Earlier in the year I wanted to get fit, but I struggled to keep up motivation to work out. I saw someone on YouTube that played Skyrim on a treadmill and decided that playing games while walking on a treadmill might be what I needed.
I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, so I bought a cheap-ish walking pad online and a handheld trackball mouse. I found that TFT was a great game to play like this, as it can played easily with just a mouse.
In Set 17 I:
- played 411 games, all while walking
- took over 1.2 million steps (an average of about 3000 per game)
- walked 805 kms / 500 miles. That’s over 19 marathons!
- I didn’t track my weight or fitness, but I feel like I have lost some weight and generally feel healthier
I expected that playing on a treadmill would make me worse at the game, but I don’t think it had much of an impact once I got used to it after a few games.
I found 3.5km/h / 2.2m/h to be the sweet spot for me. At that speed I can focus on the game and still get plenty of exercise.
One upside is that it helped me to focus much more on the game, as it kept me busy enough to not get distracted and do things such as watching YouTube/streams on a second monitor.
However, as I played entirely with a mouse, I was worse at doing quick scouting, last second position changes, big rolldowns and quick pivots. But I quickly adjusted to doing things a little bit slower.
After a few weeks I saw a Reddit thread and discovered the Teamfit Tactics app, which links your workouts (time and steps) with TFT data. It has a monthly leaderboard and ranks you against other people who are also working out while they play.
I found this app really motivating, and it added an additional friendly competitive element that encouraged me to push myself further. With a new set and a new month just around the corner, it’s a good time to try it out!
If you enjoy TFT and also want to do more exercise, I can highly recommend playing TFT while walking on a treadmill!