Health Meter: Spring Training for Gamers

4/6/2009 7:54 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3

Nothing bites more than suffering from a preventable injury. Knowing that you could have done something to avoid whatever pain and discomfort you're going through literally adds insult to injury. At my Boston-area studio, Black Belt Fitness Personal Training, I'm constantly dealing with athletes looking for ways to stay healthy while they play the sports they love. And now that gamers are finally getting a reputation for being the serious athletes that they are, it's time to take a proactive approach to staying healthy. So, drop your Nunchuk or DualShock and step out of the Auction House in Ironforge for a few minutes, so you can make sure that you'll be gaming safely and happily until the last of the Mountain Dew is gone.

PREVENTING WII SHOULDER

The shoulder is a very complex piece of machinery. The muscles that make up the shoulder joint raise the arm up and down in all directions, and make it so that your arm can rotate to let your palm face the floor or ceiling. Heck, if the shoulder was any cooler, it would be able to stream Netflix in high-def. If you're doing a ton of Wii-ing around, you need to make sure that the muscles that surround and support the shoulder joint are strong enough to do what you need them to do. For the most part, the large muscles that move the arm up and down -- the deltoids -- are strong enough to deal with the weight and movement of the Nunchuk and Remote. Where you want to focus is on your rotators -- the small muscles that let you rotate the arm. In terms of size and power, if your deltoids are an Xbox 360 (the Elite version with the HDMI port), your rotators are a Game Boy Advance. But because of the way the shoulders are forced to move in most Wii games, these small muscles are called into play almost constantly.

You need to be doing this...

The lying-on-the-floor thing

This is a great way to work the muscles that rotate the arm externally -- or away from the body. Lie on the floor on your left side. You should be holding a very light dumbbell -- three to five pounds -- in your right hand, with your right elbow tight against your ribs and bent at 90 degrees. Your right forearm should be against your stomach and angled towards the ground. (If you don't have a dumbbell, you can use a liter-bottle of water, soda, sulfuric acid, whatever.)

Slowly, without letting the upper part of your right arm move, raise your right forearm so that it's angled upwards -- almost toward the ceiling. Rotate your forearm upward as far as you can without your upper arm moving. Slowly return to the starting position to complete the rep.

Do 15 reps and then flip over and do the same with your left arm.

The other lying-on-the-floor thing

To work the muscles that rotate the arm internally, lie flat on the floor with your upper arms tight against your body and resting on the floor. You should have a dumbbell in your right hand and your right elbow should be bent at a 90-degree angle, so that your forearm is perpendicular to the floor.