A Comparison of Gaming Platform Exercise versus Traditional Exercise

The purpose of this experiment was to compare exercise intensity between two video game platforms. Many teenagers enjoy technology and can possibly utilize these platforms to exercise. It was hypothesized that if teenagers exercised with the Nintendo Wii compared to the Oculus, then participants would have higher heart rates while playing the game which directly relates to more calories burned. Thirty high school students played video games using virtual reality headsets (Oculus), the Wii console and a control group performed running as their physical activity. Heart rate data was collected from each activity and was analyzed and compared. calories burned was calculated using the weight of participants and the metabolic equivalent of the activity. The major finding was that the average percent change in heart rate was 26.40, while the Wii had 17.04 . Along with the Oculus having a higher average calorie burn of 182.55 than the Wii having an average calorie burn of 121.87. Overall, if using a digital platform to perform physical activity, using the Oculus to do so would be the better option