The Active Family

I received the Wii Fit today, and already have logged over 1 hour on it. What an amazing invention! The balance board is pretty sensitive, following your every movement, even the ones you don’t realize you are making.

I started by playing some of the balance games, which include tightrope walking (fairly hard) skiing (pretty darn hard), ski jump (my favorite…I’m beating the pants off everyone in the house), the soccer ball one (fun, gets the kids giggling). I also unlocked a really hard, but fun game involving a bubble traveling down a river. I haven’t yet made it to the end, but I’ll chalk that up to tired feet.

This game has some great potential as a fitness tool. The actual exercises are fairly easy to accomplish, but the real trick is maintaining your balance on the board. The aerobic exercises are too easy so far, but I can see them getting more difficult as I unlock more games and levels. You can always increase your workout value by adding reps. By no means is it easy, though. I found the yoga to be easy, but the strength training kicked my butt. I couldn’t get through the push up/ side plank exercise, but the “trainer” is very encouraging. It is neat that they can tell you stopped in the middle of an exercise, since the board is measuring your body position through the whole thing.

I also like the body test. It calculates with surprising accuracy your weight and BMI. It is a very useful tool to have! You also complete a couple of balance tests and the wii tells you your “fitness age”. This can fluctuate wildly as you become more accustomed to the board and exercises. I love the goal setting, which lets you choose what BMI you want, and tells you how many pounds you need to gain or lose each week. It’s an automatic tracker!

It was a bit disconcerting watching my Mii change as I inputed information. I went from a cute skinny little Mii to a short plump one. Not very flattering! However, it is a great motivator, as I want that Mii to shrink quickly.

Anyway, this is a great buy if you have a Wii, an excellant reason to get one if you don’t. Good luck getting your hands on it, however, as every place I’ve heard of has already sold out. It is set to come out in stores today, so RUN to your nearest Wii dealer and try to grab yours!