Get Yourself Moving!™

Addicted to Video Games? Here’s a Book

One of the reasons why we started the GYMB4 Workout Videos for Children was that we saw an increasing number of kids playing video games, including Internet games played online using a computer or a smartphone. We couldn’t help but think there’s a connection between obesity, poor school performance and excessive video gaming.

Now there’s a book out that not only confirms our fears, but offers hope for parents who feel their child is hooked on video games.

Before the popularity of these games, children passed the time by playing outside or inside, tinkering with various toys, playing socially with board games or (gasp!) reading. Their brains, bodies and social skills were improving as a result of these activities. Even playing “kick the can” out of boredom required some amount of physical and mental skill.

But as video games increased in popularity, the number of kids you’d find playing outside began to diminish. Video game play is not physically challenging (and I personally have seen children figure out how to play Wii games while lying down on the couch). This all wouldn’t be so bad if children limited their play to a short amount, but it appears that, for some children, the game draws them in so deeply that they can’t stop playing. In fact, for some children (dare I say too many children?) video games start becoming their life, at the expense of family, friendships, schoolwork, and overall health.

Dr. Kourosh Dini has written a book that serves as a primer on video games for parents. “Video Game Play and Addiction” slices and dices the video gaming world, and makes it easy for parents to understand the different genres of games out there, what skills are required of each, and what their draw is for children. He also explores the unique traits of “gamers” – including several positives. Rather than knock the games themselves, he forces parents to look at the games as more of a symptom rather than the problem:

“Video games may be a sign—like a fever—of a problem in our society apart from the games themselves. To extend the analogy further, the games may, in fact, be helping us return our society to a state of health.

“Some people game too much and hurt themselves. Addictive behaviors are very much of concern… The practice of gaming may be calling attention to the loss of something important in our culture: Play.”

Dr. Dini has made his book available as a free online read – you can also purchase a paperback copy or downloadable PDF.

A Guide for Parents | Video Game Play and Addiction.

Play, Then Eat: Shift May Bring Gains at School – NYTimes.com

See, it’s the simple things we can do that will make a difference! Like getting kids to exercise BEFORE they eat, instead of after.

Switching recess to come before lunch has three huge benefits: 1) It lets them “get the wigglies out” after having sat nearly motionless in a classroom all morning; 2) it helps them work up an appetite, so they more likely to eat the good food that’s put on their plate when they do eat, and; 3) there are fewer behavior problems, both on the playground and the lunchroom.

This is exactly the goal of our GYMB4 (“Get Yourself Moving Before) workouts. Get students to spend just five or ten minutes having fun while engaged in a structured aerobic activity – this helps them release stress, which makes them more relaxed and attentive to the activity that follows next, whether that activity is lunch, or a lesson, or a test.

Switching recess to come before lunch is something that every school in the country can do tomorrow, at no cost, and with no time lost. GYMB4 is almost as easy and inexpensive, with costs well below a half-penny per day per student. It’s something schools can implement tomorrow, without changing their schedules, and with no time lost (since GYMB4 only takes 5 or 10 minutes – their choice – it can be done just before lunch, or as an indoor recess activity, or during morning announcements, or even in the slivers of extra time that teachers naturally discover in the course of a school day.

If we change our thinking, we can make our kids healthier and smarter, and do it without spending a lot of time or money!

Play, Then Eat: Shift May Bring Gains at School – NYTimes.com.

VW Has the “Bug” for Staying Fit

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Volkswagen is requiring all new production workers to go through a fitness program with the goal of creating a factory filled with “industrial athletes.” The program, which includes a 2-hour daily workout, gets the workers healthy and fit. One employee even said he dropped 30 pounds in the program, and can go up and down the stairs now without feeling winded!

While GYMB4 workouts are only 5 or 10 minutes, they do for elementary and pre-K students what Volkswagen is doing for their employees – getting, and keeping ‘em healthy and fit, so they’re ready for the challenges of the day. Using it as part of an overall child health and fitness curriculum makes sense, just like VW’s program.

VW has workers get fit before hitting factory floor – USATODAY.com.