Wii Fit – Will it Really Get You Fit?
Having trialled the Nintendo Wii Fit for some weeks now, I thought it was time to deliver my verdict on this 'new age' fitness device and discuss whether or not it can in fact, get people fit.
Before I obtained Wii Fit, I was sceptical about what it could do for me in terms of physical fitness. I admit that I suspected Wii Fit wasn't really going to offer much more than a celebrity home workout dvd, but as it turns out, there's quite a lot more to it!
What is Wii Fit?
The Wii Fit package consists of the Wii Fit Disc and the Wii Balance Board. You stand on the Balance Board and follow along with the training activities on the disc, while the balance board uses its sensors to read your postures and movements.
Beginning Wii Fit
When you first use Wii Fit, you are invited to register your Mii in the Wii Fit Plaza, and enter your height and date of birth. This allows you to take the Wii Fit Body Test, set yourself a sensible weight loss (or even weight gain) goal, and to record and track your progress every time you train.
There are over 40 training activities to choose from including aerobic exercises, yoga postures, muscle workouts and balance games. To begin with, only a few of the Wii Fit exercises are available for you to try, the rest are locked. The more time you spend using Wii Fit, the more training activities you will unlock, and the more challenges you will be given.
The Wii Fit Daily Body Test
Each day you can take the Wii Fit Body Test with the Wii Balance Board. This measures your Centre of Gravity and Body Mass Index (BMI), as well as giving you a couple of balance tests which test your athletic ability. You are then presented with your Wii Fit Age, which is an indication of your physical condition.
Your weight, BMI and Wii Fit Age are recorded on a graph each time you take the test, enabling you to view changes and improvements over time.
Wii Training
For the muscle and yoga workouts, you choose which virtual trainer you would like (male or female). Your trainer demonstrates how to perform each exercise, before inviting you to follow along with them. Your trainer gives you feedback on your performance, praises you when you have accomplished an exercise well, and gives advice about how to improve in the activities you're not so good at.
For the aerobic exercises and balance games, there is no trainer, instead your Mii mimics your actions, but you still get feedback.
For many of the activities, you can choose a difficulty level to suit your level of fitness or ability.
After you have performed each activity, you are presented with a score based on your performance, which is ranked alongside other scores previously obtained by you and other people who have registered their Miis in the Wii Fit Plaza.
Is Wii Fit Challenging?
Some Wii Fit activities are more challenging than others, depending on your level of fitness and your abilities in each mode of fitness. For example, if you regularly practice yoga, you're probably not going to find many of the yoga postures much of a challenge.
Wii Fit does provide a good balanced workout, however, but the people who will find it most challenging, and who will get the most benefit, are those who have been sedentary for a while, or who are not generally sporty.
Should You Buy Wii Fit?
Wii Fit will help improve body balance, posture, co-ordination, joint flexibility, muscle strength and aerobic fitness. It will help you discover which aspects of your physical fitness you need to work on, such as upper body strength, and it provides a bit of healthy competition among friends and family members, as well as a lot of laughs.
If however, you buy Wii Fit for its gaming potential alone, you're going to be disappointed. The balance games are indeed a bit of fun competition for all the family, but they will eventually lose their appeal just like any other game. (And don't kid yourself that by playing only the balance games for an hour you will be burning up hundreds of calories - you won't!)
So will Wii Fit help to get you fit? Yes absolutely. But it will only do so if you make a commitment to using it regularly and practise a variety of the activities on offer. Wii Fit is a great motivator, and for those who are not that keen on working out, it provides a good diversion from the fact that you are actually exercising.
It is difficult to see how anyone, whatever their age, ability, or level of physical fitness, could fail to get something out of this revolutionary piece of fitness equipment.
It is true that the Wii is yet another games console, and it could be argued that children and adults spend too much time lazing around in front of the television and playing computer games as it is. But Wii Fit is a good introduction to exercise (which is needed by countless thousands of people), it gets bums off seats, and it may even inspire people to pursue some of its activities in the real world.
The copyright of this article is owned by Sharon Kirby. Permission to republish this work must be granted by the author.
