Nintendo Wii : Wii Fit

Wii Fit
From Nintendo

Get a great workout right in your home without going to the gym.
Nintendo Wii Fit with Wii Balance Board turns your living room into a fitness center for the whole family.
Family members will have fun getting a "core" workout, and talking about and comparing their results and progress on a new channel on the Wii Menu.
Aerobic Exercise
- 10-minute exercises that are designed to get your heart pumping Muscle Conditioning - Controlled motions using arms, legs and other body parts Yoga Poses
- Classic poses that focus on balance and stretching Balance Games - Fun activities, such as ski jumping and heading soccer balls, that challenge the player's overall body balance

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Nintendo
• Model: RVLRRFNE
• Released on: 2008-05-21
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Dimensions: 13.00" h x 3.00" w x 20.00" l, 10.00 pounds

Features

• Lean to block soccer balls, swivel hips to power hoop twirls or balance to hold the perfect yoga pose. As you stand on the Wii Balance Board, included with Wii Fit, your body's overall balance is tied to the game in a way you've never experienced before
• Wii Fit also uses the Wii Balance Board for daily tests. These evaluate two key measures that a household can track via progress charts -
• Body Mass Index (BMI) - A weight evaluation based on a ratio of weight to height
• Wii Fit Age - The Wii Fit Age is measured by factoring the user's BMI reading, testing the user's center of gravity and conducting quick balance tests
• Wii Fit includes more than 40 types of training activities designed to appeal to all members of a household. Training falls into four fitness categories

Amazon.com
The active-play phenomenon started by Wii Sports now spreads to your whole body thanks to Wii Fit and the pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board, which comes bundled with it.
Used together players will experience an extensive array of fun, dynamic and surprisingly challenging activities, including aerobics, yoga, muscle stretches and balance oriented games. The focus of these activities is towards providing a "core" workout, a popular exercise method that emphasizes slower, controlled motions, but it's the fun approach to fitness of Wii Fit that will keep players hooked on fitness for years to come.

Have fun while you get fit

The Wii Balance Board. View larger.

Calculate your BMI and Wii Fit age. View larger.

Enjoy a wide variety of mini-games. View larger.

Follow your own personal trainer. View larger.

Track your progress against friends. View larger.

The Wii Fit Balance Board
The primary tenet of Wii Fit is balance.
Your center of balance, the point between your left and right sides when you stand upright, has a lot to do with your health.
Those without an even center of balance will be unnaturally compensating for this imbalance, which causes their posture to become misaligned, increasing the possibility of putting unnecessary strain on their bodies. This is where the Wii Balance Board comes in.

Similar in appearance to a step aerobics board, the Wii Balance Board is much, much more.
Easily capable of supporting weights up to a maximum of 300 pounds, it is sturdy and precise, able to measure weight and register pressure accurately when placed on a variety of flat surfaces.
This advanced level of sensitivity allows for both the wide range of activities found in the Wii Fit software as well as the board's amazing ability recognize individual players by their weight alone.

Getting Started: Create a Profile
Before you jump into doing exercises and activities, you'll start by creating a profile.
This is done easily and intuitively by simply choosing a Mii, entering your height and age information, and doing a few quick tests that will serve as a baseline for your new Wii fitness regimen. These tests are:

• BMI Check: BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that is the standard used by agencies such as the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Health. To check your BMI, you'll enter your height then stand on the Wii Balance Board and let it read your weight.
• Wii Fit Age: After you've checked your BMI, you'll do a basic balance test and find out your current Wii Fit Age. This basic balance test measures how well you can control your left and right balance. Based on the results, you'll be assigned a Wii Fit Age.

Four Categories of Fun
Once you have created your profile it's time to have some fun.
Wii Fit features four main categories of exercises to choose from: Strength Training, Aerobics, Yoga and Balance Games.
Wii Fit will guide you through the first three with the help of your own virtual personal trainer, while the balance games offer variety and fun to help keep you engaged and excited about your fitness goals.
In addition, as you spend time exercising, you'll earn Fit Credits that unlock additional exercises and activities within your favorite categories that will allow you to continue to push yourself. See more detail on the four categories below:

• Strength Training: Put your strength to the test with muscle-toning exercises like Single Leg Extension, Sideways Leg Lift, Arm and Leg Lift, Single-Arm Stand, Torso Twists, Rowing Squat, Single Leg Twist, Lunge, Push-Up and Side Plank, Jackknife, Plank and Tricep Extension. Challenges include Push-Up Challenge, Plank Challenge and Jackknife Challenge.
• Aerobics: Get your heart pumping with fun, interactive Aerobic exercises like Hula Hoop, Basic Step, Basic Run, Super Hula Hoop, Advanced Step, 2-P Run, Rhythm Boxing, Free Step and Free Run.
• Yoga: Work on your balance and flexibility with Yoga poses and activities like Deep Breathing, Half-Moon, Dance, Cobra, Bridge, Spinal Twist, Shoulder Stand, Warrior, Tree, Sun Salutation, Standing Knee, Palm Tree, Chair, Triangle and Downward-Facing Dog.
• Balance Games: Get into the action with fun, balanced-based games like Soccer Heading, Ski Slalom, Ski Jump, Table Tilt, Tightrope Walk, Balance Bubble, Penguin Slide, Snowboard Slalom and Lotus Focus.

