DDR… As Exercise?

I like DDR.

No, I’m not one of those sweaty guys you’ll see at the arcade doing the double-pad songs on the “Grand Supreme Master of the Universe” difficulty setting, their legs a blur of extreme skill specialization. I just like it.

I don’t like exercise.

Sure, it makes me feel great afterwards (assuming that I don’t overdo it, and I stretch properly before/after), and I love doing things like hiking and playing semi-competitive sports, but I don’t really like regularly getting down to business with a treadmill and a set of weights. I don’t think I’m unique in this aspect. Good thing DDR can work as exercise.

Wait… DDR is exercise?

Duh. Of course. It’s actually pretty good for keeping your heart rate up, if you make sure that you stick with a difficulty that’s a little challenging for you. I don’t pretend that it’s the best form of exercise out there, but the reason I prefer it is because I can actually make myself do it.

I’m a little dubious of the calorie counting in the game. It has you input your weight and it bases calories burned on your weight. However, it only counts calories when you hit correct steps, and as far as I know it could just be making up numbers when it comes to calories burned. I’m not too concerned about that though, since I know whether or not I’ve had a good workout. I suppose it is nice that it tells me that I burned 45.346 kCal on that song, but I’m not basing my exercise on that.

Anyway, if I can get off my lazy butt remember to exercise on a regular basis, I should be able to get fit enough to get back to climbing mountains again. I miss that a good bit.