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Anonymous
dear /fit/,

im planning on really loosing weight, and i find im pretty good at playing ddr, i play in heavy and challenge mode, 9 foot songs. there's times i play for about an hour or 20 songs in a row and i come out pretty soaked in sweat.

im thinking of cutting carbs all together and play ddr everyday. would this be better than hitting the gym and run about 2 miles on a treadmill? i used to run a mile, go in the sauna, and run another mile after.

is ddr a good enough workout?
>> Hammerknife !7ITukp3Pj2
No. DDR is kind of like doing jumping jacks but retarded, and sure as hell doesn't beat normal cardio. Go jog for an hour every morning.
>> Anonymous
what are you twelve?

what happens if you get bored or it didn't work as you would like it to be? It will work but it's better to change things every once a while.

lets say 30 mins ddr
10 mins jump rope
20x pressups
20x burpees
20x mountain climbers
>> Anonymous
>>16398
i play ddr on stepmania and there's always new songs on the internet, its really not boring. anyone out there that's gotten to the higher levels on the game and can shed some light on the benefits?
>> Anonymous
YES. I lost 35 pounds playing DDR at the mall on the weekends. It was a great way to socialize(of course I was 17 at the time) and to lose weight. It's more entertaining than running.

Go for it :)
>> Anonymous
pump it up its better
>> Anonymous
DDR is sort of like a double-edged sword, to be perfectly honest.

It's a great "starter" for a workout program. You don't get bored as quickly and you feel a bit more of a challenge than you do simply jogging or running. You can definitely see increases in skill so it's not just "higher numbers = doing better".

However, the calorie counters on the workout modes are misleading and usually over optimistic. In an hour on standard mode (my light workout for the day) it claims that I've burned apprximately 725 calories. Simply put, that's pretty unbelievable, considering jogging a mile burns only around 300 (this is also not counting calories you would be burning otherwise ANYWAY, even while sitting on your ass).

There's not much cardio going on in DDR most of the time -- you've got the periods of selecting songs and setting things up where you're just standing there, doing nothing. Sure, the fast songs really get your heart going, but that's about it. Endless mode is a bit of a solution, but still...

I started out doing just DDR. Noticed no weight loss -- but it got my brain switched "on" for exercise. I now do the USMC Daily 16, an hour of DDR, then usually some extra pushups, crunches, and a cool-down. When I have time I go to the park and toss a frisbee around or just goof off.

So, basically, DDR is good to start, but you won't notice much weight loss unless you supplement it with both A) A GOOD DIET! and B)some other form of daily exercise (doesn't need to be something HUGE, just something extra to get the blood pumping more).
>> Anonymous
>>16489
OP here, thanks alot on the info. yeah i pretty much play the hardcore heavy songs most of the time, and yes im thinking of going on a diet as well, cutting out carbs and just eating healthy all around.
>> Anonymous
I know a bunch of people who actually lost weight thanks to DDR. Hell there's about 4million testimonials on the internet about how DDR helped with weight loss.

It works as long as you have a diet to match. If you continue eating like a slob you'll probably just stay even.
>> Anonymous
>>16496

That'll definitely do it. DDR is a LOT of fun, don't get me wrong (I love it) but it shouldn't be considered an alternative to SERIOUS exercise. You'll probably lose 20-30 lbs doing it, sure, but it's going to take longer than it would otherwise.

I'm trying to find a link that's accessible for free, but the New England Journal of Medicine has a GREAT article by one of the Harvard Medical School professors outlining DDR as a great exercise tool. The study took 50 or 100 students and had them do DDR daily and the general weight loss was approximately 5-10lbs over the course of 2 months or so. Not fast, not great, but definitely an improvement.

Most of the "success stories" you read are from people who used it as a gateway, like I did and still am. A lot of people started DDR, then after they felt more confident in themselves picked up a sport or a karate class or the like. That's when they REALLY started seeing weight loss.
>> Anonymous
interval training

"Interval training is a favorite of coaches because of its effectiveness in cardiovascular buildup and also its ability to make more well-rounded runners.

More generally, it can refer to any cardiovascular workout (e.g. stationary biking, running, rowing, etc.) that involves brief bouts at near-maximum exertion interspersed with periods of lower-intensity activity."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_traininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_traininghttp://e
n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_traininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_traininghttp://en.wikipe
dia.org/wiki/Interval_traininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_traininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Interval_traininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_traininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Int
erval_traininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_traininghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_tr
aining

im gonna freaking spam this untill everyone understands what it is and why its better then regular running/jogging.
>> Anonymous
>>16520
>brief bouts of near-maximum exertion

Unfortunately there's your problem. DDR rarely gets you to NEAR-MAXIMUM EXERTION except for the massive 200bpm songs on UBER HEAVY mode.

Interval training is a good option for cardiovascular workouts, but DDR is not interval training unless you're near exhaustion at the point of EVERY SINGLE SONG, which is incredibly rare in the game.
>> Anonymous
interval training burns more calories then jogging.

if you do interval running for the same amount of time as you would normally run or jog, you will burn significantly more calories.
>> Anonymous
>>16520

I thought everyone also knew this.

Also when I say running I generally mean this. I usually jog for 5 minutes to warm up, then go into more of a run for a couple minutes, then sprint for a minute, come back down to a jog and repeat.
>> Anonymous
>>16521
not near exhaustion.
i never said anything about near exhaustion. when you do interval training to run at a rate that you cant sustain but for a brief period of time, IE a couple minutes instead of an hour long jog. by the end of it, you ARE exhausted unlike running or jogging.

ive done both ddr and interval running, they are very similar in the way it works out your circulatory system.
>> Anonymous
>>16533
Meh, I'm not knocking interval training -- I know it's good at burning calories. I'm just not so sure whether DDR is a good indication of an interval training unless you're doing it on the super-duper mode.
>> Anonymous
>>16539
i play in regular, mostly heavy mode. or rather did. and when i was done playing after about 45 minutes or so, my hear rate was up to ~200 bpm.

i got the same result when doing interval running at 30 second intervals for 20 minutes.
>> Anonymous
the body takes time to convert into carbohydrates, like an hour or more. you might feel tired loosing "ALL" your instant-release energy source.
>> Anonymous
>>16543
Hmm. I do an hour in standard mode (usually the harder songs) and my heart rate probably gets above 160 throughout some of it, but I don't think it gets high enough. My problem is when I get to heavy I can't follow the damn arrows even in my head!

The bottom line is, to be honest, that workouts of SOME SORT are usually better than absolutely no workout whatsoever. So DDR is better than playing TF2 12 hours a day!
>> Anonymous
>>16382
yes it kind of a way....
my friends and I, who play this shit (we kick your ass by the way)have this situation:
they play like idiots the hardests songs in a fucking row (play max ulimited, the legend of maxx, maxx 300, paranoia survivor all versions etc in training)since we begun they havent loss any pound at all!!

but me who have played the hardest songs as well but playing in intervals and having a break every 2-3 songs have lost... 80 lbs... yes... 80 fucking lbs, i used to be 200 lbs

i just love that shit fuck yeah!
>> Anonymous
>>16382
yeah, but no one gives a shit 'bout that here anyway
>> Anonymous
>>16520
Although interval training has it's merits, to claim it's flat out "better" than running or jogging is flat out ignorant.