Get moving, gamers!

“Get off the couch and get active”—it's not the typical advice an esports gamer would expect to hear to enhance their skill, but new research shows physical activity can help players improve their response speed and accuracy. Gaming is no longer considered just a sedentary activity. Studies show those who are in better shape are sharper mentally and have more success in competitive esports.

Dr. Nicholas Hanson, associate professor of exercise science and 2022 Emerging Scholar Award recipient, and Western graduate Dr. Rachel Dykstra, Ph.D‘21 in exercise physiology, M.S.‘18 in exercise physiology and sports medicine, studied the reaction time of 27 gamers and measured their physical fitness including flexibility, muscular strength and endurance, body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness. They found a significant relationship between a person’s cardiorespiratory fitness and their reaction time.

“The greater aerobic fitness you have, the better cognitive performance you’ll see,” Hanson explains. “People are realizing if you are taking your esports competition seriously, you should be fit physically.”

As the popularity of esports has grown, so has the time gamers have invested in training. It’s often many hours per day sitting in front of a screen, he adds. To gain a competitive edge, gamers should go for a jog or ride a bike to improve their mental processing speed and accuracy.

“The stereotype is that these are people who are sitting on the couch or in a chair all day, but physical fitness is just as important in esports as it is for any other sport,” Hanson says.

An avid runner, Hanson’s passion for fitness has fueled his research since joining Western’s faculty in 2014, primarily focusing on how the human body responds to aerobic endurance training from the perspectives of exercise physiology, brain activity and psychology.

He admits he is not a gamer, though he is intrigued by the proliferation of esports and its implications on health.

“Back when I was a kid, gaming was by yourself or with a friend. Now with the internet, it’s a completely different world. You can be connected all over the world with hundreds of millions of people,” he says.

The implications of his research are significant not only in the growing field of esports but also for remote operators of drones for the military, he adds. Unmanned aircraft operators are tasked with making quick decisions and evaluating risks in relation to rewards, similar to skills honed in esports.

Hanson plans to apply for a grant from the Department of Defense to continue his research in this area.