There are 10 seconds left on the clock. It’s just me against the goalie, and I’m determined to squeeze another past him before the time is up. I bounce from one tiptoe to the other, staring into his black eyes before making my move. He fakes to the left, I second-guess him, swerve a couple of inches around him using some ballerina-style footwork and blast the ball into the back of the net. That’s my 15th goal in a minute: not bad considering I’ve not actually played football for the past 15 years.
As smug as I feel, my victory was only a virtual one. This is the Trazer machine, and I have been taking part in an exercise workout that promises both “virtual sport” and “real sweat”. Developed in Cleveland, Ohio, the Trazer is a computer-based system that sets out to combine the sometimes dubious allure of arcade games with — are you ready for this? — flight-simulator technology. American sports enthusiasts have already taken up the Trazer in large numbers, and now an Edinburgh gym has acquired the machine, the only one so far in Britain.
I’ve just finished my winning round of Goalie Wars in a mirrored studio. Minutes earlier I was catching basketballs as they dropped from holes in the ceiling. Before that I was following a moving dot around a glowing chessboard-cum-dancefloor while dodging trap doors that opened up in the ground.
Ben Wilde, the personal trainer from Trazer who is showing me the ropes today, says I have shown excellent progress during my half-hour session, and done some great work on lowering my centre of gravity and improving my reaction times.
That may be so, but personally I am proud of the simple fact that I have remained inside a gym for 30 minutes without slinking off to the sauna. I don’t like the places and find the idea of clock-watching and calorie counting on a treadmill something of a turn-off.
Wilde assures me the Trazer is the perfect machine. “You can flip between games and try out lots of different activities. The beauty is that we tailor each workout to the individual. Some people want to home in on a particular muscle group and work it until they see progress, others just want to have fun and play lots of games.”
I definitely fall into the latter category. A Trazer workout begins by feeding some basic information into the computer. Weight, age, height and heart rate help the machine assess an individual’s progress and estimate the calories used up during a session. Next, a wireless belt is fitted, connecting the player to the computer.
Although Wilde admits the elasticated black belt looks a little “inelegant”, this small piece of kit transforms somebody into a human joystick, picking up on the slightest movement and allowing their on-screen character to dart around the games. From then on, any opponents, obstacles or flying basketballs are purely virtual, and the player becomes a moving mouse negotiating their way around the action.
According to its advocates, this virtual reality workout can improve cardiovascular fitness, aid weight loss, and enhance sports performance and core stability, as well as improving visual and spatial awareness. Though these claims seem plausible enough, the Trazer’s biggest selling point is probably its novelty value: such a tempting-looking gadget is bound to motivate even the laziest of lumps into having a go.
“Like a computer game, you can pick how difficult or easy you want the game to be,” says Wilde, who has already given demonstrations of the machine to school children and grandparents, as well as the more regular breed of gym-goers. “It’s just as relevant to a serious athlete as it is to someone in rehab after an injury,” he says. “For some, it’s an introduction to gentle exercise, and for others it’s a welcome and fun addition to a busy training schedule.”
Richard Collins considers himself a “gym junkie” and was keen to have a go on the Trazer as soon as it arrived earlier this month. Taking turns to try out the gadget with three friends, Collins, a 31-year-old IT consultant from Edinburgh, found the competitive side of the Trazer a good incentive to work up a sweat.
“After five minutes of watching me play the goalie game, my mates all wanted to have a shot and try and score more points than me,” he says. Wilde adds the “leader board” facility — where players can watch how they rank compared to other gym members — tends to grab the attention of those with a competitive nature.
Collins also reckons the quick-fire games would be an excellent aid for anybody hoping to improve their reaction times for sports such as tennis or basketball. “You feel like you’re just jumping around and having a laugh, but it definitely made me put a sweat on, and I’m sure if you used it a lot you’d see a big improvement in performance.”
Amanda Murray fancied having a shot when she spied the Trazer’s large glowing screen peeping out from one of the gym’s workout rooms. When she isn’t training for marathons or attending gym classes five times a week, Murray, a 33-year-old associate director at a bank, likes to relax at home with her PlayStation2.
She felt comfortable with the Trazer’s interactive facility in which a camera on top of the computer screen allows players to feel in the centre of the on-screen action. Having perfected her combat skills at punching and kicking games on her PS2, Murray was keen to try out new gym-based games such as Jump Explosion and Trap Attack.
“It was knackering,” she says, after enjoying a 30-minute session. “But you’re so busy concentrating on the screen, you don’t realise you’re working so many muscles.” Murray says she may even incorporate the machine into her routine, because it is simply more interesting than other conventional alternatives. “When you’re on a rowing machine or a treadmill, you can’t help but keep an eye on the clock,” says Murray.
“But when my game finished I couldn’t believe it was time-up — I wanted to keep on playing.”
Cyber fitness
What is Trazer? A new system that combines the challenge of video games with the training effectiveness of a flight simulator in a fitness routine.
Who can do it? Anybody “from kindergarten and college kids to seniors”, according to its enthusiastic American backers.
Upsides: Sounds like fun, even for the circumferentially challenged.
Downsides: Don’t expect this latest expensive piece of computer technology (think £3,500, screen not included) to turn up in your local PC World any time soon. There’s only one gym in Britain with a Trazer, and it’s in Edinburgh.
Escape at the Scotsman hotel, Edinburgh, will be offering 30-minute sessions of the Cybex Trazer, costing £15. For information on club membership and the Trazer, contact Escape at the Scotsman hotel on 0131 622 3800 or visit www.escapehealthclubs.co.uk
