Abstract

Although active gaming is popular and can increase energy expenditure in young adults, its efficacy as a prescriptive exercise tool is not well understood. This study aimed to: (a) compare the activity intensities experienced by young adults while playing active tennis gaming with conventional sedentary gaming, tennis game-play, and current activity recommendations for health; and (b) identify changes in activity intensities across playing time. After habitualization, 10 active young adults (age: 20.2 ± 0.4 years; stature: 1.74 ± 0.03 m; body mass: 67.7 ± 3.3 kg) completed 3 experimental trials (sedentary gaming, active tennis gaming, and tennis game-play) on separate days in a randomized order. Heart rate (HR) and metabolic equivalents (METs) were averaged across 5 minutes and 10 minutes intervals, and the entire 20 minutes bout within each condition. Active gaming produced greater intensities across 5–10, 10–15, and 15–20 minutes time intervals compared with sedentary gaming (p < 0.01). Tennis game-play elicited greater HR (67 ± 5% HRmax) and METs (5.0 ± 0.2) responses than both sedentary (40 ± 2% HRmax, 1.1 ± 0.1 METs) and active gaming (45 ± 2% HRmax, 1.4 ± 0.1 METs) (p < 0.001). Only tennis game-play produced activity intensities meeting current recommendations for health benefit. Lower HR intensities were reached across 0–5 minutes than during later time intervals during active gaming (6%) and tennis game-play (9%) (p < 0.01). Activity intensities elicited by active gaming were greater than sedentary gaming but less than tennis game-play and insufficient to contribute toward promoting and maintaining good health in young adults. These data suggest that active tennis gaming should not be recommended by exercise professionals as a substitute for actual sports participation in young adults. Verf.-Referat