Nintendo Wii Fit
As the owner of a Nintendo Wii Fit, I thought I should deliver my verdict on this fitness device. Before I obtained Wii Fit, I was skeptical about what it could do for me in terms of physical fitness. I suspected Wii Fit couldn’t offer much more than a celebrity home workout DVD. As it turns out, there is 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 while following along with the training activities on the disc. The Wii Balance Board uses 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 goal 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 fun balance games. To begin with, only a few of the Wii Fit exercises are available to you. The more Wii Fit minutes you clock up, the more training activities you unlock and the more challenges you are given.
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 body test, enabling you to view changes and improvements over time.
Wii Training
For the muscle and yoga workouts, you choose a male or female virtual trainer. Your trainer demonstrates how to perform each exercise, before inviting you to follow along. The trainer gives feedback on your performance, praises you when you have accomplished an exercise well, and gives advice on how to improve activities you are not so good at.
For the aerobic exercises and balance games, there is no trainer. Your Mii mimics your actions, but you still receive feedback. For many of the activities, you 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. Your score is ranked alongside your previous scores and the scores of other people registered 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 are probably not going to find many of the yoga postures challenging.
Wii Fit provides a good balanced workout. Sedentary people will find Wii Fit very challenging and will get the most benefit.
Should You Buy Wii Fit?
Working out with Wii Fit improves body balance, posture, co-ordination, joint flexibility, muscle strength and aerobic fitness. It helps you discover which aspects of your physical fitness you need to improve, such as upper body strength or balance. Wii Fit encourages healthy competition among friends and family members, along with lots of laughs.
Wii Fit can help you get fit but only if you make a commitment to using it regularly and practice a variety of activities on offer. Don't kid yourself that only playing the balance games will be enough to burn hundreds of calories.
It could be argued that children and adults spend too much time in front of the television playing computer games, but Wii Fit makes you move your whole body. Wii Fit is a good introduction to exercise and it may even inspire people to pursue some of the virtual activities in the real world. It is difficult to see how anyone, whatever their age, ability, or level of physical fitness, could fail to get something out of Wii Fit.
The copyright of this article is owned by Sharon Kirby. Permission to republish this work must be granted by the author.