“Jane Fonda.” What pops into your head when you hear the name? Some remember odd cult classic movies like Barbarella. Or there’s “Jane Fonda’s Workout Challenge”, where Jane brings us back to big bold 1983, a magical time when you couldn’t do any kind of physical workout without a leotard, bright white shoes, a big perm, and (even for the guys) a snappy pair of leg warmers.
She took the nation by storm then, her enthusiasm and perkiness giving working out an exciting and fun edge. Sure, you may say “What about Tae Bo or Yoga or Pilates?” Sorry. Jane was doing her thing way before Tae Bo-ing was a glimmer in Billy Blanks’ eye.
Today, we get odd forms of exercise from video games. Our fingers get a carb-busting workout, but the rest of our body is left to atrophy. If you can barely reach around your stomach to reach the controller, you may have a problem.
Luckily, there’s a solution. It’s called StepMania. It’s free. It’s a workout. It’s a video game. And it’s a blast.
StepMania is a clone of the popular arcade game “Dance Dance Revolution”, where you step and jump on a pad in time to music. Notes scroll across your screen telling you where to step and jump. If you don’t want to invest in a pad, or want to try it without buying equipment, you can still play the game using just your keyboard. Or go to your local arcade and look for the “Dance Dance Revolution” and similar games. For a couple quarters you can decide if this is something you’re interested in.
So what do you need to play?
Get the game
Download StepMania at http://stepmania.com.
Cost: Free.
Buy a dance pad
If you don’t mind the more expensive route, get the RedOctane Ignition Pad 3.0 for $110. This gets you going with no other equipment, and allows the pad to plug directly into your PC via USB. It’s more expensive than some others, but is very durable and should last a long time.
A cheaper option is to get any Playstation-compatible dance pad, and a Playstation-to-USB adapter, so that the pad can still be used in your PC. I like the “SmartJoy Plus” adapter, but read the SmartJoy notesbefore you use it. There’s a code you need to get it working properly.
Cost: Minimum $40 for a pad, and under $20 for an adapter.
Download songs
You can download as many songs as your PC can handle, or you can create your own. See the StepMania website’s “Songs” section for detail. One of my favorite sites to download StepMania songs and music is Bemanistyle. Many users have also submitted legal songs and song packages available for download, and these are made available from Stepmania.com. Get StepMania songs by BitTorrent – download the StepMix 1.0 song pack torrent with “98 user-submitted totally-legal songs”.
Cost: Free, though there may be copyright issues depending on what song you download.
Exercise in video games isn’t a particularly new concept, but it’s becoming popular. Check outhttp://www.getupmove.com for stories of people getting in shape through games like StepMania and Dance Dance Revolution. Me? I’ve lost 10 pounds so far.
Take it from me. I have no rhythm. For those proficient at time travel, see any of my high school dances as proof. But I play StepMania and have fun. So enjoy, but don’t make the mistake I did: Leg warmers are not, repeat NOT, required.