Gamer Dad—Part 3: Getting in Shape!
As with most people, our family decided as one of our New Year’s Resolutions to exercise more. So to help us achieve our goal, we sought out a Wii Fit. I had heard it was good for an exercise program and did a bit of research online so I would know what I was getting.
Let me tell you, Wii Fits can be tough to find. I eventually found one at Wal-Mart. I had stopped looking for them was walking by the video game aisle and just happened to see several locked up behind class. I purchased one and brought it home to begin using. Since all of our family (with the exception of our toddler twins) has their own Mii (Wii avatar), it was a quick process to get everyone signed up for Wii Fit.
Wii Fit is the name of the game which comes with the balance board. This board weighs you and then also senses shifting of weight as you stand and balance on the board. The game focuses on four main areas—Yoga, Balance, Strength Training, and Aerobics.
Yoga helps build up your flexibility as well as balance and posture with several different poses. Balance offers a variety of games such as skiing or tilting a maze to drop a ball in a hole to work on controlling your balance. Strength training offers several exercises including push-ups, crunches, twists and so forth to build up muscle strength and endurance. Finally aerobics includes hula-hoop twisting, step aerobics, can even running in place.
Wii Fit keeps track of your progress. When you initially weigh in, you can set a goal of how many pounds you would like to lose and a timeframe for it. Each time you do one of the exercises, you are awarded coins in your Fit Bank for each minute you exercise. The game keeps track of these minutes and also lets you add in additional minutes for outside exercise such as if you took a walk or went for a run.
What really impressed me was that you have a personal fitness trainer that shows you how to do the exercises and offers encouragement and suggestions. It is also fun to watch your progress. Because it is like a game, Wii Fit makes exercising fun. Our family enjoys working out and trying to beat each others records since each exercise awards points for how well you do or for the number of repetitions. This healthy competition has our kids getting on the balance board as soon as they get home from school so they can try to better their past records, earn coins (minutes) for their Fit Bank, and unlock new exercises.
The Wii is a great family gaming system. Even if you don’t have Wii Fit, some of the games with come with it on Wii Sports can provide a bit of a workout. Get together as a family and play tennis or have a homerun derby. The key is to get up off the couch, move around, and have a good time together.
