Gamercize - No, It Won't Make Your Kid Excercise Any More

People tend to gripe that today's youth has become lazy due to the popularity of video games. While I don't deny that video games do give kids a good excuse to sit around all day, I hardly think that's the real problem. I won't bore you with my thoughts about parenting, and how that's a bigger part of the problem. I will however show you a product that will ensure that you're getting plenty of exercise while gaming.

There are actually two products in the Gamercize GZ Sports lineup, the Power Stepper and Endurance Cycle. Each of the products is a piece of exercise equipment that hooks into your PS2, your PS2 controller will hook into the Gamercize product of your choice. The idea is that you have to keep pace by either pedaling or stepping, otherwise your controller will be disconnected. There are different settings that control the pace you need to keep.

I could see parents of a child that is extremely overweight considering something like this. However, if your child isn't bursting the buttons on their jeans, you'd probably be better off limiting the time they are allowed to play video games rather than invest in something like this.

I say this for a few reasons. First, your kid isn't going to want to play their games at all, this forces them to concentrate on something other than what they're playing, this will both distract and frustrate them. Second, it only works with the PS2 or the original Xbox which are both sadly outdated. Granted, they are still used by many people, but there are plenty of other consoles your kid will want to play. Finally, you're going to drop either $160 or $180 on one of these. Just think of the other things you could spend that money on. You could by your kid karate lessons, dance lessons, gymnastic lessons, or something else that not only gets them to exercise, but something that they might just enjoy too.

Gamercize – Forced Exercise for Gamers [via coolestgadgets]