Breathless in Portland?

[veav]

After reading countless threads, it appears the advice for exercising in DDR is:

A) the calorie counter sucks
B) do it until you've worked up a sweat and you're out of breath, your heart rate should meet this algebraic formula

I sure can sweat, I sweat like a stuck pig and get towels nice and soggy. The problem(?) is that I don't seem to be getting out of breath. My heart rate is probably higher, but not noticeably so.

I've only been doing this for a few days, so I'm still chewing on Basic (in Ultramix 4); I don't have the "cardio steps" dingus on, but instead of spending time to pick a song I just punch in random. Is the asphyxiation thing something I can expect with harder difficulty levels? Is the rest time from freezes really significant enough to prevent that from happening? Or am I just that dizamn good?

Incidentally, 6'2" and 256 lbs right now, down from 270 when I decided it was past time for a balanced diet and an exercise regimen.

[prayerwarrior35]

You will absolutely be able to play until breathless on harder difficulties. The odd thing about Machine Dancing is that while it's a cardio workout, and you can improve tremendously with overall physical health, it's also a video game and has a learning curve as a video game so the limiting factor now is your brain rather than your body.

Take your time to get better and always try to pass a song that's a little harder than what you can do. Once you get in the 7 foot range you should notice a pretty high heart rate, and the freeze arrows don't affect much but the stops between songs do.

And if this is something you enjoy, I HIGHLY recommend that you get a USB compatible dance pad and get into StepMania (free machine dancing simulator for PC that is superior in quality to DDR) ASAP, you will save $ and prevent the boredom that comes with playing the same 80 songs over and over again, plus there's a fairly decent calorie counter available through StepMania and superb workout options. For a quick reference you can check out my new years calorie counting resolution thread.

[abrannan]

veav said:

I've only been doing this for a few days, so I'm still chewing on Basic (in Ultramix 4); I don't have the "cardio steps" dingus on, but instead of spending time to pick a song I just punch in random. Is the asphyxiation thing something I can expect with harder difficulty levels? Is the rest time from freezes really significant enough to prevent that from happening? Or am I just that dizamn good?

Yeah, you're probably not going to get you heart rate up until you push yourself difficulty-wise. Try pushing up into the Light settings, and even some of the easier standard songs. Basically, you want to play at a level that's *just* past your ability to play. You want to be ekeing through songs with low "C" grades. That'll increase the number of steps you're making per song, which will do more to kick your heart rate up a notch. If that fails, knock out a couple hundred jumping jacks before stepping on the mat. Then you'll be using DDR to maintain that intensity.

[veav]

And if this is something you enjoy, I HIGHLY recommend that you get a USB compatible dance pad and get into StepMania (free machine dancing simulator for PC that is superior in quality to DDR) ASAP

I, er, can get it for xbox too. In a perfectly legal and unmodified fashion. *cough*

If that fails, knock out a couple hundred jumping jacks before stepping on the mat.

Now that I can do. I'm afraid that if I push into the standard queue too early it'll just bash my brains out and I'll lose confidence, but yeah...

[xstatic]

I didn't start on basic. It took me 2 days to pass my first light song... two days and that was like hours and hours of play... a good 6 at least. LOL I was a slow learner but I was determined!

[veav]

We may be talking about the same thing. Or not. Difficulties in dance games are a bit wonky.

Ultramix: Beginner, Basic, Difficult, Expert, Oni
Stepmania: Beginner, Basic, Trick, Maniac, Hardcore

Started with Ultramix, ran through the beginner selections long enough to unlock 'em all and move on to Basic. After I got Stepmania working I moved on to that and I'm pretty much sticking with Basic - it's a little more difficult than UM Basic IMHO, and the way I look at it, I shouldn't be messing with Trick until I can clear all the Basic songs. Which I can't. Many, yes, but not all.

Seriously considering whipping up some training songs for myself too - the Rez soundtrack has cuts about 6-7 minutes long, which is more than long enough for me to have a gradual buildup. Those corner jumps are the biggest thing holding me back right now - that and eighth note overkill...

[prayerwarrior35]

Beginner = Novice
Light = Basic = Easy
Standard = Trick = Medium
Heavy = Hard
Challenge = Expert

However, the difficulty rating in feet is the important part since you can play a few songs in Light that will be more difficult than some songs on Standard.

I began before beginner modes were available on Light Mode for Konamix and I managed a End of the Century pass on my first day albeit I jumped for every step and barely passed, it was quite a long first run.

[veav]

That I noticed... so it's better to tell it "songs with 3-6 feet" instead of "light/basic songs"?

[prayerwarrior35]

Yes, except there's quite a range jump from 3-6, if you can pass 3's, then you may manage some 4's but most likely no 5's. So when you are enjoying 3's pick a few 4's here and there, eventually you'll get good at 4's and will need to pick some 5's here and there (even if you fail most of the time). In time you'll get the hange of 5's and pick a few 6's, that's how you get better.

I think of it as an almost logarithmic scale with each difficulty (somewhat around) twice as hard as the previous.