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When you’re thinking about gaming, you’re thinking about lush forests, medieval towns, swords and bows, magic, aliens – basically anything that the mind can imagine. While gaming is an amazing hobby, it can lead to some serious health issues, especially if we don’t address them in time and try to prevent them. Poor circulation, bad posture, these somewhat-benign problems can lead to heart disease, bad digestion, and a whole plethora of predicaments.
To ensure your good health, both now and in the future, it’s crucial that you take steps to eliminate and prevent these problems from flaring up.
Have Good Posture
With gaming being a relatively new hobby, you rarely see OAP gamers on youtube and in the wild (Except for our favourite streamer, Gaming Grandpa). In reality, if you want to live a healthy life and become the senior gamer you were born to be, gaming aside, you need to invest time, energy, and even a little bit of money to ensure that your body is taken care of.
If you’re a gamer, you’re likely to also hold down a job to supplement your income to support your hobby – meaning that you’re likely already spending a lot of time in front of a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, so a good posture is essential in avoiding back pain and problems like scoliosis. Investing money in a gaming chair might seem unnecessary at first, but once you weigh the pros and cons, you’ll notice that gaming chairs become a no-brainer.
Sit Comfortably
Well, this is pretty much a given, but sitting comfortably is a great way to ensure that you won’t develop any back problems. Sometimes we postpone on buying something we really need because we’re not willing to give up our cash easily, are waiting for the right time, we’re looking for a good sale, but every moment you spend in a chair that doesn’t provide good support is a step towards future health issues.
For your typical gamer, a customizable office or gaming chair will help relieve you of all of these issues. Get a chair with good lumbar support, like the Secretlab Titan, a chair that comes with adjustable lumbar settings, not with those pillows that can be hit or miss a lot of the time.
Play in Moderation
Gaming can really take you down a rabbit hole. When you’re playing, there’s always that voice that tells you to queue for one more match, to finish building that stable, or to tick off a few more weekly challenges. When that happens, it’s important to remind yourself that sitting for long periods of time can really mess with your blood flow. 1-2 hours per day should be enough for any person, albeit kind of restrictive. I know that for a hardcore gamer, this seems like a very restrictive rule, but your future self will be grateful that you’ve been more strict.
Sit at a Comfortable Distance from Your Monitor
Eye strain is a problem that gamers constantly confront. To ensure that your eyes are going to be relaxed, it’s recommended that you sit at an arm’s length from your screen. For screens that are bigger than 24 inches, try to sit further back.
A good chair has a reclining function, which helps you achieve this ideal distance without you having to move further away from your mouse and keyboard, another good reason for getting a gaming chair.
Get Some Exercise
When you’re between games, or after you die and are waiting to be respawned, you can fit in a few jumping jacks, burpees, push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, or even do some light weight lifting. Getting your blood pumping with small exercises between games is a great way to stay in shape and to keep your heart and blood flow within normal parameters. If you’re lazy and don’t want to come up with a workout routine, there are plenty of templates out there that are built specifically for gamers. Every respawn you need to do some exercises, so you’re either gonna have to get fit or get good at the game you’re playing.
Conclusion
There’s plenty of stuff that we can do to be healthier, and cutting back on a few gaming hours per week is a small price to pay for a long, fulfilling life. While gaming is a really important part of our lives, it’s important to take care of ourselves. Play in moderation and occasionally hit the gym, and a good gaming chair will give you good posture. And remember to stay hydrated!
