Gaming may seem like a completely different world to that of sports and physical activity, but is this actually the case? Can you link gaming and physical sports? To save you reading this entire article I’m going to cut this short and say yes. There I saved you a few minutes of procrastination, now get back to that thing you are meant to be doing. Still here? Well you might as well read the rest of this then.

Gaming is no longer an activity that is just linked with unhealthy and unsocial individuals, it is now an activity enjoyed by all regardless of physical health or levels of activity. Technically gaming is already a sport, an eSport to be exact, so it now falls under the category of a competitive sport, so why not take this a step further, let’s make gaming a physical sport too.

Firstly let me set out a few parameters as to what counts as a physical sport. It must include at least one of the following; carry the risk of injury, some level of contact, requires physically demanding work, raises the heart rate, makes you sweat, and carries a high level of intensity.

Now that I’ve put down a few markers, lets see if we can have each parameter cover both physical sport and gaming.

Risk of injury

All good physical sports carry the risk of an injury, whether it’s pulling a muscle or getting a little bruise, which you constantly show everyone because it looked bigger at the time. Gaming does involve the risk of an injury, and I don’t mean the injuries gained from too much gaming such as carpel tunnel or repetitive strain injury, I mean straight up injured yourself mid-game. You can easily strain your neck in a frantic action packed game on one screen whilst checking the latest sport scores on another. Another common injury would be straining the muscles in the hand or hyper-extending a finger whilst trying to press all the buttons in the world in panic. It’s serious stuff, you can very easily break a bone whilst gaming, allow me to recount a tale that proves it’s easy to do so. To cut a long story into something manageable, I was gathering achievements in a certain Dragon Ball themed game and came across a particularly difficult battle in which I had to complete without being hit. After several hours of failed attempts I lost my temper just a little bit and decided to lash out at an innocent pillow, this pillow obviously knew some marital arts as my fist was flung from the pillow onto the most solid part of the sofa arm. This caused all my weight and anger to be transferred to my little finger, which fronted the attack on the armrest, thus breaking said finger, well at least shifting the finger to a new position.

Contact sport

Many physical sports include a form of contact, some more lenient than others, but a physical sport will always carry the risk of at least accidental contact. Just from the end of the last paragraph you can check this one off. During frustrating games or fighting with lag we have often resorted to violence as the answer. We have all hit a pillow/sofa/bed/body part whilst raging about something, some of us may ‘accidentally’ let the controller slip out of their hands, causing it to ‘accidentally’ hit the wall, the abuse against inanimate objects must stop! It’s safe to say that this one also covers gaming.

Requires physically demanding work

Now this needs some explanation, in basic terms what I mean by this is you have to get out of breath and partake in some form of cardiovascular work. This one does link heavily with raising the heart rate and getting your sweat on, as physically demanding work will always raise the heart rate and will often get you sweating. Gaming will only leave you out of breath for a few reasons, one of these is playing a game using motion controls (I almost died when I first played Wii Boxing), seriously you get some hand/arm cramp during those Super Mario Party mini-games that definitely don’t look like you’re jacking off an invisible sausage. The others include when you take “breath taking gameplay” a little too seriously or if you have the habit of making the game so realistic you hold your breath whilst underwater and you actually start to run out of breath whilst your character slowly runs out of oxygen. There are also those moments when you are involved in some frantic, chaotic multiplayer that leaves you needing air so no apparent reason. So yes I have burnt many calories in the frantic boss battles after I realised that my last saved file was about an hour ago.

Raises the heart rate, makes you sweat, and high levels of intensity

I have made this one a triple threat because all the reasons for one can easily be linked to the other two. Outside of the above reasons resulting in your out of breath, the heart rate can be raised in a number of different ways. Over the past couple of years there has been a flurry of truly horrifying heart attack inducing games. These alone are enough to send you into fight or flight mode and has your heart rate sky-rocketing above any Spin class or simple jog up the stairs (seriously why does that always leave me breathless). The heart rate can be increased by the activation of your sympathetic nervous system that in turn causes efferent preganglionic sympathetic fibres (a cluster of nerve cells) to release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This, in turn, stimulates the adrenal gland causing it to secrete significant quantities of adrenaline. Resulting in a cascade of body responses including increased heart rate, heavy breathing to provide the body’s cells with enough oxygen for aerobic respiration, activation of sweat glands….and where is this also seen? Sports, Science rests its case. That’s right I know science stuff! Which means a pulsating match Call of Duty or that 90^th minute penalty in FIFA will raise your heart rate enough to technically be considered physically active. With the increase heart rate and frantic button mashing as you keep your streak alive, along with the various squeals as you avoid a close call, you’ll no doubt be pouring with sweat. I have often stopped mid-game to question why my shirt is suddenly a little damp, then I realised that the zombie horde I’m facing has actually created enough tension to make me sweat more than when my Mum left me in line as a kid and didn’t show up before I reached the counter. The competitive nature of gaming is always going to increase the levels of intensity, I’m always loud until everything hits the fan and then concentration takes over, there isn’t a tenser moment than when a game is tied with only one score needed to take the victory.

Now I think gaming has ticked all my made up boxes that I would associate with physical sports and activities. Therefore I have justified why gaming should count as a physical sport. For good measure let’s put this through the most rigorous of tests (well one question) to see if it is in fact a sport:

Can you play with a pint in your hand and avoid spilling said pint?

No you can’t, and via this incredibly scientific experiment we can draw the conclusion that gaming is:

• A sport
• A competitive sport
• A physical sport