Keep Track of Your Progress
Because keeping fit is an ongoing process, Wii Fit also tracks the activities you do the most and puts them into your Favorites category.
With this information players can note exercises and activities that they are strong in, as well as others that may need to improve at.
Some of the ways players can use this information for are to:

• Keep tabs on your daily progress with easy-to-understand graphs and charts. Using your personal profile, you can set goals, view a graph of your BMI results over time, see how many Fit Credits you've earned, check your Wii Fit Age and even enter exercise time you've done outside of Wii Fit.
  
• It's all about coming back and exercising a little every day, and the personal profile makes tracking your daily progress simple and easy.
• Quickly check your Wii Fit Age and BMI without even putting the game in the console by going directly to the Wii Fit Channel.
• Allow up to eight family members can create their own profiles in Wii Fit. On the profile-selection screen, everyone in the family can see each other's recent BMI progress and Fit Credit total. This will allow families to have a friendly competition to exercise and get fit.

Variety, fun and progress tracking; Wii Fit has it all.
So, Wii owners if you ready to reclaim your balance and get fit all you need is Wii Fit, a few minutes a day to play and the urge to have fun. Get on board today.

Customer Reviews
Opens up new opportunities health wise.
I can't believe somebody finally made exercise fun.
First, I have had my Wii fit since it was made available.
I have spent thousands on equipment in the past only to have it set and collect dust.
This isn't and it won't.

I am limited physically having had several spine surgeries so there is only so much I can do. But I love this game and there are several exercises on it that I can do without fear of damaging my spine and I can see as time goes by that it may even help strengthen it.
All I can say is "WOW." What a great idea.
Wish I had thought of it. LOL BTW, it is brutally honest about weight and BMI.
No way to sugar coat it.
It keeps perfect track of your progress. Encourages you to do more.
I am happy I spent the $[...].

Love the Wii fit
Love the Wii fit.

I have a family of four and we all enjoy using it.
My wife is up to 1 hour and half of work out each day and loves it.
I am only up to 45 min.

Wii Fit for the whole family (even the unfit!)

I was a little scared of this when we got it, thinking "I don't want to jog on television!" But after watching my kids and seeing what is all included with the game, I was very anxious to play. After a simple set up of the platform, you are ready to go.

It came with 4 AA batteries and included 4 little risers for thicker carpets. I haven't tried these as mine is a berber carpet and works fine, I didn't need a pad or anything.

You have to personalize your Mii with your age, height, weight (yes, it is a scale, too.) From the data, your BMI is calculated and you are noted as underweight, ideal, overweight, or obese.

You then take a little balance test (where you shift your weight to certain areas within a time limit.) Your Wii Fit Age is then displayed in large numbers on the screen.

Well, of course this could be incorrect (especially if you are heavy due to muscles or something!) but it is an okay feature as long as you don't get bent out of shape about what it says. It isn't a doctor, it is only a game, afterall! As you get better, your Wii Fit age decreases.
NOTE:
You can even play as someone else's Mii if you don't have time to set one up for yourself (or don't want to.) You'll get a little voice when you step on saying something like "you weigh a little different than before, do you want to continue?" Just click "continue."
I didn't want to set one up at first, so I just played as my husband's Mii. Then I just set one up...geez, it wasn't so bad!

Game play: If you have played Big Brain Academy, this game reminds you of that, but you use your body, not just your brain (but maybe this should be called Big Butt Academy for me!! ha ha) The exercises are divided into four different categories designed to help improve your health (and to have fun!) They are yoga, muscles, aerobic, and balance. The yoga and muscle categories feel the most like "real" exercises.
You start with a few unlocked categories, and earn new ones.
You dont' have to master everything to get the new stuff as things unlock as you bank "time spent" minutes.
You can choose a woman or man virtual "trainer" to help guide you in your form (they will also give you feedback on how you are doing.)

My family's favorite parts are the aerobic and balance activities.
The games include things like hula hoops (super funny to be a spectator!), jogging, boxing, or step dancing.
The balance activities are the ones where everyone wants a turn (even grandma wanted to do these!) These include a marble game (where you balance and lean to get a marble through a hole), ski jump, slalom skiing, snowboarding (you get to turn the balance board sideways to simulate riding on a snowboard), riding in a river inside a bubble (you lean forward and sideways to get your bubble to move and avoid the walls), and even tightrope walking.

Many of the games show a little icon of the balance board and a dot.
There is a red dot that shows you where your center of balance is.
It is like a target where and you try to get the dots to overlap by shifting your weight.
It is really an amazing little board! Even pushing down with only your toes effects the on-screen outcome. We play the balance games the most and all try to get the top score (it shows the top 10 leaders.)

Do we cheat? Well, no..but it is possible, especially with running.
You don't use the board with this game, but your arm movement while holding the Wii remote register as running.
You could certainly just wave it around, but that sort of defeats the fun!

It seems that there will be many more games coming to work with the balance board.
I hope so, because it is a fun gadget.
Would I change anything? Maybe.
You can't really compete with each other on too many games (you can jog two-player.) You are mostly playing one at a time then comparing scores.
It would be fun (but more expensive) to have a split screen, two balance boards, and snowboard against each other! Also, I would like it if you could set up your own little workout routine (like link together 7 or 8 activities that you like the most to run consecutively) but you cannot do this. It isn't that hard to select each one with the remote, but it seems like it would have been a good addition. I actually thought this would be an option before I bought it.

Will the Wii Fit replace a "real" exercise program? Of course not.
Will it get you off of the couch more often? Definately, and your muscles will feel that you are doing something! Plus you can see some progress with weight, Wii Fit age, and improved scores.
Overall, we really like it and we have logged many hours on it in the first few weeks (which I can't say for all the Wii games we have!) For the price and amount of fun, it is definately worth it!