Oh joy! Yoga is spreading in our family! All these years of watching their mom pull out her mat for daily practice and it takes a video game to interest my kids in yoga. I have never been a yoga-pusher, knowing that would surely backfire if I tried too hard to get the kids involved in yoga practice. My youngest does pull out her own mat and join me on occasion, but the older kids are just now enjoying the feeling of postures and noticing their alignment. It is fun to see the whole family involved. I have to say, the rating system gives it a competitive nature, and the internal focus that yoga promotes is somewhat lost by looking at the screen and following the red dot! But anything that introduces one to yoga practice is celebrated in my eyes.
It is clear that there are mixed options about the Balance Board as novices and yogis alike take on the Wii Fit challenge. I am gratified that so many are interested in yoga and that the new fangled technology is crossing with the ancient and sacred system of yoga.
I will never turn up my nose to modern versions of yoga, even though we are just scratching the surface of yoga, it is an introduction, and I think it is great to expose people to this beautiful practice for the mind, body and spirit. Having said that, I think that anyone who is to be dedicated to a yoga practice will take what they can from the Wii Fit and develop their understanding of the postures. I am not the first to point out the shortcomings in the demonstrations/descriptions of the postures in the Wii Fit yoga.
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At first, I had found the Wii Fit Yoga Balancing Board an engaging instrument for its usefulness as a yoga tool. As I progress in the practice I have been seeing with a critical eye how Wii Fit Yoga lacks precision in descriptions and demonstrations of the poses. Really, the board is great, what an awesome biofeedback tool(!), but the descriptions for the postures are not comprehensive, leaving out important alignment and structural principles. Let me elucidate you as to how the posture, Chaturanga Dandasana, or Four-Limbed Staff Pose, is improperly described. It is a common failure, in fact, to dub the posture ‘push-up pose’, because of its likeness to the push-up, although in the classical yoga posture the elbows are hugged to the sides, protecting the rotator cuff from injury. Interestingly, there is an article in May’s Yoga Journal by Natasha Rizopoulos, on the proper alignment of this pose. It’ll be interesting to see if another developer could put together a program with better descriptions and demonstrations, maybe even with custom series to address areas of focus. If anyone from Nintendo is reading this and wants to contact me for more information… J
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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