May 26 2008
Wii Fit Is Totally Smokin’
Michael and I received our Wii Fit on Thursday, but didn’t get to do much other than register ourselves and do a few of the exercises.
Wii Fit comes with a balance board you set on the floor. The board calibrates itself to your weight and based on the weight on the sensors, can tell where your center of balance is – allowing it to check your posture while you do exercises.
The board talks to you. If you’re sensitive about your weight, Wii Fit might not be right for you. It makes an “oofff” sound when I step on it because I’m so fat. It tracks your weight and BMI and makes you set goals. If you gain weight (like I did this weekend) it asks you for an excuse and then lectures you briefly about eating right, staying motivated and keeping up with exercise. Then it checks your center of balance and posture while just standing before giving you a balance exercise to try out.
If you’re shy, you can keep your account password – protected so no one will be able to see your sensitive information (like your weight).
After registering, you can begin with exercises. There are four catergories – yoga, strength training, cardio and balance exercises. You choose either a male or female trainer and they demonstrate exercises and lead you through them, critiquing your performance afterwards. The exercises are challenging but well presented. They are scored and then there is, of course, a list of leading scorers. People like me who are competitive with themselves and everyone else will be even more motivated to return to the game. The more time you bank, the more activities are opened up in each category.
I love that this device will track my progress with weight and bmi, in addition to helping me feel motivated about doing the exercises. While the cardio exercises will certainly not replace a good cardio workout, the yoga and strength training are great additions, and the balance exercises will help strengthen all the other exercises. I’m also impressed with the balance board, a very sensitive and highly calibrated piece of equipment.
Wii Fit is largely unavailable right now because everyone wants one. If you think that’s silly of people, you would be wrong. Nintendo has once again done what they do well – something innovative that’s also well constructed and well thought-out.
EDIT: I’ve read a lot of reviews wherein people said they didn’t break a sweat using wii fit. I think these people are full of bologna or just extraordinarily in-shape. I am out of shape, granted, but I always break a sweat using wii fit. Maybe I just do it longer (I tend to average 25-30 mins on the thing). I think there are plenty of challenging exercises done at a reasonably quick pace.