Exergame Fitness & Green Bay Packers Tackle Childhood Obesity and Inactivity at the YMCA Healthy Kids Day Event - Over 2000 Kids & 4500 Attended

GREEN BAY, WI – Thousands of kids packed the atrium at Lambeau Field, home of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers for the YMCA Healthy Kids Day on May 2nd 2009. Throughout the day, kids around the state were introduced to a popular new form of videogame exercise called “Exergaming”. Exergaming is a new form of exercise by playing video games that require movement and interaction on all different levels! Exergaming inspires physical activity through the most cutting-edge active gaming experiences. It is a fun and sustainable solution to working out.

Two popular Exergaming products that were provided by Exergame Fitness at the event was the T-Wall (Interactive Light Wall) and a Nintendo Wii dance and step system called Dance, Dance Revolution (DDR). The rules for T-Wall are simple but challenging: on a wall with numerous touch surfaces, red signals light up in sequence of varying positions and speeds. The user’s task is to deactivate the light as soon as it appears by touching the light on the wall. Act and react as quick as you can.

The Wii DDR Multiplayer system by Cobalt Flux is a dance and step system that allows up to four competing users at once. Simply step on the arrows on your platform and match them up to the screen accurately. There are over 50+ songs and with a wide variety of practice mats by Exergame Fitness you can have up to 16 active players at one time.

Tommy Seilheimer VP of Exergame Fitness adds:

“Our main goal along with the Greater Green Bay YMCA is to raise awareness and promote healthier lifestyles for kids and families in the Wisconsin community. Active Gaming, otherwise known as Exergaming is a way for kids to do something they are already familiar with and relate too…playing videogames. The difference here is that they are required to actively move and react in order to participate in our games. That’s the healthy aspect of what we do.

Combining videogames and exercise is the perfect merger for transitioning kids that are inactive and not getting enough daily exercise and activity, into kids that are competing with others, while playing fun interactive games that also require thinking and focus.”

Event organizer Bret Salscheider added:

"We've seen thousands of people come into Lambeau Field today and having lots of fun! We are extremely excited to have Exergame Fitness as a sponsor in this event and look forward to continually promoting a way that kids can stay active and healthy while having fun in our community, It is a very unique and creative way to get kids engaged."

EVENT PICTURES & VIDEO:http://www.exergamefitness.com/nfl_greenbay_packers.htm

About Exergame FitnessExergame Fitness – a Motion Fitness Company, is the world’s largest distributor & supplier of Exergaming, Exerlearning, Kids Fitness Products & Programming to YMCA’s, Schools, JCC’s. Park Districts, Health Clubs, Hospitals, Kid Zones, Family Entertainment Centers, Casinos, Government/VA and more.

Exergame Fitness provides Facility Planning & Installation, Grant & Funding Assistance, Program Design & Product Training, Turnkey Marketing Support, Free Layout Designs & Concepts, Detailed Programming Curriculums, Finance & Lease Options and more. Exergame Fitness offers the lowest prices on any of the products they carry backed by a 110% Lowest Price Guarantee.

YMCA video games focus on kids’ fitness - Exergame Fitness Facility

TUSCALOOSA Avery Jones stood tentatively, clutching a red balloon to his chest. His eyes followed a cluster of red lights moving within the floor beneath his feet. He watched the cluster bounce from one side to the next, tightening his grip on the balloon with each change of the light’s direction.

The light continued to bounce until, finally, it set its course toward him. Before Jones could step out of the cluster’s path, it passed under his weight, exploding into tiny green squares.
Avery Jones was out.

This scene isn’t out of a science fiction novel — it happened Saturday afternoon at the YMCA of Tuscaloosa County, where Jones and a host of other children got their first look at “Lightspace,” a game in the center’s new Kids Zone.

After taking the stairs directly ahead of the front desk, the room of red, yellow and blue-painted walls opens up and is filled with video games that kids play with their bodies, not hand-held controllers.

Byron Langdon, YMCA sports director, said the YMCA needed a place that kids between the ages of 6 and 14 could hang out, since they are too big for day care and too young to use the facility’s fitness center.

Langdon said the idea for the new area came from a Chicago YMCA that recently added the same program to their facility with the help of Motion Fitness, a company that sells and installs the games.

After touring the Chicago YMCA, Langdon said he knew it would be the perfect addition to the new Kids Zone. With the help of the YMCA Men’s Club, the idea became a reality.

“Exergame Fitness" came in the first part of April and installed the games and we played with them for a few weeks to make sure everything was working,” he said.

The YMCA’s Kids Zone contains four areas of play. “Lightspace Play Floor" is an interactive floor surface made up of programmable light and pressure-sensitive tiles on a 10-square-foot dance floor. “Lightspace” has eight games, including Dodgeball, which Avery Jones enjoyed, and a game called “Bug Invasion” in which different colored tiles or “bugs” pop up all over the surface for players to stomp on to score points.
The “Makoto” area looks a bit like a boxing ring with three posts. Each post has a number of lights on it that, when lit, signal players to hit them with special gloves or sticks.
Across from “Makoto” are a pair of exercise bikes hooked up to a video game console, which allows players to control racing games with the bikes.

