Meet Gaming Duo The Heroes of Fitness

The Heroes of Fitness are married couple Timothy Spencer (Senior RKC Kettlebell instructor) and Nicole Du Cane (COO at Dragon Door). Hailing from the fitness industry where they met in Minneapolis, MN, these streamers are combining two things they love, fitness and video games with an interactive exercise routine that’s tailored to the games they’re playing. Despite their focus on Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm, their name actually comes from the old classic Heroes of Might & Magic II.

GI: How did this whole thing get started?

Nicole: A lot of gamers want to feel better, they want to look better, they want to get healthy, but there’s not necessarily a lot of approachable ways geared toward gamers.

Timothy: These can be outward gimmicks and usually the things are unhealthy, like energy drinks or other things that aren’t actually healthy, so we try to bring actual health and fitness information to table.

N: We’re not saying you need to go super hardcore and become some crazy crossfit jock to look and feel well. If you’re sitting for hours and hours gaming, that’s not really good for your body. You just need reminders to get up and move, so we thought here’s an easy way to get people up and moving when they’re waiting in a queue or waiting for their party to get ready, and just support people in their fitness journey.” 

How did Heroes of the Storm become your flagship title?

T: Heroes of the Storm is our core title, we sort of got into it playing Cho’gall together (Cho’gall is one character piloted and controlled by two people), and that’s become sort of a stream favorite. We’ve had a Heroes of the Storm caster tell us that we play a mean Cho’gall and that more pros should get married to take advantage of the character.

How do you incorporate fitness into gameplay?

N: We have a monthly PDF so people can follow along at home. Depending on the game we’re playing we have a different routine, it could be bodyweight training, it could be kettlebells, it could be yoga. With Heroes of the Storm we do a short little 5 minute break between each match, or on Dark Souls we’d do it every time we’d die. For longer period games like Horizon Zero Dawn or something we schedule something roughly every hour.

T: For more action oriented or quick match games usually every 15-25 minutes we’re getting up. People will come to the chat and tell us how much this has helped people get into a healthy lifestyle, whether they lost ten pounds, got the motivation to stop drinking pop, and all kinds of things.

N: Surprisingly we’ve also heard from families getting involved, married couples and their kids, they’ll all get into it, especially if we’re doing something like Let’s Dance. I never predicted that.

How did you get started in gaming?

T: I started out with Atari, Nintendo, the typical console wave. I started PC gaming when I was really young, got into all the Blizzard games, Command and Conquer, Ultima Online, and then World of Warcraft. I went through a phase where I was really really into WoW where it was affecting my health. I swore off video games for almost a year where I became really dedicated to strength training, eating correctly, and that’s where I got into exercise science and all that. But I couldn’t resist, and worked my way back into gaming.

N: I had a younger brother, and we’d play together on console all the time. I didn’t get into PC until way later. I would sit there and help him with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as he couldn’t read the cutscenes fast enough, and we played a lot of Smash Brothers and Mario Kart. Lots of Nintendo, but eventually I got into Halo and other competitive games.