My take on the Wii Fit

The other night, after indulging in some greasy lower-Manhattan takeout, I received my Wii Fit from Amazon. I put the box near the television, took some Rolaids, and resigned to test-drive Nintendo's new fitness machine in the morning.

The next morning I warmed myself up for a high-tech exercise experience by playing some of Marvel's Ultimate Alliance and some Paper Mario on the Wii's Virtual Console. After a few of hours warming up my fingers, I was ready for the Wii Fit.

The game is simple enough to setup; the installation of some batteries and an uneventful synch up of the Wii Fit Balance Board with the Wii console are about it.

My first session with the Wii started with entering the date, my age, getting weighed, and an initial body balance test. Wii Fit used those data to calculate my Wii Fit age, an embarrassing 47, about 12 years ahead of my actual age. I immediately repeated the body test and scored an ego boosting age of 31. Much relieved, I listened as the Wii helped me set fitness goals. It told me I should shoot for a body mass index of 21 instead of my 24 (i.e., lose some weight).

Based on my Wii fit experience so far, the technology's strength lies in two areas. First is its variety. There's a large variety of strength, balance, aerobic, and stretching (yoga) exercises, with additional exercises unlocked after completing basic sessions. The more you use Wii Fit, the larger the selection of exercises.

Wii Fit's second strength comes in its coordination of the balance board and the Wii's position sensing tech. The system does a good job of tracking where the user is and integrating that into game play.

I like Wii Fit's aerobic exercises the best. In the meat-world, I enjoy running, so it wasn't really a surprise that I liked Wii Fit's running exercises. It gives me the opportunity to run with a dog, something my real dog shrugs off all requests for (She usually responds to my requests to run with a "you're joking right?" look.). If you have other Mii's on your Wii, you'll occasionally see them run by you. There`s also a never-ending supply of people waving at you and cheering you on during runs. Before Wii Fit, I'd never would have guessed running in place could be anything but boring and awkward.

Again, the Wii's positioning system seems well suited to keeping track of my running-in-place gate. The running exercises start with short intervals and work up to a free run mode. Be sure to wear sneakers while Wii Fit running. Running in place can be hard on the forefeet.

On the down side of the aerobic games, Wii Step seems to be a bit on the slow side. It's like a lazy Dance Dance Revolution. It's not that Wii Step is boring, it offers some insanely catchy, but unvaried, music and the advanced version of the game is fairly challenging. The problem is that Wii Step didn't offer much of a workout. In the accompanying video, when I look at my watch, I wasn't checking the time, I was checking my heart rate. My average heart rate during Wii Step clocked in at around 110bpm, about my heart rate during moderate walking. Still, the ability of the balance board to detect my position was a real high point of Wii Step. Also, I swear I saw Greg Allman in the audience watching the virtual step class.

I also haven't been able to get the hang of the aerobic boxing class. Wii Fit consistently misses my left, or I have a terrible left. I can't tell which. On the plus side, the boxing exercises push my heart rate higher than the step classes do. The boxing sessions also have the interesting initial shock of suddenly appearing shirtless with an overly butch shirtless man.

The strength and yoga exercises are not as fun-oriented as the balance and cardio exercises, but are focused and straightforward with good instruction from very non-Nintendo appearing fitness trainers. I'd never attempted any yoga until Wii Fit and was able to follow the exercises and feel like I was accomplishing some real stretching. The pushups with side-planks also offer a decent body-weight workout.

Wii Fit's balance games have offered me the most challenges. They're fun too. You get to play as a fishing penguin on an ice-float; see your Mii's transformed into rolling balls; play a boy in the bubble floating on a river; and do some skiing. A note on the skiing: the slalom steering is exactly the opposite of what you do during actual skiing (In the game, leaning to the left makes you go left.). That took some getting used to.
According to my exercise watch, I've been burning between 300-450 calories per 45-55 minute session. That's less than what I'd burn at the gym, but more than what I'd burn playing Zelda, Super Mario Galaxy, or even Resident Evil IV.

I'm enjoying Wii Fit and I can feel some muscle soreness in my hips from the strength and yoga exercises I did yesterday. I think that's the point of Wii Fit. It offers palatable exercise in the privacy and convenience of my home. I'm more likely to play Wii Fit after a long day at work than I am to pack up my equipment and run to the gym.

The only other note I'll make is that after four days of play, at about forty-five minutes per session, I've already had to replace the Wii Balance Board's four AA's. Having rechargeable on dock is advisable.