But easily the most well-known area to most kids will be “Dance Dance Revolution,” a popular arcade game in which players step on arrows corresponding to the music and cues on the screen.
Langdon said the games require movement, which helps keep kids in shape. “We’re trying to do something for child obesity,” Langdon said. “You know, all these games are fun, but you’re always moving.” Crystal Jones, Avery’s mother, said her children enjoyed the games.

“It was fun and it’s something that combines play and physical activity. They really enjoyed it,” she said.

Langdon said the Kids Zone is available to members for free and non-members must pay for daylong passes.

The YMCA plans on renting the space for birthday parties and special events.
“It’s been great,” he said. “It’s all active, so any time kids can jump around and hit stuff with sticks and not get in trouble, they’re all for it.”

About Exergame Fitness:
Exergame Fitness is the world’s largest distributor & supplier of Active Gaming products to YMCA’s, Schools, JCC’s. Park Districts, Health Clubs, Hospitals, Kid Zones, Family Entertainment Centers, Casinos, Government/VA and more. Exergame Fitness provides Facility Planning & Installation, Grant & Funding Assistance, Program Design & Product Training, Turnkey Marketing Support, Free Layout Designs & Concepts, Detailed Programming Curriculums, Finance & Lease Options and more. Exergame Fitness offers the lowest prices on any of the products they carry backed by a 110% Lowest Price Guarantee.

Popularity of video game workouts takes Y by surprise

Popularity of video game workouts takes Y by surprise CARTER HAYDU The Moose Jaw Times Herald

Jessica Sorowski, 12, poses with the video boxing game at the YMCA on Thursday. The YMCA has incorporated physical activity and video games as a way to keep kids active. Colin Dewar photographA happy surprise from the local YMCA’s summer video game fitness trial program is the positive response from senior citizens. Jeff Fox, YMCA CEO, said elderly women from an osteoporosis class, for example, really enjoy the interactivity of the video exercise equipment. “We didn’t really plan for that, but it happened.” The local health and fitness organization purchased the video games, which incorporate physical activity, back in June. Fox said various groups and day camps, as well as individual YMCA members, have used the equipment over the past couple months, giving organizers an idea how to incorporate the devices into the facility’s autumn programming. “(The day campers) have kind of been our guinea pigs,” he said, adding autumn programs begin in September.

There are two general video-game options at the YMCA. Stationary bikes are hooked up to a Play Station 2. Using racing games, the video characters go faster and perform better depending on the intensity one peddles his or her real-life bike. Also, there are separate “exergaming” (exercise plus gaming) units that allow club members to play baseball, tennis, boxing and other non-racing sports.Carter Haydu can be reached at 691-1265.

Fun figures in fitness plan at Palatine YMCA

Fun figures in fitness plan at Palatine YMCA (Buehler)

Make it fun — and make it active.

That was the theme driving “Healthy Kids Day” Saturday at the Buehler YMCA in Palatine. The national event is designed to help families teach children to adopt healthy lifestyles.

“In light of all the recent studies pointing to obesity in our children, we’re always looking at how we can teach kids to be active,” said John Esposito, executive director. “The main thing is we have to make it fun, and not feel like a workout.”

The event took over the facility’s Square D Sports Center, with dance classes, free throw tournaments, Tae Kwon Do demonstrations, a “diaper dash” for toddlers, and a half- mile and mile fun runs going on above the crowd on the track.

“There’s lots of good activities for kids,” said Matt Roberts of Palatine, with his two young children in tow.

In adjacent rooms, youngsters sampled yoga, rhythm and music, strength training on youth cycling machines, and even the climbing wall and high ropes course in the Y’s new Adventure Center.

“I came for the fun run, I just love to run,” said Mallory Abel, 11, of Palatine, the first girl to finish in her age group.

The biggest draw, Esposito said, was the fitness arcade set up in the gym, featuring a “Dance, Dance Revolution” platform, and a game bike hooked up to a video game that riders control using their steering and pedals.

“I like the moves and I like how you dance to it,” said James Vestuto, 11, of Kildeer.

While the music and the dance moves hooked children and teenagers in, they actually got a cardiovascular workout and one that improved their hand-eye coordination and balance, fitness experts said.

“These are kinds of interactive games that provide exercise and fitness that are really popular with kids,” said Ed Kasanders, of Motion Fitness, a local marketing and distribution company for Fitness ArcadeJ pointing to the Dance, Dance Revolution and the ArcadeRider systems.

Buehler officials said the Palatine YMCA is the largest in the Northwest suburbs, with 18,000 members and up to 50,000 user visits per month.

“Two-thirds of all of our members are families, and we’re constantly trying to find ways for them to exercise together and incorporate that into their lifestyle,” said Esposito, who added the Adventure Center has drawn many more members.

“We don’t want them coming to the Y to work out, but to come to the Y to have fun,” Esposito added. “A byproduct of that is that they will be mentoring with good positive adult role models, and building self esteem while learning to make wise decisions.”

By Eileen O. Daday

Daily Herald Correspondent

Exergaming products like these can be found at the Motion Kids website.