As any gamer knows, practice makes perfect. The best players are always the ones who put in the most hours, honing their skills and reactions to a razor-sharp edge. However, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. If you spend too much time gaming, it can start to have a negative impact on your mental health and wellness. Symptoms include a rise in subpar decision-making, slower reaction times, and an increase in anxiety and depressive symptoms. In order to avoid these negative consequences, it is important to maintain a balanced lifestyle. Make sure to take breaks from gaming, get plenty of exercise and fresh air, and eat a healthy diet. By taking care of yourself, you can ensure that you will be able to keep up your present level of competence and continue to improve as a gamer.
Why would you want to stay fit while competing in esports?
Here are some reason why gamers should maintain an active lifestyle:
Aid in preventing physical and mental exhaustion
Boost and keep optimal performance
Reduced levels of tiredness
Reduce the detrimental consequences of prolonged sitting (gaming is a sedentary activity by nature)
Acceptable cognitive changes (improved stress resilience, memory, learning, reaction time)
Improve cardiovascular fitness
The list of advantages is endless, but it does show how many and diverse the changes are.
What evidence does the scientific research show?
A recent study[1] in the journal Medicine & Science in Sport and Exercise revealed that a group of League of Legends (LoL) players performed better over a brief period of high intensity exercise on a stationary bike. Prior to playing a custom match of League of Legends, research participants engaged in 20 minutes of intense physical activity on a stationary cycle, followed by a 20-minute recovery period. When the number of targets removed by the test subjects under the two conditions was compared (exercise and non-exercise). When the exercise was finished before to playing the game, the individuals removed more targets than when there was no exercise beforehand.
This study’s discovery is really amazing. They saw an improvement in the participants’ capacity to take out targets in games after just 20 minutes of training. You can eat lunch, take a shower, vacuum the home, make and consume a cup of tea, all in the span of twenty minutes. It doesn’t actually take that long at all. Studies have demonstrated that even brief exercise sessions of five minutes can have a favorable impact on the body.
The work is the first of its type to demonstrate a favorable correlation between gaming performance and exercise engagement, and there is a serious paucity of performance studies with regard to esports. This study is very promising because earlier studies have demonstrated the significant impact that even modest quantities of exercise have on human cognitive and physical performance.
What exercise should I do? How much and for how long?
The following workout plan will help you maintain your brain health and stay active. This includes two days of weight training each week, which entails 30 minutes spread out over 5 days with aerobic exercises every other day. If possible try not to decrease the amount spent on either type in any one session; rather adjust by adding more time as needed throughout these 150+minute sessions! Even if you are unable to maintain that level throughout the week, a quick stroll outside for 5 to 10 minutes can still be beneficial to your brain and general health.
Can I manage both intense gaming and a regular workout schedule?
Alternatively, if you’d want to try something new, the following is a recent fitness regimen we used with our scholarship players:
Interval training workout
20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest equals 5 minutes of exercise.
Exercises
Tall knees
Rock climbers
Do pushups
Jack-knife jumps
Burpees
Future Directions
It is necessary to make esports a strong participant in the field of health promotion in order to reformulate the esports phenomenon and make up for its sedentary character. Three regions provide special chances: esports ecosystem to create specialized intervention techniques, comprehend the performance-enhancing impacts of raising physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary behavior (SB), and be able to connect with this group globally.
Esports have a really global impact and reach nowadays. This is true for the spectators just as much as it is for the athletes. As a result, esports players engage and communicate with one another on a worldwide scale. Recognizing this effect and using it to spread health promotion initiatives can have an unparalleled impact by fusing cultures that have a shared interest. Esports offers a distinctive setting in many ways. The variables that either support or hinder healthy game-related activities should be the subject of research. The ability to develop health promotion initiatives from a bio-psycho-social and online environment framework that can include real-time adaptive interventions requires a thorough understanding of this environment, which includes focused attention, emotions, interactive gaming technology, competition, cooperation, and self-improvement, among other aspects. Therefore, theory-based methods are advised to enhance our comprehension of the mechanisms, direct the creation of interventions, and boost efficacy.
Summary
To succeed in any aspect of our lives, balance is a crucial necessity. There are several factors that link to and reflect our present state of health when it comes to health (height, weight, body composition, cardiovascular fitness, nutrition, sleep, fatigue). Esports players need to exercise, eat well and get enough sleep. These things will help them maintain their physical health while also helping you improve your own gaming performance!