How Pro Gamers are Gaining a Competitive Edge
Discover the secrets to a successful exercise programme that helps pro gamers manage stress, win more often and prolong their careers...
Gamers vs Athletes
Picture this. You are a professional athlete playing for a local team. As a squad you train 4 hours per day, but outside of those 4 hours you have no other support.
Regardless, your team made it to the big final!
Your opponents also train 4 hours per day. But, on top of that they follow an exercise plan specific to the sport. They have a mindset coach to deal with performance anxiety. A nutritionist and a STRESS management program.
Which team will win?
Gaming is no different!
In fact, gamers face the same level of stress as pro football players.
Better stress management can be the deciding factor in who wins.
But, this is just one of the many things gamers need to deal with in their playing career.
Gamers need to deal with PHYSICAL and MENTAL fatigue. Risk of repetitive strain injuries and postural injuries. And a slowing of natural reaction speeds with ageing. All of which can put your career on hold.
Meaning no more competitions, no big prize money.
Why Fitness for Gamers is Important...
There are countless steps that make a pro gamer good at what they do. But as mentioned earlier, gaming is not that different from athletic sports. There are parallels between competitive gaming and exercise. And exercise can in fact boost your gaming performance.
'Overclock' Your Information Processing Speed
Gaming relies on processing visual information instantly. This processing step happens before your reaction speed even kicks in.
Gaming throws a lot of visual information your way. It's important to process this quickly so that you can react to what's going on. Processing is the first step before your reaction speed kick in.
Much like having a faster CPU might give you the edge against your opponents. Having a faster mental processing capability is equally important.
Exercise has shown to improve processing speed of visual tasks.
'Lightning Fast' Reaction Time
Gamers reaction times are 19% better than the average person.
Fast reaction times are key to gaming. Reacting quicker than your opponent can decide who wins in a 1v1.
An exercise plan has shown to improve reaction time by 46ms!
Imagine picking off your opponent 46ms faster than before. Your opponent would be salty and blame it on ping.
The 1v1 Pro Snipers Heartrate
When you reach the final minutes of the game, how often have you said "my heart is racing right now."
Gaming gets your heart racing, but a faster heart rate means:
An exercise plan can help lower your resting heart rate. And make you more resilient to stressors. This means that your heart rate won't race up to the fatiguing point as quickly.
Posture That Prolongs Your Career
"Only one in five professional eSport athletes careers last 2 years or longer."
Let's face it when gaming gets competitive, we lean forward and forget about posture. A well designed exercise plan can help correct your posture in your offline hours.
Plus our hands and wrists can really take a beating during long gaming sessions. Adding clever wrist strengthening exercises can help prevent repetitive strain injuries.
Fitness Coaching for Pro Gamers
If you are a pro gamer or aspiring to become one, and you want to hear more about how exercise can help you. Click the button to schedule a free 15 minute call to see what it's like to work with me. If we don't make a good team, I will at least point you in the right direction.
About The Coach Stuart Campbell
Stuart is an online fitness coach specifically for pro gamers and streamers. He graduated with a BSc in Exercise and Health Science from The University of Aberdeen. The university ranked as the Scottish University of the Year 2019 (the year he graduated). And ranks 2nd best in the UK for sports science and health science degrees. Stuart also holds a Level 3 Personal Training qualification and has worked in gyms while studying.
Although Stuart isn't a competitive online gamer or streamer he does boast a collection of 118 platinum trophies on PSN. When he isn't in the gym, he is gaming or watching streams.
Here's What Other Experts Are Saying About Fitness & Gaming:
Samayan 'BlinG' Kay
StarCraft II, Ex Team Dignitas Player
"Most players at the highest level are already doing things to lead a healthy lifestyle."
"There’s no question for me that a healthy lifestyle reduces fatigue and helps concentration levels. Most players I know that are competing at the highest level are already exercising or doing things to lead a healthy lifestyle."
Adam J. Toth
Research Fellow, The University of Limerick
"The difference between a lucrative career or not!"
"Exercise may give gamers a competitive advantage that may be the difference between a lucrative career or not. The well documented physical and mental health benefits of exercise suggest that it should be a staple in any elite eSport training program."
Michael "ODEE" O'dell
Managing Director for the London Royal Ravens
"I'd advise all gamers to keep fit!"
"If you look at top professionals, they’re physically fit. Being physically and mentally fit at the same time is a benefit. I’d advise all gamers to keep fit."
What My Coaching Can Offer:
Here is a reminder of everything mentioned so far that is included in my coaching programme.
PLUS: Level Up Your Performance
Level up your gaming performance even further with a combined approach to coaching. I understand there is more to being a successful gamer than just adding exercise to your routine. I provide you with a stress management plan, nutrition plan and work with you on your personal goals.
Think back to the sports team that had all the support staff.
Now this will be you!
Bali, A., 2015. Psychological factors affecting sports performance. International Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health, 1(6), pp.92-95.
BONUS: Stress Management Plan
Optimal performance is just outside of your comfort zone. A stress management plan helps you go way beyond that.
You need a moderate level of stress for optimal gaming performance. But, too much stress leads to fatigue and burnout. With better stress management you can withstand burnout and play at a higher level. This giving you the edge in big competitions.
If you know how to handle big crowds watching your every move and still stick to your game plan. And your opponent can't. Then it is GAME OVER for them!
BONUS: Nutrition Plan
A personalised nutrition plan can boost your physical and mental wellbeing.
Nutrition doesn't have to mean dieting. Nutrition is more about eating the right food to support your lifestyle. In our case, we want to eat food that provides as slow releasing energy for long gaming sessions. We want foods that support our exercise plan. But most importantly. A nutrition plan is something personal and we MUST enjoy the food on our plan.
How Does This Differ From a Generic Personal Trainer?
A generic personal trainer while give you an exercise plan that worked for previous clients. They will give you the plan with no info about exercise timings. The expectation is that you just follow their plan and do the workouts each day. Once you complete the workout, the PT might check in with you to ask how challenging it was. They will likely track your progress specific to your health, or weight.
But they won't ask how the exercise affected your gaming performance. They won't check if the hour long heavy lifting session was helpful. (HINT: it won't be).
My priorities with coaching are to ensure you thrive in your career as a pro gamer. And that you find balance with your offline hours.
Why Start Now:
your time is valuable
Save hours of time that you would have to spend researching the best exercise plan for gamers. I do all the hard work for you so you can focus purely on what you do best. Gaming.
Stress management
You might be thinking stress management is only for the big events. But stress is an every day thing. I focus on daily techniques to lower stress as well as more focused techniques for the build up to events.
Personal targets
The focus isn't all on gaming. If you have a personal goal to build muscle, lose weight or learn to run a 5k I will design your exercise plan to suit. And I will do so in a way that doesn't affect your gaming.
more energy
Get more out of your gaming hours. Plus, what would you do with your offline time if you had more energy?
You can workout anywhere
I will design the workouts to suit your environment. If you don't have access to the gym, or simply don't want to go to one, you can still get the benefits from exercise at home.
win more often
Your opponents might already be using personal trainers to improve their gaming performance.
Book Your 15 Minute Call
Choose a time date and time on the form below to schedule a 15 minute call. Please note that I am based in the UK so if you live outside of the UK you may need to convert your time zone to UTC.
Don't Delay!
This Is Your Career Not Mine
The average age of retirement for pro eSports gamers is 25! And as we found out earlier, only one in five gamers will have a pro career longer than 2 years.
But what if you could get more out of those remaining years?
What if you could even extend those years even further?
And still play at a high level.
Book a call today, especially if there is big prize money at stake.
