A fun way to get healthy

“I can really feel it shaking!”, laughs a 73-year-old woman standing with both feet on a small round platform that moves whenever she shifts her weight in the slightest. It moves sideways, forwards and backwards. The aim is to use balance and an awareness of her body to stand centrally on the platform to try and keep it as horizontal as possible.

She can see how well she’s doing on the screen of the Prokin B platform. It measures and documents all movements and deviations from the centre of pressure. It looks like fun, because the woman laughs out loud whenever the platform starts to vibrate under her feet each time she has a wobble. But she doesn’t give up: “I’ll get there,” she shouts.

So, is this a fitness class in a retirement home? Not at all! We’re at the Centre for Prevention and Sports Medicine at the Balgrist University Hospital. Just three metres away from the elderly lady, a young elite sportsman with impressive biceps is training

on a piece of equipment with a screen that looks like it belongs in an amusement arcade. But instead of feeding slot machines, the young athlete is working on controlling his feet by shifting his weight and adjusting his balance. Standing on two huge pedals, he is controlling a penguin on the screen as it skies down a hill. He controls the speed and direction solely with the coordination and strength of his leg muscles.

Suitable for old and young alike, exergaming is a physical and reaction training programme based on computer games. Initial prototypes, where computer games were linked with physical activity, were launched by Nintendo back in the 1980s. Today, exergaming features state-of the-art equipment, for example ”Prokin” or “Allegro”, and is used for health promotion, elite sports and in the fitness sector.

However, Johannes Scherr, chief consultant and head of  the university centre for prevention and sports medicine in Balgrist, stresses that exergaming isn’t an e-sport: “With e-sport, movement is restricted to the fingers and a few other muscle groups, while exergaming activates motor skills that are specifically linked to the game’s cognitive requirements.”

It is precisely this linking of the elements that makes the method so valuable for both therapeutic and preventive treatments. “Balance training on the platform helps elderly people reduce their risk of falling, while at the same time improving their motor skills to help with daily life”, adds Scherr. “Patients with balance disorders are also motivated by exergaming therapies and achieve incredible results.”

Combining computer games with physical coordination and strength training is becoming increasingly popular across all age groups. For example, skiing training with the penguin helps top athletes not only optimise their performance for competitions but also to recover successfully after injuries or operations. “For example, it can speed up the regeneration of damaged ligaments or the patella tendon,” says Scherr, drawing on the experience of a wide range of patients comprising both elite sports people and amateur athletes.

Exergaming is also being used increasingly for purely preventive purposes to improve fitness and build up muscle, like a gym but with the added bonus of entertainment. “We’re seeing a lot of demand for subscriptions with 10 or 20 sessions,” says Scherr.
Seasoned amateur athletes tell Scherr that they like to add exergaming to their training to mix things up a bit and stay motivated.

And the 73-year-old currently using the Prokin B platform is certainly keen to regain her balance despite all the difficulties – her instructor has to coax her off the platform after 20 minutes to have a rest! Next to her, meanwhile, the penguin zooms across the finish line.