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Gamer loses 3 stone playing WoW

Published on 1st November 2006 by Wil Harris

WoW relieves exercise boredom!

One crazy PC gamer has managed to lose three stone over the course of three months by playing World of Warcraft.

Well, that's not quite true. He parked an exercise bike in front of his 46" LCD TV and played on the big screen whilst peddling.

His set up is pretty awesome. The bike has a keyboard attached to the handlebars, whilst a sidetable has the mouse on. The game is run from a Dell XPS laptop and hooked up to the big screen.

Our man played and pedalled for an average of one hour a day, which is quite a bit of cardio exercise to be doing.

Calling his technique 'Warbiking', he had this to say:

"The only hard part was to keep pushing the cardio so it was doing something, while playing. It was interesting to see how the game impacted the cardio - when it was slow, the cardio toned down if I didn't watch it. If things got crazy (as in, I ended up running for my life in the game) I would end up peddling really fast on the bike (LOL, I know, kinda weird - YOU try it and see what you do!)"

Check out the pics of the setup then let us know your thoughts over in the forums.

28 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

Techno-Dann 1st November 2006, 18:55

Briliant. As long as you have the discipline to keep pedaling, which this chap obviously does, it's a great way to exercise and slack off at the same time.

Kipman725 1st November 2006, 20:08

very cool idea.. although personaly I would prefer to be out riding the bike. Good for those days when the weathers bad though :P

LoneArchon 1st November 2006, 20:13

Great idea. I may try it out(Just need the Bike) as i need to lose some weight and get back in to exercising. I think it would work for playing console games and just plain old watching TV(You may notice the cardio more then).

Lazarus Dark 1st November 2006, 20:23

Im sorry but what does "3 stone" mean? Is it a brit term? I read 41 pounds lost.

Garside 1st November 2006, 20:25

14 pounds in a stone. Old money

M_D_K 1st November 2006, 20:28

2.2pounds to a kilo

Mankz 1st November 2006, 20:37

its a good idea.....

i would like his LCD though

Miser 1st November 2006, 20:40

2 cups in a pint... :D
You have to American it up a little so I can understand it.

That's a great idea. It would be awesome if there was a PC peripheral that would allow you to run faster in FPSs/RPGs the faster you peddled.

Jolly good day, chap! :)

unrealhippie 1st November 2006, 20:47

Haha, I was expecting to see "Gamer loses 3 stone playing Wii" - nintendo helping to promote healthy gamers. Then later "Gamer faints due to Wii exercise".. :p

Skill3d 1st November 2006, 21:01

so let's see how quick you can bike when running and jumping in quake/UT/etc. :D

Lazlow 1st November 2006, 21:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by unrealhippie
Then later "Gamer goes blind due to Wii exercise".. :p

Stwongbad 1st November 2006, 21:25

Now thats funny stuff! XD If i had the excersize bike i would do this in a heartbeat! Although it could be a health hazard for those long raids.

Tyinsar 1st November 2006, 21:34

;)

Great idea, Ive got an exercise bike I've been planning to put in front of my computer for quite a while - but, my house modding (i.e. basement renovation) comes first.

However - the weight loss this guy had was also partly due to DIET - :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miser
2 cups in a pint... :D
You have to American it up a little so I can understand it.

agreed, but whose "pint" standard are we using? (link) Where I'm from (Canada) we use the UK version. :D

jezmck 1st November 2006, 21:47

on TV a little while ago was a system like this where the (fat) kid could only use his PS2 if he was peddling.

otispunkmeyer 1st November 2006, 22:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kipman725
very cool idea.. although personaly I would prefer to be out riding the bike. Good for those days when the weathers bad though :P

yeah, i realy dont get those people who go to the gym to use treadmills and bikes when its a nice day outside.

its much better to do some proper running out side. i know those tread mills have some flex to save your knees, but since the treadmils "road" is moving and your not, your not really putting the full effort into it, your just spining your legs round.

gym bikes dont have that problem, but wind in your face is a good feeling

DeX 1st November 2006, 22:38

Combining exercise with gaming is a great idea. They are almost the two poles of what is and isn't good for you so combining them into the same activity is a great way to maximise your exercise and minimise your gaming. Now I just wish I had an exercise bike and a 42 inch HD telly and I might do the same, only without the exercise bike. :D

Jokkocze 1st November 2006, 23:19

Got to loan my brothers exercise bike and try that myself.. I play games all the time!

knuck 2nd November 2006, 00:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skill3d
so let's see how quick you can bike when running and jumping in quake/UT/etc. :D

i was thinking the same lol !

I also thought it would be impossible to hit anything in a FPS while riding a bike :(

Marquee 2nd November 2006, 01:17

Thats one good way to keep off weight when using the computer alot. And goes on to loose alot of weight.

BTW how much is 3 stones?

customh 2nd November 2006, 02:32

I looked at that and thought "what is that? he lost a lot of money??" then i read the article...

Marquee 2nd November 2006, 03:22

I found a converter. 3 stones is 42lbs or 19.05Kg. That pretty good weight loss. Although I think I loose more weight when in the work shop modding away.

Woodstock 2nd November 2006, 05:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marquee
I found a converter. 3 stones is 42lbs or 19.05Kg. That pretty good weight loss. Although I think I loose more weight when in the work shop modding away.

The fastest conversion method to use is to just google search just type in 3 stone in kg and it calculates and displays it as the only result, very effective if u have firefox or google toolbar.

SNIPERMikeUK 2nd November 2006, 10:47

Gone Are The Dayz Of Dance Mat Fever!!!

Djpuk 2nd November 2006, 10:56

Perhaps this setup could be modified to generate some of that extra power that the new chips and video cards need :)

8-BALL 2nd November 2006, 11:27

I like the idea of using it to generate extra juice. Taking that idea one step further, could you wire the backlight for the display up to the dynamo on the exercise bike so brightness is controlled by pedalling speed. That way you have to keep pedalling.

8-ball

EDIT: alternatively, it could be worked into games whereby pedalling provides you with some benefit, such as charging nitrous in driving games. ie pedal harder, get more nitrous kind of thing.

dragontail 2nd November 2006, 14:32

Heheh, not bad, not bad at all. I wonder if that catches on?

z4114 2nd November 2006, 14:58

They do make exercise bikes that can be used as a controller. At E3 2004 I had a chance to demo one out in Kentia Hall. It's typically used for racing games and honestly will get you to do exercise while you're playing. Doing a quick google search I found this product which is probably the retail version of what I tried out. Linkeh

Meanmotion 3rd November 2006, 18:02

Great acheivement and all, but if you read that guy's blog he's absolutely nuts. He's weight and fitness obsessed. How he managed to have three spare stone to lose, i do not know.