Let’s be honest with ourselves; Our little hobby is a sedentary one, and hours upon hours of game time sitting in a chair is simply not healthy and in no way contributes to any goals we may have set earlier in our life. Unhealthy as it is, we’re not likely to quit gaming. Luckily, the impact on our health doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. A small change now could have a huge effect when applied over hundreds of hours.
In his book, Atomic Habits, author James Clear discusses a method called habit stacking, where you find a current habit and attach a healthy one right before or after it. He also encourages us to make good habits easier and bad habits harder by changing our environment.
I bet this forum is full of good ideas on healthy habits during game play. What triggers you to remember posture, or when to drink more water? When do you stand, take breaks, or do calisthenics? Are there certain foods off limits at your computer? If you don’t do these things, can you think of ways to start? What about attitude and mental wellness? Do you let other players get you worked up or stressed out? Do you turn off public chats?
I’m no doctor, dietitian, or therapist - but I know our health is important and nobody will ever care about it more than we do (or should). I’m eager to hear what suggestions you have. What’s worked, what hasn’t worked, what you’d like to do, what you tried to do, etc.
If enough suggestions come in, I’ll update this OP to reflect ideas in an easy-to-read bullet style.
I have a stepper and an incline exerciser in the studio with my recording desk and computer aLong with 15 guitars, a dozen or so amps, Hammond organ, and other keys but it’s a very big room. I work out a couple of times a day.
This is a great post and I’m glad you brought this up. Im always thinking about how bad sitting for long periods of time is because I do it at my job and as my hobby.
I typically like to do some light stretching and jumping Jack’s before I start playing. I feel like this sets me up to remember to move around more while I’m playing. I usually don’t like to go more then 1 hour without walking around the house and moving my body around. I’ll try to set checkpoints in game to remind myself to get up and moving, for example , once I’ve finished a group of quests and turn them in I’ll get up for 5-10 minutes use the bathroom, drink some water, walk around and maybe take the dog outside to pee.
I have noticed a big difference in how I feel during and after gaming when I do these things.
Sounds like a good trigger - a group of quests can take 30-60 minutes which I think is about the right time to get up and move around.
I remember doing 20 push-ups each time I leveled, which was definitely more involved on day 1 and 2 than it is now (at level 54 - I’ve been playing way too much).
I really want to invest in a versa-desk type platform for my keyboard and monitor. I think standing will make it easier to do things like 20 squats each time I hit a fast travel button (10 sec + loading screen time). It will also help with posture (I think I slouch all the time, but definitely “slumping” in my chair is worse).