(UPDATE) Is yo-yoing good for cardio? Let’s do some testing!

General Yo-Yo
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So I recently got a fitness tracker/heartrate monitor to measure my calorie expenditure as I am a fitness nerd.

I threw for 40 minutes earlier today and based on my heartrate during the activity it says that I burned 429 calories!! Which is really good considering I went on a 26 minute jog earlier and that only burned 300 calories (and was a lot less fun…) I’ve got data for other throw sessions and the numbers are similar so it wasn’t just a one time fluke AFAIK.

Does anyone else have a tracker for calories (fitbit, apple watch, whoop, etc.) and know how much they burn during a good throw session? I’d like to know how accurate these numbers are, because this is almost too good to be true.

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That does seem a little too good to be true. While i don’t have a fitness watch i know I’ll exert more energy in 25 minute run than a 40 min throw sesh. It would be interesting to see other ppls results

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Heart rate doesn’t translate directly to calories burned the way some fitness apps seem to think.

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This thread is a similar topic for anyone interested in learning more.

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Fitnesstracker can’t measure calories, they somehow would have to be able to calculate your metabolic rate which a wrist device will never do. The number they spit out are based on a precalculated data set, that’s unrelated to the realworld action.

But I see the fun of fidgeting around with stuff like that. My personal take: Do what makes you happy.

Edit:

Also: Activity level, effect and energy-expense do not have to coralate. An average cyclist uses 600kcal / hour, just as much as an average grandmaster in chess during a tournament. But I would bet, no one would expect a GM to be more “fit” after a partie, than the cyclist.

Or another example: Shooting a rifle match in prone position uses an average of 300 kcal/hour (Laying on the ground and holding stil!), but most professional sportshooters have to work for their muscles in the gym and not on the range. :slight_smile:

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Also in case you wearing a watch, sadly the watch recognise the hand movement as you are walking, I had the same issue with it.
One day I was yoyoing for hours with the watch on my wrist and at the end of the session seemed like I basically walked for the entire perimeter of the planet

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Exactly that.

Its cool tech, if you keep your horizon on what it can do, but there are limits to any tool , of course.

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(Excuse me for also jamming this topic too, with my brain-squeeze)

On the other hand:

Yo-Yo is absolutely training. If you see pros, they are all fit and ready to go. They show quick musclefibre, great cordination skills (Mind-Body connection) and quick reaction. So, I would say yes to YoYo as a sport, but not as a fitness-program.

That said. YoYo, like most things, attracts a certain group of people, in a spectrum. And it seems, that the world champion formula in YoYo is a lean, slender type. But as a fellow fat-guy, I am also aware, that this is only a generalization and may not mean anything.

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I would guess it is a similar level of effort to a gentle walk

so plugging in the numbers for my weight and 40 minutes it seems that I might burn about 150kcal (not 400 unless your yoyo is tremendously heavy or you are going crazy fast all the time)

maybe you can find a closer analogue activity here:

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The best way to burn calories using yo-yos, is to throw 4A with your eyes closed in a big asphalt parking lot for an hour.

You will probably put 20,000 steps on a Pedometer and burn about 11 calories.

On a more serious note, there is nothing currently available that can accurately calculate the amount of calories you can/might/do, burn during a throwing session.

Consider this for better proper mental .alignment

Approximate how many calories you might burn in an hour doing simple calisthenics: push ups, jumping jacks, sit ups, chin ups… all the ole school exercises people use to do in school when they actually made you work out.

Probably work up a good sweat no doubt. And you calculate you burned X number of calories.

Unless you are standing in direct sunlight at high noon in Texas, you could yo-yo for 3 hours without sweating a drop.

You could probably burn more calories doing dumbbell curls holding a Twinkie in each hand.

As one of you guys already said, some of the measuring devices calculate calories burned, based on swinging arm movements/while walking/running.

…. So, you could be literally standing still while throwing so your device will be registering your arm swings as leg moving and over calculate the burn amount.

Sorry I don’t have a good solution for calculations… but I think the amount of calories burned while yo-yoing is ‘not many’.

Now, on a Positive note, consider this> One of the things that inspires sedentary behavior is the lack of endorphins in your system

Endorphins create a more positive mental outlook and subconsciously inspire a person to move more.

So even though practice, yo-yo sessions may not seem like big calorie burners in the short game. When you consider the endorphins that your body generates while throwing yo-yos and having fun will actually work for you even more after you’re done throwing.

So throwing keeps your mind, active. Generates a higher level of positivity. Resulting in the production Of endorphins, which will keep you motivated and in the process, you will burn calories because you will feel more like moving and less like jelling out on a beanbag chair playing Candy Crush.

I would not kid you.

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The Doc is on the case again. This time: Happy Doc. :smile:
It’s so on point, what you said. I gained happiness by Yoyoing. Just doing my stupid little tricks. And to a degree, that ppl noticed it! Crazy. It’s so fun!

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I would say it depends on what style you play and your personal style and how much you move around.

Like, most of the time I’m doing 1A and just standing in place but, if I’m listening to music and really getting in the zone, I dance and move around more while I’m playing. I wouldn’t say the amount of calories I’m burning is significant but it’s still good for your body to move and shake the cobwebs out, especially when you’re like me and sit in a computer chair half the day.

If you’re doing 4A/5A, you’re going to probably burn a few extra calories chasing your yoyo around. If you’re doing 2A with added Shu Takada style dance moves and backflips, you’re going to be in good shape :laughing:

It all depends on how you play.

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Yo-yoing is a workout for me as well but not calorie burning aimed. I’m disabled and was spending all my time sitting, I used to yo-yo in the early 2000s pre-disability but had been out of the hobby. About a year ago I realized even if it hurt I had to move my body more and picked up a yo-yo and the spark was reignited. Now I’m basically using it as physical therapy to get me up and moving around.

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I spent the session practicing whips, doing a difficult slack bind, working on beef hook, and my breakaway is pretty hard. I’d imagine 40 minutes of practicing a 2.0 hook could result in a decent workout, I might have to try that later.

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Well, I can say that overdoing it can lead to a sore back and shoulder, I am finding myself needing to take a break, so there must be some sort of muscle development happening lol
Useful muscle of any actual consequence? Debatable

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Yeah I would definitely compare throwing to dancing at least for my play style when it comes to burning calories. Here is my heart rate break down for last nights session, it’s pretty high!

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I always love reading your orations doc. Let’s test these claims! I’ll keep recording sessions and posting them in this thread and I’ll write down what tricks I was practicing so we can see how accurate these numbers are. If I burn the same calories during a chill session as opposed to 30 minutes of let’s say Eli hop practice then we will know there are some shenanigans going on.

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Even though this might still not give you reliable data, I am looking forward to it.

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Threw for an hour today vigorously practicing this beef hook into slack bind combo for pretty much the entire time.

Drank a coffee beforehand and during and tried to hold an athletic stance the entire time. Here are my stats for this “workout”

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771 calories!! Wow! Next session I’ll try practicing a more chill/techy trick and see if I get similar numbers.

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Andrew again, those statistics are all wrong. You are wearing the watch, probably only doing this trick the app signed 200 steps or even more, do not rely on this for the calories, actually when I used to wear a watch I used to take it out to play yoyo so it didnt messed up my real possible workouts.

Just my 2 cents but I experimented it on myself, the same thing happen if you play guitar

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