| Wii Fit |
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| Reviewed by Ceri Balston | |||
| Wednesday, 04 February 2009 | |||
  There’s been lots of hype around this groundbreaking fitness tool so I have to say that I was a little bit sceptical that it might be more gimmick than substance. I’m delighted to report though that not only is this way more fun than going to the gym, but it’s also way more exciting than sitting on the couch and watching TV. The Wii Fit comprises of two parts, the balance board, which seems to be a bit like an incredibly sensitive and rather clever set of bathroom scales, and the Wii Fit software, which is a disc that you put into your Nintendo Wii console and contains the huge variety of fitness exercises including yoga, muscle workouts, aerobic workouts and balance games. One of the aspects of Nintendo’s Wii that has made it so hugely successful is the way it has got families back into the living room, off the couch and playing together. With the Wii Fit the sense of fun and family spirit is even more prevalent.  The first job you have to do upon switching on the Wii is create your avatar or Mii, a little and rather cute digital representation of yourself. Adjusting my hair, eyes, and a host of other features was rather fun and consumed a large amount of time - after all, this little Mii would represent me in a variety of exercises and sports over the next few weeks.  Next comes the Wii Fit test which gives you two crucial measurements, your Wii Fit age (a representation of how old the Wii thinks your body is, hmmm, I wasn’t too impressed to be told that I was 45 considering I’m only 35), and your BMI. Yep, this rather scary measurement tells you whether you’re overweight (or not) and how much you need to lose. I was quite shocked to find that in our household that I was the only one who needed to shed a bit of weight, indeed it was around 8kg! Gulp... But this is one of the great aspects of the Wii; everyone in the family can get to do it. We all created our Miis, did the fitness test and then set our weight-loss goals. It really did feel like we were in it together, and unlike most other ‘get fit’ moments that I have experienced during my life it was all done with a smile upon my face. Age also isn’t an issue with the Wii Fit. In our house my wife and I, both in our 30’s worked out together with my visiting parents, who are in their 60’s, and all of us loved it! So that brings us to the exercises. They are split into four categories of workouts: Yoga, Muscle, Aerobics, and Balance Games. I’ve attended a few yoga classes in the past and really enjoyed them so I was keen to see how well the Wii Fit managed to guide me through the various posses. The virtual instructor on the screen guides you through the physical aspects of the pose, and you can copy his or her body movements. The clever bit from the balance board is a graphical  representation of your balance (or lack of) that shows your weight moving around by way of a yellow squiggly line (see image right). The Wii gives some great feedback based on how successfully you managed to hold the pose scoring you out of five stars. By really focussing and concentrating, and through repetition, you find that your balance improves very quickly, and occasionally I did manage to score top marks and was awarded the status of ‘Yoga Master’, yay!I did briefly try out the Muscle workouts but found them to be quite similar to the yoga poses and a few of them turned out to be very difficult, which might just be down to how out of shape I am, hmmm.  The Aerobic exercises were popular amongst all of us in the house with workouts like step aerobics, hula hoops (or is that hula hooping) and jogging. Jogging in particular turns what is really just running on the spot into up to thirty minutes of entertaining workout as you jog around the Wii Fit island waving at your fellow Miis. This again is one of the key aspects of the Wii Fit, as you exercise in some of the more social events like these, your friends and family who also have Miis take part with you, and they do it with rather infectious smiles on their faces. Perhaps the most competitive exercises are the Balance Games which include heading soccer balls, slalom skiing, ski jumping and tight rope walking. The leader board of best times and scores for these exercises changed on a daily basis and certainly gave us all great motivation to try harder and workout more.So that’s the great thing about the Wii Fit - the way it makes a quick thirty minute workout fly by. I often found myself to be adding on an extra fifteen minutes just because I simply didn’t want to stop. The Wii Fit keeps a note of how much exercise you’re doing and I found that I very easily often managed over an hour a day. There is also a huge variety of different exercises to try, and by way of incentive as you working out more you unlock new exercises. My only criticism of the Wii Fit is that I really feel that it should be providing you with a workout routine. After the initial fitness test it should ask you what your goals are, toning, weight loss, aerobic fitness and so on and then it should automatically select the exercises that will most help you to achieve them. I certainly found that most of my workout time was wasted trying to figure out what exercise to do next and avoid the traps of doing what I found to be easiest or most enjoyable. Maybe something to consider for a future Wii Fit upgrade or version 2. So did I lose weight? Yes I did, and I do believe that if I had the Wii Fit for a few months longer then I’d be within the ‘healthy’ BMI range. I can also say that I dropped a jean size in just a couple of weeks, found my body to be much more toned, and my posture to be greatly improved. This is I believe a fantastic fitness aid for those who find they simply don’t have time to get out to the gym or to an exercise class and want to make getting fit an activity that all the family can do and enjoy.
Disclaimer: Harmonious Living is written for and read by a community of individuals with strong and independent opinions. While the publishers of Harmonious Living are dedicated to providing a forum in which views can be openly expressed, those views do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers.
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