After months of checking the Wii Fit tracker online, and numerous trips to both the Nintendo store in Rockefeller Center and the Times Square Toys r Us (both are always a fun, rage filled, trips) we finally have Wii Fit.
I had sort of given up on getting it after talking to a Nintendo store employee who told me that although they get daily shipment, unless I was willing to line up at 7:30 in the morning on a weekday, I wasn’t likely to snag one. I stopped looked for awhile, but then on a whim last Friday I decided to check out Toys r Us one more time, and low and behold, they had a pile of them. After quickly calling Jane to confirm that she would split the cost (yeah $90 isn’t much, but $45 is even better), I was hefting one home.
And I do mean ‘heft.’ Amazon say 10 pounds, but it felt more like 20. Let me say it was one of the few days during the summer that I took the subway home.
I’m sure most of you have heard about it by now, but just to go into a little great detail, what you get for your 90 bucks is board that uses it’s four feet to not only weigh you, but check your balance (left/right, front/back) as well.
You also get a game of sorts that will use the balance board to walk you through different exercises in yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance. I’m sure you can guess what each one of those entails, well except for balance. That’s a little vague. Basically you play a bunch of mini games while using your balance to move the characters around. One time you might be a penguin trying to catch fish, the next your going down a ski jump. While fun, they are mostly just there to be just that, fun.
Sure, Wii Fit claims that they help correct you balance, but most of them are over so fast that really can’t have too much of an impact on your everyday balance.
So I’ve been using it everyday for about a week now, and while it’s not the most intense workout ever, and, sure, all of these exercises are they kind where you really don’t need a $90 game to do them, it defiantly feels like it’s doing something.
While I’m not busting out of my tee due to muscles, I do feel like things have tightened up a bit. (I would say something about not falling out of my clothes do to weight loss, but since everyone tells me I need to eat something, I figure I’d rather not push it.) I’m a little sore, which is something to look for when you work out, but surprising not so much so that it’s hard to move around. It’s more like a light reminder that you did work out, but you could still use some more.
The yoga has also helped out a bit too. While I still can’t touch my toes or do a proper downward-facing dog (it has only been a week), do feel a little more fluid lately.
Yes, it maybe because this is more exercise then I’m used to doing, but there’s something about running around a cartoon island with cartoon dogs, and boxing a robotic punching bag that make it more fun.
(The aerobic and balance games take the more cartoony vibe, while thankfully the strength training and yoga use a more realistic model. It makes it much easier to see the moves you should be doing, plus I really don’t need Mario telling me to, “Feel the burn,” in that fake Italian accent, thank you very much.)
The feedback that the game gives you based on what you are doing with the balance board is also a plus, but I sometimes find it to be a problem.
Sometimes it’s just flat out wrong (the other night I knew I was doing a pose correctly, but the indicator of the screen made it look like I was putting too much pressure on my left side, and the game chided me for doing so), while other times it feels like a false sense of security. Sure it’s good to know how much pressure you are putting on your front foot while doing a lunge, but shouldn’t be worried about over-extending you back foot as well? Certain times the game does know you’re over doing it and tells you to take it easy, but this just makes you take it down a notch, but all this does is add to that false sense during the times where it can’t tell if you’re just doing something flat out wrong.
Still, the same could be said about any home exercise routine, and it’s always better to have at least some feed back then no feed back at all.
I also feel like it could come up with more of a routine for you. It’s big on taking these body tests that measure you weight and balance, and combine that with height and age to figure out your BMI and your, “Wii Fit age,” so you would think it would come up with a course of exercises for you to do. Instead, it lets lays all the exercises out there for you, while you pick and chose which ones you want to do. Since most health officials suggest that you change up your routine to work different muscles, it would have been nice if Nintendo asked you what you wanted to work on, how long you wanted to work out, and then use a randomizer to come up with a routine for you. Seems so simple, that I have to think that will see it on the inevitable “Wii Fit 2.”
All in all though I have to say it’s a great device to get if you’re looking for a little help working out, and as long as you’re not looking to win “Mr. Universe,” you can’t go wrong. I know I never will, but I really do feel a lot better then I did a week ago.
(Also if nothing else I just spent $90 on a cat perch. That’s his new spot when he wants to tell us he wants food.)
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