward for completing a traditional workout, the owners are skeptical that a gaming-only workout limits strength and flexibility. Their goal is "to get the kids away from the screens and make them
aware how exciting exercise can be".
