Score a great body

If shredding on a virtual snowboard or doing a downward-facing dog yoga pose in the middle of your living room sounds a bit bizarre, never fear- Wii Fit is here.

Nintendo's latest gaming innovation is geared toward "getting folks off of the couch and break a sweat."

The Wii Fit, launched May 21, combines gaming and fitness and can even tracks users' progress, letting you see how you've improved while challenging you to better you scores (and thereby your workouts), according to the company.
Wii Fit lets you create your own profiles (a "Mii" caricature), set training goals, test your balance and try as many of the 40 activities available.

The game has four main exercise categories: Strength training; aerobics; yoga; and balance games.

The game starts with calculating an adult user's Body Mass Index, or BMI. After you've entered your inforamtion, you stand on the Wii Balance Board which uses the BMI to measure body fat based on height and weight.

With the Wii Fit charts you can also set goals, check your Wii Fit Age, and enter exercise time you've done outside of the video game.

While the strength training and yoga might interest an adult demographic, balance games like tightrope walking, snowboarding or head-butting soccer balls will get the kids moving.

"It looked pretty cool," said Roland Ramirez, owner of Cyber Comics in Edinburg, who's seen his young daughter try out Wii Fit. "The motion sensor captures the upper body, and it's really neat. It looks like an actual cardio workout."

Ramirez might be squarely on the Wii wagon, but there are others in the fitness community who remain skeptical about whether the Wii Fit provides a truly sufficient regimen.

"You still need the whole physical activity," said Jason Martinez, personal trainer and general manager of the Ultimate Fitness Center in Weslaco. "I think it's just making people lazier. I'm against playing video games to make kids exercise. You just can't stimulate the body and muscle the way an old-school workout can."

Robert Prunetti, CEO of New Jersey-based Performance Health Technologies, developed Core:Tx, a computer software therapy program that uses motion sensing technology (similar to the Wii)  to retrain the brains of stroke survivors and those who require rehab from physical injuries. Core:Tx uses a game-like interface and tracks specific measurements of body angles and movements, offering a much more accurate rehabilitation workout than a "generic" workout game.

"There is a growing consensus in the medical community that games have the potential to improve the provision and quality of healthcare, and the popularity of Wii Fit speaks to the power of video games to help solve complex health challenges," he said. "However, while Wii Fit is successful in motivating and engaging its users, its overall success is based largely in its entertainment value.  Because it is designed for fun, it lacks individual tailoring and the medical and scientific technology necessary to effectively measure and track a user's progress." 

Still, Nintendo, which has sold more than two million Wii Fit units in Japan, stands by its product.

"Our main premise in creating Wii Fit was (to) create a game that allows you to check your weight," Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary game designer behind Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda series, said through a translator during a recent visit to the United States.

Miyamoto, 55, started checking his weight daily about five years ago after he began exercising to stay healthy. Tracking his progress, he said, was fun and his family soon caught the bug.

"We ended up buying a brand-new scale, and I started thinking that if there was a way I could weigh myself in the living room and make a product out of it, that would be something everybody could relate to," Miyamoto said.

Different people in the same household can use Wii Fit and track their progress separately. Users' Mii caricatures even reflect their fitness levels and can unlock more advanced exercises once they become more proficient at the activities.

Wii Fit comes with the Wii Balance Board accessory, a platform that senses both weight and shifts in movement and balance. The Wii Balance Board connects wirelessly to the Wii console and serves as the centerpiece in areas like yoga, aerobics, strength training and balance. Virtual trainers in the game talk users through the different activities and make suggestions for improvement.
The Wii Fit balance board works kind of like two scales fused together, which, as its designers found, makes it instantly more fun than just one.

While demand is high, supplies are limited - according to gaming researchers, Nintendo shipped about 200,000 copies to North America in its first run. With luck, big box stores have restocked their shelves. Locally, the game is available at Game Stops, Best-Buy and Wal-Mart.

Wii is the first video game system ever included in the President's Challenge, a program of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports that encourages all Americans to make physical activity a part of their daily lives.

"Wii Fit will get you moving whether you've been playing video games for years or this is your first time," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing in a statement. "Wii Fit is easy for anyone to try and is yet another example of how Nintendo continues to expand the world of video games to new audiences."