Paintball

jvsghost
jvsghost Posts: 11 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I searched the forum a bit and didn't find anything directly related to playing paintball, so I thought I would start up a thread. Does anyone out there play paintball for fitness and weight loss or just to play? It is great exercise that involves all kinds of different movements.

Just to get discussion rolling I have a question, but feel free to just discuss the topic:

Has anyone tried to calculate their calorie expenditure for a game of paintball? I have tried and came up with about 3500 calories for six hours of paintball. It is very hard to judge as everyone is different, but this is what I did; Played paintball for 6 hours total. So I calculated out my burn between 3 different exercises: Sprinting, Running, and Walking. Each session of paintball took approximately 30-45 minutes with 10-15 minute break in between to reload and gear up. That added up to about 270 minutes (4.5 hours) of total game play. I then halved that number as it was a mixture of movement and camping. I moved more than I camped on average, so I feel I am a bit conservative. To calculated the breakdown of the exercises I estimated that I sprinted for about 30 minutes total (Sprinted on the break or from obstacle to obstacle during hyperball and a few other fields). Then I split the difference between running and walking during woods-ball, and the mounds field. What wasn't factored in was carrying the gun and other equipment, snap shooting, squatting behind cover, lateral movements, and other labor intensive exercises that are required to effectively play paintball. I think the number I came to could be conservative for this activity, but I am not 100% sure.

Anyway, I hope there are a lot of you out there that play. I would like to get into a good discussion with fellow players.

Replies

  • mrhappy2k
    mrhappy2k Posts: 1 Member
    Hi!

    I just started playing paintball again this past weekend, and I felt the burn! It's a great cardio workout from the variety of movements, and it showed me just how out of shape I am!

    In terms of calories burned, I found a forum on another site where someone said they burned about 420 calories per hour. It will be tricky since the activity is not consistent (sprint for a few seconds, rest a few seconds, repeat, rest for 10 minutes, start over). I don't know if there is a comparable sport/activity you can use as a base line (only thing I can think of that comes close is football). But I play for fun! The fitness improvement is a bonus! :happy:

    Hope to hear other ballers' accounts with fitness and just the plain fun of paintball!

    Here's the other forum I found:
    http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/fitness/burn-calories-lb-fat
  • REDUX_o01
    REDUX_o01 Posts: 29
    Greetings,

    I've played paintball for ten years now, and I still love it! :)

    Depending on the type of game (Xball, Rec ball, woodsball, etc.), one player will burn calories differently. I mainly play woodsball, which involves a lot of crawling around, sneaking up on the opposite team, with the occasional dash for the flag and back to the base. I don't spend much of my time running like crazy (I believe that I actually run less during a paintball game than when I go for a jog), but much physical effort is put towards slow, controlled and deliberated movements, which can be pretty tiring. After a 3.5-4 hours session, I can crash in my bed for the next 10 or so hours. I'm that spent after a good day of paintball. I don't get that from a normal jogging and workout day. My guess is that, yes, one will spend much more calories playing paintball than some other casual sports.

    420 kcal/hour? That's cool to know!

    I play for fun, not fitness, really. Though, my fitness improvements do help out play a better game. :D
  • jvsghost
    jvsghost Posts: 11 Member
    Cool thanks for the feedback guys! I play for fun as well, but it is really cool to see how the stuff we do to get into shape effects PB.

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