Surprise, surprise. Children will get the exercise they need if it’s combined with video games.

Conventional wisdom holds that kids don’t go outside any more, as they’re always staying indoors to play with their gadgets and games. A new study out of the UK may help counter that familiar gripe.

The University of Cumbria conducted an independent study and found that nine in every ten kids want to play video games while exercising. The study states that gaming took the boredom out of exercise.

Gamercize, a British company that fits exercise equipment with popular game consoles such as the Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, provided the gear and video games for the study. Researchers asked fifty children, ages 11 and 12, to use the equipment provided by Gamercize.

As long as the children were moving, they could continue playing. If they stopped moving, the games paused.

One of the researchers, Jack Tyson, said 90 percent of children like combining video games and exercise.

"Only one in five of these children was achieving the recommended one hour a day of moderate physical activity, while three-quarters of them played video games for more than one hour a day," Tyson said.

The study brought a chorus of cheers from fitness advocates. Tam Fry, a board member for England’s National Obesity Forum, was among the enthusiasts. "Ideally children should be running around fields and expending energy naturally, but a lot of children are unable to do this so active gaming brings about energy balance," she said.

With the increasing problem of obesity in the United States, Gamercize is starting to get their equipment in schools. If gym classes are still like anything we remember, this should be a welcome addition to the syllabus.