Destructoid, citing unnamed sources, says the game is "NFL Trainer" and will put players through football-inspired workouts and drills. There's talk it will come with a football attachment that will assist players in learning how to throw perfect spirals.

If true, this is hardly exciting news for the core sports gamer. But it would be shrewd of EA Sports to differentiate its exergaming efforts with a pro league's license, and try to extend the offering beyond the typical soccer-mom demographic.

I've reached out to my contacts with EA Sports to see if they want to knock this rumor down. We likely know the drill here: A) it's a holiday week, and B) few companies ever comment on rumor or speculation.

Rumor: EA Sports Working on a Football Training Game [Destructoid]

The listing says the weights don't interfere with the IR capability so, hell, why not hook it up to Dead Space: Extraction or Madworld for a real workout?

Wii Weights (2lb Dumbbells) [Everlast, thanks fusioncam]

Reader Martin sent us the link, and says the gym has been wallpapering local TV with ads. Good for them. Now, who's to say if Nintendo feels like going after a fitness club. But yeah, the name does sound a smidge like the brand on the No. 5 selling game of all time - and one strongly associated with exercise at that.

But my name's Paul, and this is between y'all.

We-Fit Tucson - Personal Training and Post-Rehab fitness [thanks Martin]

I clicked out at 0:20. It's only 1:15, but how much can you take?

Daisy Fuentes Pilates Lifestyle Trailer [Gametrailers]

What's more, the study's authors were surprised to find the Wii Sports games, which rely almost solely on upper-body motion, still provided a good enough calorie burn. I guess they hadn't played the home run derby, which still whips my ass every time.

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center conducted the study, looking at 23 boys and girls ages 10 to 13. They examined the kids' energy expenditure at rest and while watching TV, then playing Dance Dance Revolution at two skill levels, then Wii Sports bowling and boxing, and then walking at various speeds on a treadmill.

Unsurprisingly, kids burned three times more calories playing the games than watching TV. The researchers were impressed enough to recommend "active games such as DDR or Wii" as "a complement to activities such as walking or cycling."

Of course, anyone who's gone 3 rounds in Wii boxing and ended up heaving and sweating already knew this. But it's a top-flight university study in a leading research journal, and the mainstream media's picking up the ball. So for those keeping score on whether we gamers are getting slapped upside the head or patted on it, today I'd say the latter.

Let the Kids Play Video Games - They're Burning Calories [Los Angeles Times]

Normally, we avoid "exergaming" but PushupFu, one entry in a planned series of exercise focused Fu Apps for the mobile device, looks like we may have to change our collective minds. While not the first or, from my experience, even the most elegant of exercise apps for the iPhone, PushupFu uses the device's built-in accelerometer to track your push ups and provide feedback on your form.

Of interest to the competitive, PushupFu also lets you join tracked leagues and go head-to-head in a chest-building Battle Mode. It also has a built in course that promises to train you to do 100 push ups, no mean feat.

This takes me back to my days of doing push ups during Final Fantasy VII loading screens. Man, I was ripped by the time I got that Gold Chocobo. And, thanks to my recent PushupFu purchase I plan to be... well, marginally more physically fit than I am now. Who wants to step to this (about six weeks from today)?

PushupFu [iTunes Store via Techcrunch]

EA's take on the fitness genre may see players "strap the remotes to their arms or legs to facilitate more athletic movements, from running to jumping jacks" and offer a wider range of movement. Sounds interesting to us, but we would've thought the "Western approach" would warrant a comfy couch controller, not all that "exertion."

EA Sports looking to outsweat Wii Fit? [GameSpot]

Now InterAction Laboratories are going to see if Isometric workouts are doable on the Wii with their new controller - the Wii Sqweeze.

This prongs of this rubber-handled device are pushed together to work your upper body. It is still in development, but InterAction already have a couple of demo games — a bow-shooting challenge and something that is described as a 'Ball crushing game', which conjures up terrible images of workout sessions gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Wii Sqweeze [Exergame Lab via Boing Boing Gadgets]

As an internal memo describes it:

"Concept: There is a whole generation of kids (and adults) out there who aren't into sports and/or don't get enough exercise. At the same time there is a huge fitness market. We have seen how kids can become addicted to our video games. We are going to hook up an exercise bike to a video game, where the bike is the controller. Hook up a bike to "Pole Position" and you have to pedal to make your car "go". Hook it up to "Dig-Dug" and shovel faster - or else! We can make fitness freaks out of the kids and game players out of the keep-fitters. We capitalize on the combination of the two powerful markets — video games and aerobic fitness."

Better than that, you could hook the bikes up to a generator, too, and have an army of child fitness freaks powering your city's electrical grid. That captializes on the combination of THREE powerful markets — video games, aerobic fitness and child labor public utilities!

The Puffer is actually one of the better ideas in this look at 18 products — because it wasn't released. Most of the others, up until Dance Dance Revolution, were disappointments and DDR wasn't even specifically released as an exercise game. Now we have Wii Fit, selling like nuts and offending parents of fat children everywhere. But it's early, and as Boing Boing notes, anything that promises to make exercise more fun usually doesn't. Because if it was fun to begin with, we wouldn't be sitting on our asses playing video games.

From Atari Joyboard to Wii Fit: 25 Years of Exergaming [boingboing]

Some gyms are integrating dedicated exergaming machines into their circuit of traditional exercise machinery, with some business springing up around the concept of family-based exercise complete with Dance Dance Revolution arcade set ups.

Fitness clubs like Bally and other staid institutions, such as the YMCA, look to experiment further with exergaming in the future, hopefully helping reduce our ballooning fat kid problem.

Thanks for the tip, Melissa! Michael McWhertor

Exergaming blends video games with workouts [LA Times]

Sadly, I got suckered into pedaling my way through a tortuous ten minutes of Need For Speed: Carbon only to realize I'm terribly out of shape and despise being on display. Plus, I found myself irrationally jealous of the man who got to play Oblivion on the nice bike. Avoid this hall at all costs if you hate being the subject of humiliation gaming! Michael McWhertor

Game Set Watch has a great post up summarizing the personal connections a lot of people feel towards Maya, the peppy virtual fitness instructor from Yourself! Fitness. A lot of people tend to think of Maya as a real person. Although I would normally consider such people out of their fargin' gourds, I actually understand this, because Yourself! Fitness helped me get in shape.

Last year, I spent an entire winter floating like some alcoholic fetus in a huge vat of Guinness, nourishing myself and growing larger and larger through the absorption of the dark, creamy embryonic fluid in which I subaqueously dwelled. When spring arrived and I finally burst through the keg's placenta, it was time to get in shape.

So I spent thirty minutes every day gaily prancing about my kitchen as Yourself! Fitness virtual trainer Maya shouted peppy slogans at me. "How did you feel about that last set?" she'd ask me every once and a while. "My heart just exploded," I'd respond. But Maya could always put the best face on anything: "Good! That means you're challenging yourself!"

I owe my svelte, sexy frame to Maya. And even though she's just a polygon, I have a great deal of fondness for her. In making me suffer and work for my goals, I actually do find myself sort of thinking of her as a real person from time to time. A real person whose sublime, spandex-sprayed ass I'd gnaw off my arm to spank just once FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Yourself! Fitness - A Diary To Greatness

Just in case videogaming et al was all looking a bit too cool for school recently, enter stage left the VirtuSphere: a giant, transparent exercise ball for humans!

It has both military and fitness applications, and ... actually the dark blue one with the marine in it doesn't look quite so awful.

I'd have a go..

The VirtuSphere [Thanks Wandring_Soul!]