HACKER Q&A
📣 DoofusOfDeath

Combining Exercise and Gaming at Home


What solutions have people found for combining physical exercise and computer/console gaming?

TL;DR:

I have a recumbent exercise bike, and have found I can play 4X-style games by having my mouse situated on a nearby table. But that won't work well for action games, nor for games that require a keyboard or flight stick.

I've looked into building a sturdy shelf for keyboard + mouse, to pair with a recumbent exercise bike, but all the newer bikes seem to have a control console where the keyboard/mouse need to be. (My backup plan is to modify one of these bikes to move the control console off to the side.)

I've also considered console gaming, because the controllers tend to be wireless and handheld, but I don't think they'd hold my attention as long as the games I care about would.

I'm personally limited to recumbent bikes because of back issues, but upright bikes and/or treadmills are interesting as well, because family members.

EDIT FOR CLARITY: For my personal use case, I don't care about the entertainment being in synch with the bike. I've just found I can bike for far longer if I have a computer game to prevent tedium.


  👤 ironfootnz Accepted Answer ✓
Me and my wife we play any game, but our favourite is crash bandicoot. It's easy if one of us gets to game over. We pay in abs crushes, push-ups, sit-ups. If she or me spend 20min. It's 20x and so on.

👤 FpUser
Check out Zwift, Rouvy, Veloreality, Road Grand Tour etc. All cycling related with Zwift being a most popular. Myself I do not like Zwift and prefer video based software like Veloreality but I am in minority.

👤 sloaken
I recall seeing a treadmill / desk combo. But since you mentioned it I am going to look for it. Found it on amazon, $1300. Seems like they just put a tall table over a tread mill.

👤 afarrell
I would really like it if Nintendo or someone was to come up with an accelerometer that could just be strapped to the pedals of an exercise bike and send signals to a Nintendo Switch.