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Nintendo Wii Sport Weight
Loss
Lose 25 LB Playing
Nintendo Wii Sports
Discover The
New Fitness Craze of Nintendo Wii Sports and Wii Fit.
It is now known that children of various ages,
young adults and to a greater extent older generations
have a more sedentary lifestyle than our predecessors.
The playing of games consoles such as Play Station 2
(PS2), television, computerisation and the car has led to
a largely inactive population.
Coupled with the
popularity of fast food and reduction of sports and exercise,
has led to a obesegenic society characterised by lifestyle
diseases such as cancer, CVD and diabetes. The recent
availability of interactive software programmes that have
physical and sporting activities has added a new dimension to
the health and fitness industry. Individuals can now enjoy some
daily physical activity, which is challenging, fun and in the
comfort of their own
home.
Nintendo
The Wii Sports is based on fun and enjoyment
and as such the software was developed with no fitness or
weight loss parameters. According to the Wall Street Journal
one of the few complaints about Wii Sports has been the lack of
fitness indicators. The other complaint has been aching backs,
sore shoulders and the Wii elbow. Nintendo downplayed the
report, saying the company had not received any complaints from
users about soreness. Nintendo advises that if people are
finding themselves sore, they may need to exercise more as the
Wii was not meant to be a Jenny Craig supplement.
However, gamers are now turning
the Wii and other similar active gaming consoles into a new
form of exercise, and medical researchers are touting their
health potential for more than just weight loss. A research
team at the University of Toronto is developing a therapeutic
video game to treat children who suffer from hemiplegic
cerebral palsy, a condition that can partially paralyse one
side of the body. If the children regularly use their weaker
side, their motor function can improve.
The Wii Sports has been a success
not just with gamers but also with the weight loss and fitness
industry. Nintendo quickly followed up the Wii Sport with the
introduction of Wii Fit in April 2008 to capture more of this
market. Two months after dismissing the Wii's exercising
potential, Nintendo now embraces it. Nintendo now encourages
people to find a way to enjoy the Wii sitting on the couch or
getting up and moving their body around. The huge fitness craze
was more than they had
anticipated.
Wii
Sports
Wii Sports
was designed as a simple introductory games console meant to
offer something for both gamers and non-gamers. The sports
chosen were used as main themes because of the widespread
familiarity with them. Rather than feature professional
athletes or have realistic graphics, the game was designed to
be simple so that anyone could play. Activities such as running
towards a ball in tennis were excluded to maintain
simplicity.
The Wii Sports consists of five
separate sports games and they are tennis, baseball, bowling,
golf and boxing. The games use the motion sensor capabilities
of the Wii remote and nunchuk attachment to control the actions
of the on-screen character. The player moves the remote in a
similar manner to how the separate games are played in real
life.
For example, holding and
swinging the Wii Remote like a golf club, baseball bat or
bowling ball. Some aspects of the game play are computer
controlled. In tennis, the Wii controls player movement, while
the player controls swinging of the racket. Baseball consists
of batting and pitching with all of the fielding handled by the
Wii.
After a game, a player is awarded
or penalized skill points based on performance, though some
games do not calculate points during multiplayer sessions. The
game keeps track of these points by charting them on a graph.
After obtaining enough skill points in a sport, a player is
awarded pro level, along with a cosmetic feature for their
screen character. A newly turned pro will then receive a
message on the Wii Message Board notifying them of their new
status.
In single-player boxing
and tennis, the size of the crowd grows with the player's skill
level. Wii Sports also features a fitness test that calculates
a player's fitness age. The test gauges the player's
performance in three randomly chosen challenges from the
training mode. Calculating the fitness age takes into account a
player's balance, speed, and stamina. The test itself can only
be taken once a day per screen character. Fitness age results
are graphed over one, two, or three months
and the
software provides daily results which are posted on the Wii
Message Board.
Wii
Fit
The primary
tenet of Wii Fit is balance. The centre of balance, the point
between the left and right sides when standing upright, has a
lot to do with a person’s health. If there is an uneven centre
of balance there will be an unnatural compensation for the
imbalance. This can cause postures to become misaligned,
thereby increasing the possibility of injury. According to
Nintendo, the Wii Balance Board has been designed to address
the issue of poor balance and aims to improve muscle
coordination and contraction.
The Wii Balance Board is similar
in appearance to a step aerobics board and is capable of
supporting weights up to a maximum of 170 kg/ 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 ability to recognize individual players by their
weight alone.
Creating personal
profiles such as entering height and age information and doing
some balance tests serves as a baseline for the Wii fitness
program. The tests are a BMI Assessment and a Wii Fit Age Test:
After the BMI is checked, a basic balance test is undertaken to
find out the current Wii fit age of the player. The basic
balance test measures the control of left and right balance.
Based on the results, a Wii Fit age is assigned.
Once the profile has been
created, Wii Fit features four main categories of exercises to
choose from and these are strength training, aerobics, yoga and
balance games. Wii Fit provides a virtual personal trainer that
guides the player through the three different exercises. There
are also balance games that offer variety to keep the
individual engaged in their fitness goals. Additionally, as the
intensity of activity increases, Wii Fit credits are awarded
that unlocks additional exercises and activities within the
chosen categories that allows for a higher level of
effort.
Wii Fit tracks activities and
places them into different categories. With this information
players can note exercises and activities that they are strong
in, as well as exercise that they may need to improve on. The
Wii Fit keeps a record on the daily progress with graphs and
charts. With the personal profile, players can set goals, view
a graph of BMI results over time, see how many Wii Fit credits
earned and check Wii Fit age. Additionally, exercise time can
be added which has been done outside of Wii Fit such as
circuits, weights and running. The aim of the program is for
individuals to undertake exercising every day and keep track of
their progress.
by
Patricia Meira
For more
information visit:
info@MeiraFitness.com
Source: http://www.MeiraFitness.com
Patricia Meira, 24 Aug
08
Source:
http://www.MeiraFitness.com
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