I pre-ordered Wii Fit from Amazon.com and got it a few days ago, on Friday, I believe. That was probably a good idea, since it seems there’s a Wii Fit shortage of sorts going around (in addition to the shortage of Wiis themselves). I saw them going for pretty inflated prices on the Amazon Marketplace. I wonder if they’re actually selling for that much.
Wii Fit comes with a neat balance board and a “game.” I put “game” in quotations because it’s really debatable if it’s a game or not. The balance board is sort of a scale, balance sensor and exercise step all in one. Wii Fit (the game) is a collection of stuff that more or less fits in four categories:
- Yoga Poses
- Strength Training
- Aerobic Stuff
- Balance Games
The game starts out by giving you a really hippie-esque lecture about how balance is really important for you body. Like, the kind of balance where you don’t fall over and you put equal weight on your feet. I guess I never thought much about it, but I did the test and had some pretty interesting balance issues. My right foot seems to be pretty darn prominent. The board also tells me I’m obese! NOOO! I lost a lot of weight playing DDR but since grad school started I’ve gained it back and then some.
So I’m making a resolution of sorts to lose some weight. This is where Wii Fit actually does pretty well.
First off I’ll say that the Yoga and Strength Training parts have a trainer that you can pick. Male or Female. The trainer does examples of the moves before you do them, then you see them do it as you’re doing it. Being a male, I chose the female trainer. I think this is probably what most people do. They pick the opposite sex because it’s more motivating. The female training avatar chick is kind of okay looking, but I think it would be cool if you could “customize” the experience. That’s all I’ll say about that.
The yoga stuff probably won’t help burn much fat and stuff, but it is good for working on balance. I just finished unlocking all the yoga things (today is my 6th day on Wii Fit). The last one is pretty crazy, but many of them are doable. I can do that one that the lady is doing on the box art (the tree) even though it looks kind of insane. At the very least the yoga stuff is good for mellowing out and breathing (which I learned to do pretty well being a brass instrument player, but probably suck quite a bit at now).
The strength training is probably the best part of the game to get fit. I should note that Wii Fit is probably the most painful game I’ve played since the original NES system (and its blister-inducing controller). Like, I’m in a lot of pain for much of the exercises. Especially the push ups (which are really hard for me) and the plank, which is basically torture for fat people. It even sounds like a torture device! In the 6 days I’ve been doing it, I think I actually am getting better. Imagine that, a game that gets easier each time you play it.
The Aerobic stuff is kind of fun. There’s this weird hula hoop thing. It’s a little weird. Also, there this thing where you just run in place for a while. This wouldn’t be fun, except you get to see your Mii guy run around the island. It still isn’t really that fun, but it’s more fun than staring at the wall and running in place. I bet running outside would be even better though.
The balance games are sort of fun, too. The skiing one is very fun, and there’s also a snowboard one (which you do sideways). There’s also a zen thing where you sit on the board and stay as still as possible. Sounds like the luge or something!
Overall, Wii Fit is great because it provides so much feedback. When you do something right, the avatar tells you that you did a good job. If you screw up, they’re not too hard on you. But you get an actual number to show how well you did and you can keep track of that number. That’s definitely an incentive to keep trying and improve on stuff you’ve done in the past. When you weigh yourself, you get a history of your weight and you can actually see it getting closer (or farther) to the goal!
I think the biggest thing keeping people from exercising is probably motivation. The game gives you a good, personal motivation to keep trying to reach your goal. It does a good job of not sounding too preachy, but also telling it to you like it is.
I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with it, but for now I would like to continue until I reach my goal of having a “normal” BMI.
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