Does The Wii Zumba® Game Meet ACSM’S Recommended Guidelines For Cardiorespiratory Fitness?

Abstract

Wii Zumba® Fitness World Party is an active video game (AVG) in which celebrity instructors lead Zumba® routines from around the globe. This AVG form of dance could provide a very appealing, cost-effective mode of aerobic training; however, we are unaware of any studies that have investigated cardiorespiratory or metabolic responses to this unique AVG. PURPOSE: Determine oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) responses of sedentary women completing a single session of Wii Zumba® aerobic dance. METHODS: Seven sedentary female participants (22.71 ± 2.69 yrs) completed two sessions: a preliminary session to assess cardiorespiratory fitness and an experimental session to determine cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses to a Wii Zumba® AVG protocol. The Wii Zumba® session protocol consisted of a 5-min warm-up, an 11min, 15s dance portion that included 4 different dance routines (two moderate and two high intensity), and a 2-min cool-down. HR and RPE were assessed and recorded in the last 30 seconds of each stage (warm up, dance 1, dance 2, dance 3, dance 4, and cool down). VO2 and HR were monitored across the session using a metabolic system (ParvoMedics, Sandy, UT) and heart rate monitor (Polar T31, Polar Electro, Inc, USA), respectively. VO2, %VO2peak, HR, RER, and RPE (Borg, 15 pt. scale) were analyzed for session 2 using a one-way repeated measure ANOVA. RESULTS: For VO2 and %VO2peak, there was a significant time effect with increases in both across time [F(5,30) = 20.06, P = 0.0001; F(5,30) = 20.52, P = 0.0001, respectively]. There was also a significant time effect for HR [F(5,30) = 21.2, P = 0.0001] as well as RER [F(5,30) = 28.76, P = 0.0001] with increases in both over the exercise session. In addition, RPE revealed a time effect [F(5,30) = 16.6, P = 0.0001] with increases across the exercise session. Mean (± SE) percent VO2peak ranged between 57.47 (± 2.82%) and 64.67 (± 4.74%) and mean HR rose from 136.57 (± 8.52 b/min) to 155.71 (± 6.19 b/min) across the 4 dance sessions. RPE peaked at 13.57 ± 0.72 during the last dance session and mean total kcal expenditure was 108.43 ± 5.82 kcal. CONCLUSIONS: The Wii Zumba® AVG protocol elicits a moderately stressful cardiorespiratory workout, and meets ACSM guidelines for improving cardiorespiratory fitness.