TechnoFitness Fun (4): Wii Workouts
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By: Meredith Rosson, Cooper Fitness Center - Dallas Youth Programs Director
Part four of a series of articles featuring popular "technofitness" gadgets, programs, and equipment. People young and old are on their feet for the Nintendo Wii. Strength training, yoga, cardio, boxing...there's a Wii workout for everyone.
By now we have all heard about the direct correlation between the amount of time Americans spend in front of the television and the increased obesity epidemic. Many blame this on the wildly popular video games available, and for the most part I agree that the video game trend has contributed to this epidemic, especially for our youth and young male adults. However, the Nintendo Wii is one video game consul that’s getting people up and moving.
The concept of the Wii is great if you actually put it to good use. There are many Wii games that don’t actually require you to get up and move to play them. So here are my three favorite fitness games that really get your heart rate up and can help you shed some pounds.
1) WiiFit — For Beginners
For young kids (ages 5-8) and teens or adults beginning a fitness regimen, WiiFit is a good workout. The challenges are fun and help you become more aware of your balance and teach some basic strength and yoga moves. And who knew hula hooping could be such a good workout.
If you have been working out longer than a couple of months, WiiFit can be good for your warm up, but then you should move to one of the other two Wii games I discuss below for the rest of your workout. The reason is, there are many pauses between each WiiFit exercise, which allows your heart rate to drop too frequently for an effective workout.
2) My Fitness Coach — For Beginners-Advanced
This game is suitably named. It is like having a personal trainer come into your living room and plan a workout based on your interest(s) that day. So whether you want to work on your flexibility, cardio, upper body, lower body, or core, you choose. You’ll get a different workout each time. You also set the length of time for your workout. No matter if you have 15 minutes to spare or an hour, your coach will get your heart rate up and you’ll burn calories.
I love that this game allows you to specify the type of workout equipment you have in your home and builds your routine based on that. Throughout the workout your trainer will ask you if an exercise was too easy and if you say yes, the game will adjust the intensity for you. That way you can continue to challenge your body and muscles and continue to see improvement in your fitness.
3) EA Sports Active — For Intermediate-Advanced
I love the cardio workout, the total body strength training workouts, and the ability to focus on certain muscle groups (inner/outer thighs, core, arms, and buns) this game provides. It comes with a stretch band for your strength training and constantly measures your progress and the number of calories you burned. Best of all it seems to be more accurate in measuring your success through the use of the Wii controller, the nunchuk, and the band you place around your thigh that monitors your lower body movements. With the circuit training in this game you will never get bored of your workouts. The challenges also touch on ways to make nutrition and lifestyle changes.
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