Procedures

The study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (Ref.: 962676). All participants gave written informed consent before inclusion. After medical approval for inclusion, the participants performed a maximal exercise test on a stationary arm cycle at the Clinical Physiological Laboratory. The following day, the participants came back to the laboratory where they became familiar with the games used in this study. This supervised practice training session lasted for ~45 min. 2–3 days after, the participants performed the exergame session. All participants played three different games for 15 min each, with a 5 min rest in between sessions. The three games were played at different game consoles: Fruit Ninja (Xbox Kinect (Microsoft Xbox™, Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA)), Boxing (Nintendo Wii (Nintendo™, Kyoto, Japan)) and VR boxing (Oculus Rift (Oculus™, Meta, Menlo Park, CA, USA)). Fruit Ninja (Xbox Kinect) is controlled by body motions, being picked up and analyzed by a camera. The two other games, Wii Sports Boxing (Nintendo Wii) and Thrill of the Fight (Oculus Rift), both boxing games, are played by imitating boxing movements while holding two movement sensitive game controllers.

The order of the games was randomized through block randomization by drawing numbered lots. All subjects were asked to refrain from alcohol, exercise or strenuous physical activity 12 h prior to the exercise test and the exergame session.