• Home
• $15* Dish Network Offer
• About Me
• Privacy and Security
• Weather Station
• RSS

Video games exercise more than just your thumbs

There has been quite a bit of press lately about using video games in order to exercise, or at least increase your activity level a little.  My family has been jumping on that bandwagon lately.  A couple of years back I picked up Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 4 for my original Xbox.  Using my Bodybugg I was able to determine an hour straight of play (another song right after one ends) would burn as many calories as a half hour trip to the gym. This is on the basic/beginner mode so I imagine it will be even higher when on advanced modes, but I haven’t checked.

Now there is a game system that has been out for a couple of years now that is pushing the boundary on game-based exercise, the Nintendo Wii.  From the start it has involved larger scale motions with your arms instead of pushing buttons on a stationary controller, and now they’ve added the Wii Fit for full body involvement.

The Wii Fit takes fitness gaming to another level.  When you start out and configure your Mii it asks for some information such as your birthday and height.  Next it has you go through a body test which checks your weight and your balance.  It then shows you your BMI and how far off-center your balance is, along with tips on how to adjust it and the benefits of doing so.  From there it takes you to a screen where you can select the type of activity you want to perform, Yoga, Aerobics, Strength, and Balance games.

Each of the categories has only a few exercises you can perform, and a whole bunch of exercises that you can’t view.  Yoga starts out with a simple breathing exercise, and a half-moon pose.  As you perform the poses it shows you your current center of balance on screen with a designated area you need to maintain.  The balance board is extremely sensitive and it doesn’t take much in order to move the balance indicator out of bounds.  The on-screen trainer offers words of encouragement as well as gentle reminders to maintain your balance if you are unsteady.

The aerobics games are fun.  The exercises originally open include running in place (Wii Remote in pocket, not on the balance board), and a step-aerobic dance routine where you step on and off the board in time with music while following the on-screen pattern.  Also open is the infamous Hula Hoop game where you swirl your hips as if you were using an actual hula hoop and bend to either direction as more hoops are tossed to you.

Strength training starts out with torso twists and push-ups with side planks.  The balance board watches your balance on the twists, and watches the pressue while doing the push-ups and planks.  After a while other exercises are opened up, such as a crunch-style leg lift (I don’t remember the exact name of it at the moment) and you start with your feet resting on the balance board, and lift them off and return as you’re following the movement.

The balance games are also quite a bit of fun.  One game involves standing on the board and leaning back and forth to hit a soccer ball with your head while avoiding shoes and stuffed panda heads (PVP reference maybe?) which is actually a lot harder than it appears.  There is a balance board game where you have several marbles on boards of varying shapes with holes.  You move the board to drop the marbles through the holes without making them fall off the edge.

As you play the games and perform the activities you get points in your piggy bank based on the number of minutes it takes to perform.  As you build up a balance and become more skilled at the activities it unlocks more of them for you to select.  I went through most of the activities originally open to me over a period of about 45 minutes, and earned 30 minutes of activity time.

My only complaint at this point is the pause time in between activities, and after browsing the ‘Net it appears I’m not alone.  If you could set up a circuit of a half dozen exercises or so it would make it much easier to get your heart rate up and keep it there, but as it is now there is at least 1 minute in between each exercise as you have to select each one individually by going back to the menu.  Since the Wii is connected to the Internet, I’m hoping Nintendo will listen to the complaints and offer an update to the game in order to offer this option.  With that being said, after completing a session I have muscles that are sore that I do not hit during my workouts at the gym, so I’m getting a more complete body workout.

There are those out there who put the Wii Fit down based on several factors.

• Price: It is $80 if you find it on sale.  This is only about $20 more than most console games these days anyway, and it includes a pretty sophisticated piece of hardware.  To put it into perspective that is only 2 nights of eating out at a restaurant with the family, or giving up a $3.50 daily FiveBucks coffee on the way to work for roughly a month.  I was told by a personal trainer a few years back that as a person ages, being overweight increases healthcare costs by several thousand dollars per year.  The math makes it look pretty cheap to me.
• Playing games instead of hitting the gym: They have a point here, but any exercise is better than no exercise.  Coupled with a stigma that many over-weight people have about going to a gym full of “skinny people,” it makes home workouts a good choice.  This is the reason workout videos are so successful.  The Wii has the advantage of not only showing you the correct moves, but can somewhat monitor it based on balance and other factors to ensure that good form is being followed.  Not to mention a gym membership is expensive monthly, and there is usually a signup fee as well.  You can get a Wii console along with a Wii Fit for far less than a new gym membership would cost over the course of a year.  In my case I have a killer deal for my gym membership since I’ve been grandfathered in so it is another tool at my disposal.
• Playing games instead of going outside for a walk:  Again this is just another option to workout at home.  For parents with small kids, it is hard to find time to go outside and walk for half an hour to an hour alone.  Couple this with bad weather that makes it difficult if not near impossible to take the kids along, indoor workouts are the best fit.
• Using a video game instead of a “real” piece of exercise equipment: One word sums this up – Monotony.  Sure you could pick up an exercise bike or treadmill (for far more money for a decent one) but you’re limited to the one and only exercise you can do on it.  Unitaskers suck.  With the Wii Fit, there are many different activities in the game itself, and there are already other games coming out that use the balance board too.  Besides the boredom of doing the same thing all the time, the body also becomes accustomed to the routine and needs a periodic change to keep it in calorie burning mode.

In my opinion, anything that helps my family get up and be more active is a good thing.  I’m glad we decided to pick up the Wii Fit, and I’m looking forward to the additional edge it’ll give me in working towards my goals.

Comments