Rated “E” for “Everyone”
Nintendo now has a new goal, to keep you in shape. With the stereotype of gamers being fat and lazy slobs, Nintendo hopes to shatter that and burn off the calories with their latest craze, Wii Fit.
Perhaps you’ve seen it on the news, seen advertisements all around the world, seen the commercial, heard your friends talk about it, or just walked into your game store. Wii Fit has gotten a lot of buzz from all types of media. Now is this buzz just hyping up the game or for the fitness results it has been said to generate? Yes and yes.
Wii Fit comes to you courtesy of the Wii and Nintendo. So it is a game. If you’re familiar with Nintendo’s line of brain training games for the DS then you’ll be in a similar world. Wii Fit doesn’t train your brain, it trains your body. Wii Fit comes complete with the Balance Board. The board itself could provide a workout with the weight it has. The Balance Board is what is used to measure your weight and check your balance. Now the board itself may have people baffled. Here’s a little video that explains the mechanics of the Balance Board.
Now that you know how it works, let’s talk about how you make it work.
Wii Fit has a set of Yoga exercises, Strength Training exercises, Aerobics, and Balance Games to help shape your body. Yoga has you bending and stretching your body and tests how flexible you are. Some may favor these exercises since they seem the least strenuous (if your body is in good shape to begin with). Others may dislike these exercises as you can check your balance as you do the exercises. Seeing yourself off balance will play on your mind and might cause you to panic resulting in an even worse center of balance.
Strength Training provides a few exercises to help build and tone your muscles. You want bigger biceps, they’ve got you covered. You want tighter abs or any abs at all, they’ve got you covered. Doing these exercises will guarantee you break a sweat.
Aerobics will cover you with fun activities to get your body moving. Hula-hooping will move your hips, Step training will have you moving to the beat, and Jogging will keep your legs pumping. All of these are designed to burn off the calories.
Balance games will have you testing out your skills with the Balance Board. All the exercises have taught you how to get used to the board. Can you really manipulate the board after all the training you’ve done? Try these games to find out.
The more of theses activities you do, the more coins you receive to unlock more exercises and longer reps or time limits for certain ones.
So does all of this exercising pay off? Well, it can. Taking the Balance Test will show if you have improved in the balance department. Knowing your center of balance will make you think twice about how you approach things in your every day life such as sitting and lifting. If your balance is off to the one side more, then you obviously favor that side.
You will also measure your BMI (Body Mass Index). With that set, you can set a 2-week or longer goal term to reach a certain BMI and weight. It may hurt to know what you really weigh, but use that as a motivation to improve your body.
All of this will calculate your Wii Fit age much like how the Brain Age games calculated your brain’s age. The closer you are to your real age, the better.
Take all that information in. Now is this buzz just hyping up the game or for the fitness results it has been said to generate? As a game, it’s similar to the brain training games. If you’re the type to play a game till you beat it, then you will do that easily and quickly. And just like the brain training games, it’s also up to you to continue your daily training. Wii Fit doesn’t set a training program for you, so you need to get yourself up and do what you think is right for your body. As a fitness program, if you consistently use this, you can change see the results happen. 30-60 minutes a day will make a difference for anyone. Not only will Wii Fit improve your body, but you’ll be part of an exclusive group that can buy future games created with Balance Board integration.
Rated 4 out of 5
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