Wii Fit Yoga - Real Fitness or Tech Fad?

The Wii Fit has demonstrated its applications to gamers and yoga enthusiasts alike.  It is a source of unfolding entertainment and increasing challenge as our family unlocks more games and yoga poses, we never tire of the repertoire of choice!

And now, its usefulness is being recognized in the health care arena as a physical therapy tool with wide applications in treatment and health maintenance.  I read a fantastic article in the ‘Wicked Local Billerica’, November 26, 2008, about an injured firefighter using the Wii Fit as a therapuetic tool in recovering from a serious knee injury sustained on the job.  Owen Thompson, is among good company with others recouping from a variety of disorders and injuries, using the feedback from the balance board to gauge that he is working his body evenly and developing a sense of his equilibrium.  Thomsons doctor, Brinklow, has been impressed with the improvements her clients have gleaned using the Wii Fit:

“Just prior to beginning her work with Thompson, Brinklow and the clinic had caught word of a new alternative exercise treatment for patients that was proven to improve their strength and entertain them at the same time, the Nintendo Wii gaming system. While the Wii is already a popular tool for geriatric patients inside assisted living facilities and senior centers across the country, the videogame is now all the rage as a therapeutic tool for stroke, pediatric and orthopedic patients.

After reading extensive studies on clinics and centers across the country like Ohio State University Medical Center and Children’s Hosptital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., which use the system on pediatric cystic fibrosis patients, Brinklow and the staff at the clinic decided to bring it on board.

Since bringing it in to the clinic in October the Wii has become a staple tool with many of the clinic’s neurology patients and orthopedic patients like Thompson.
“We’ve done all different types of balance activities and stuff,” said Brinklow. “Originally they used it with a lot of geriatric patients with getting them to move. We’ve been using it more with orthopedic patients as rehabilitation for ankles, knees and shoulders.”

We are not recommending that one should use the Wii Fit as rehabilitation tool without the guidance of a physical therapist; the system is not a replacement for physical therapist any more than a substitute for a yoga teacher.  As a biofeedback tool, it is indeed a fascinating experience to work with the Wii Fit and the Balance Board, and I have derived great benefit and pleasure from the Wii Fit.   I think there are amazing potentials for such a tool and it is great to have the enthusiastic support of health care professionals behind this amazing technology.
 

When my four year old goes for a run on the Wii Fit she gets a real sweat on! To our amazement, she powers through it effortlessly and scores 104% calorie burner ( i don;’t kow how you can get 104). Quite an impressive score, and i think, ‘well this is really great fitness tool. it’s so good to have the kids interested in fitness and health’. But with interruptions, stops and starts between exercises, the wii fit only offers a few occasions to raise your pulse in a cardiovascular excersise. The University of Kansan posted a study warning that the Wii Fit is not as beneficial as regular excerise:

“Electronic games like the Wii are not substitutes for regular exercise,” says Joseph Donnelly, director of the Energy Balance Laboratory at the University of Kansas. “They cannot give you the same workout as a regular workout.”

In fact, some health experts have estimated that it would take six to eight hours on Wii to expend the equivalent amount of energy of a regular 15- to 30-minute workout.

They say 6-8 hours to approximate energy expended! It is likely that this is the case, on average, and that some excersises, like the running, certainly can approximate the activity and its benefits much better, or at least my daughter can. The researchers admit that the Nintendo Wii and Wii Yoga are of benefit if not only just to have people take an interest in their health and to introduce people to yoga. it is great guidance on how to do postures with awareness to alignment and use their bodies with greater awareness, and that’s not a benefit more important than calories burned!

We are ecstatic that Nintendo Wii has released a tool that enhances body awareness, strength, and stability. As a complement to the family video console, Nintendo Wii has released Wii Fit, with a series of exercises and yoga postures that allow you to set your physical properties, training goals, and history of your activity results.

For months as an onlooker to the Wii in my living room-occasionally joining in for a round of bowling (I even got a few strikes!)- I was so pleased about this addition to our family entertainment system which includes exercises more up to my speed! The Wii Fit is outfitted with a Balance Board, which resembles a scale, but can determine subtle (very subtle) movements and balancing points and display them on screen. In essence this is a biofeedback tool. Any yoga practitioner would benefit from practicing with the Balance Board.

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