"This helps to prevent tightening of the wrist. You can also tense and hold your arm, then let it flop to the side. This way you're increasing blood flow to the area and loosening the muscles. Get up, stand with with your feet shoulder length apart. There's also neck stretching - try to tuck your chin in as if you're making a double chin and hold it for a couple of seconds."
Similar thinking to the exercises that are advised on plane flights –which you'll know of if you've ever left Azeroth for long enough to go on a plane flight.
DVT is terrifying
Finally, exercise – or lack thereof. On 9 October 2002, one Kim Kyung-jae played Korean MMO Mu Online for almost 86 hours straight, pausing only for toilet and fag breaks. Eventually – inevitably? - he collapsed. He briefly came to again, and managed to lurch over to the toilet. He didn't return. The surmised caused? Deep-vein thrombosis. Again, you'll have heard about it on planes. It's terrifying stuff.
Sitting still for too long impedes the flow of blood around your body, causing clots to form in your limbs. These clots can dislodge and make their way towards important organs such as the lungs. There, they can create a blockage. We needn't explain why the lungs not getting blood is a bad thing.
Okay – it's pretty rare, as are 86-hour-sessions. But do you really want to run that sort of risk? It's not the only one, either. Personal trainer Shaun Trevana, who works at gym chain fitness first, knows of a few other possible fates from excessive dungeon-running: "You won't be using your heart and lungs much, and there'll be muscle atrophy and wastage."
Anything else? "Osteoporosis, because your bones will no longer be doing the weight-bearing that they would if you're walking around." Again, it's not hard to fight this – you just need to adjust the timing of your play sessions a little. "Take an hour out from your PC a day," suggests Shaun. "Try stretching every hour, so you're actually using your body. If you're playing a game, you can sit on a gym ball – you'll be in a good posture position and you'll be using your leg muscles to stabilise yourself."
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That's what you can do at the PC, but what you do during your time outside of Northrend is also critical. "Spend 45 minutes to an hour exercising three times a week. Something like circuit training would be best – a full body workout that keeps you toned and oxygenates the muscles. I wouldn't say the rules would change much from person to person. For most people three times a week is more than enough. Don't exclude exercise from your life."
Essentially, then, there's no reason to reduce the amount of time you spend trying to become Revered with the Argent Dawn. There's stuff you can do while you're playing, and if you can persuade yourself to spend the time you're not playing on activities that'll benefit your body, rather than bittorrent Prison Break or arguing on forums, you're laughing. And most of all, living.
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Now read Credit crunch hits World of Warcraft
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