Wii Fit

Having dragged my heals in doing anything with my recently purchased Wii Fit other that just looking at the rather large box it comes in, I finally opened and setup my Mii Fit program this morning and can happily say I can now see what all the fuss is about…

After opting for the reasonably fit female trainer (well let’s face it I’d rather be watching her backside on the screen than the male trainer’s no doubt tight buns), I initially ran through the Body Test only to be advised that I was Obese and despite having carefully crafted my Mii to look suitably like myself, my Mii is now looking fatter than Father Christmas after he ate all the pies…

Hmmm… I thought at first but then I kind of knew this was likely, as Wii Fit uses the Body Mass Index (BMI) which is all very good and all but it doesn’t cope well with people who actually have a high muscle density (for those that don’t know – muscle is more dense than the fat stuff and therefore weighs more), so despite knowing I’m currently lugging around more of 12 pack than a 6 pack, the term Obese still doesn’t look good… Anyway I set my goal to bring my status down to Overweight and that means losing just over a stone in a month…

Achievable? Probably not, but with Yoga, Muscle Workouts, Aerobics Exercise and fun Balance Games at my disposal I’ll certainly give it a try…

So I started with the initially available Yoga exercises and found that while I’ve apparently got good posture, my balance leaves a little to be desired and needs to be worked on… Never having done Yoga before I wasn’t quite sure what to expect… I must admit I did enjoy the centring and slow breathing as I always find that good for dealing with life in general…

A quick couple of goes of the Football balance game was fun and showed me I needed to improve the speed of shifting my balance… I then did a couple of the Muscle Workouts, including the Push-ups and Side Planks and found myself actually breaking a sweat over the 6 reps, despite normally being able to comfortably achieve 20 reps of Push-ups when exercising by myself…

At the end of each exercise, Fit Cash is assigned to your Piggy Bank corresponding to how long each exercise lasted and when your cash balance reaches certain points it unlocks Balance Games or Exercises for you. Along with the Balance Games themselves, this is where part of the gaming experience comes in to play, because in the traditional sense of a game – this isn’t one…

Now I’m the first to admit that I can play Wii Sports Bowling and Tennis sitting down just simply flicking my wrists and have Pro status on both… Therefore when I watch some of my friends who have to stand up and perform the actions to both games I do find it amusing in a sweet sort of way… However, with Wii Fit, there is no getting round having to perform the exercises standing up, lying down or whatever position you are expected to be in…

In summary, would I recommend Wii Fit – wholeheartedly yes… Anyone wanting an entry point into exercise; anyone wanting another party game and anyone wanting a peripheral that is being supported by several other games including the recently released Wii Music and Shaun White Snowboarding should jog down to their local store and pick up a copy.