Stretch to Win, Gamers Fitness Guide

January is a typical month for health and weight loss plans the world over, new year resolutions and summer bikini technicalities cause masses of people to flood to diet plans and gyms in a frenzy.. before inevitably giving up and eating more pies.

Now while we are gamers and the massive majority of us will not wear a bikini outside of Hawaiian themed university/college parties (I won’t judge you if you wear a bikini to play WoW, male or female) it would still be of great benefit to us to take a small amount of time between rounds to keep limber.

Sitting for extended periods can cause long term medical complications; I won’t go into it all because quite honestly I find it just as boring to write about as you would probably find it to read about; however these issues can mostly be avoided by stretching from time to time to loosen up your shoulders and back. This thankfully doesn’t mean a 30 minute cardio workout every 4 hours; it can take less than a minute to knock out a few stretches and get the blood flowing to your legs arms again, so without further rambling:

The FingerSports gamers Stretch techniques for geeks to stay limber between rounds and stuff plan:

(or TFGTFGSLBRASP to you abbreviators)

1. Do your hands get cold while you are jabbing away at the keyboard/controller? Well that’s not only because the room is chilly, its mainly because the blood has all but stopped flowing in them because of your elevated position, this can lead to cramping and other more serious problems… as well as them being cold which is really annoying. The good news is that this is really easy to fix.

Simply stand up, make sure you have sufficient clearance and swing your arms in a circle around you, up, down whatever you like really as long as you force some blood into your fingers, then give them a good pumping by flicking your fingers for a few seconds. As long as you don’t bash your TV across the room or knock your little sisters Barbie collection off the shelves you’re good.

2. Shoulders and lower back feel tight? This is a common one for gamers, you’ve been at it for a couple of hours, your head is in the zone but you have this nagging pain in your lower back or tightness in your shoulders. This is mainly caused by your shoulders and neck having to hold your giant noggin up for hours on end while the rest of your body relaxes in the seated position, add the fact that you don’t really move all that much when you play (unless of course you are one of those raging gamers who shouts and paces the room between rounds.. if you’re into that stop reading now, you’re good).

This is easily fixed by shoulder rolls and “windmilling”. Stand up every 30 mins or so and roll your shoulders back and forward about 10 times each way, then windmill your arms, if you have a little coordination try alternating your arms to increase the stretch, this will also take care of your cold fingers from the first post.
Another cause of this might be your actual seating position, if you slouch on the sofa in front of your console or in your computer chair you will eventually get these nagging pains, it’s a good idea to adjust your seating position to put yourself more upright and try to have your feet flat on the ground if possible, this will help stem the issue before it comes up.

3. Eyes getting tired or bloodshot? There’s nothing worse than being mentally able to get a few more hours in but being hamstringed by eye strain or that feeling like there is sand on your eyeballs. This is caused by continuously focusing on a point like your monitor or TV.

The fix for this is possibly the easiest because it comes with all the other ones above. Put simply you need to blink more, you also need to adjust your focal point from time to time to keep your eyes fresh from fatigue. Look around you, stand up and look out the window, if you’re in your mothers basement go upstairs and make something to drink, while you’re up there look for an apartment, you’re 28 and your friends have kids..

4. You’re thirsty, no matter how much mountain dew you chuck down you just can’t seem to get enough.

Drink more water… copious amounts of caffeinated drinks with no alteration will actually make you feel more tired in the end, your body will store water which will make you feel bloated and your muscles will tense up from dehydration. Try to get at least 8 glasses in you a day, especially when you are planning a marathon gaming session, and even more importantly if you are planning to meet your girlfriend/boyfriend after a marathon gaming session, no one likes an achy whiner! Put a glass of water down between rounds, alternate fizzy soft drinks and tea/coffee with glasses of water from time to time or keep a bottle of water next to your computer and sip at it when you get a break. I cannot stress how much this will help you out.

So in summary, stand up from time to time, get some water, flail your arms around like a moron and do some lunges… we’re supposed to be having fun aren’t we?