Playing tennis on Nintendo’s Wii isn’t exactly like running back and forth on a tennis court, but technology-based fitness games, like Wii Fit, are finding their way into classrooms in universities throughout the country as an exercise alternative. They are allowing students who do not enjoy traditional physical education to have fun and stay fit.

Syracuse University has only gradually begun to accommodate the new video game fitness trend. Eliza Decker, assistant director for aquatics, facilities & wellness, said that SU does not offer any credit courses that incorporate fitness video games but does offer a sports club for Dance Dance Revolution that students can join.

Right now, campus buildings are not equipped with advanced gaming systems such as the Wii, but it’s something Decker would look into pursuing in the future, she said.

Houston University, one of the earlier adopters of video gaming classes, started offering a Wii performance class in fall 2009, said Ben Hoffman, the class instructor.

‘It is amazing what technology can do,’ Hoffman said. ‘The fitness video games are attracting a wide age group to an alternative form of fitness. This is not a trend that is going to be disappearing soon.’

The students who are interested in the class often do not participate in many physical activities, Hoffman said.

‘The majority of kids in my class are used to being couch potatoes, but this class helps get them on their feet and become physically interactive with the games,’ he said.

Hoffman, who has experience teaching other physical education courses such as weight training, soccer and golf, said students are benefitting physically from his class. Even students who are in shape are finding the class physically challenging.

Rice University began offering a 15-week-long, technology-based fitness course in spring 2009 as part of its Lifetime Physical Activity Program, according to openedpractices.org, a Web site aimed at sharing teaching tools online.

Some colleges are not yet ready to cross over into a fitness environment that incorporates video games. Robert Wisniewski, director of athletics and the Physical Education Center at Middlesex County College in Edison, NJ, said the school finished $155,000 worth of updates to its gymnasium and workout equipment in the fall 2009 semester, but it did not add Wii Fitness tools.

Wisniewski said he had not given any thought to adding video game-based fitness technology to the gym and that he was too concerned with the current renovation to consider it now.

But studies show the gaming systems produce positive results. Roger Hiemstra, a retired professor and chair of adult education at Elmira College and a past faculty member of SU, said Cleveland State University conducted research in 2008 to see how technology can help increase physical fitness. The study compared Wii Boxing to hitting a boxing bag.

The study tested 30 subjects, each required to wear oxygen analyzers, heart monitors and pedometers during a 30-minute boxing workout on both Wii Boxing and the bag. The students found Wii Boxing was giving the subjects a similar workout to actually hitting a bag, according to an article on Cleveland.com.

‘These fitness video games give people the chance to make working out more personal, as well as more fun and interactive,’ Hiemstra said.

hadrost@syr.edu

Published on February 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm