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SINGAPORE : I've always thought of myself as a somewhat fit individual as I jog at least three times a week. But when I subjected myself to a fitness test on the Nintendo Wii Fit game, I got a reality check.
When I first stepped on a Wii Fit board a month ago, I was sceptical about how this wireless gizmo resembling a fancy weighing scale was going to keep me in shape.
Players are meant to use the games in Wii Fit to exercise and the motion-sensitive board measures their performance and scores them. The game starts by testing the player’s BMI (body mass index). Mine was 21.65, within the normal range. Then, I took a test on the board to measure how balanced my body was.
And I was mortified.
Wii Fit declared I had the fitness age of 35 — 12 years older than my actual age. My siblings did little to muffle their amusement and I became determined to get my fitness age “right”.
I tried the different types of exercise one can do on the Wii Fit and worked up quite a bit of sweat. There’s yoga, strength-training, aerobics and balance. In strength training, for instance, I did push-ups with my hands on the board, which measured how much of a workout my arms were getting.
The programme encourages you to exercise on the Wii Fit every day, but given my busy schedule, I missed some days. My siblings, however, pounced on the chance to compete among themselves and they practised every day.
Family conversations about how much fitter the boys are compared with the girls based on Napfa (the national fitness test for students) scores were quickly replaced by how we ranked in various Wii Fit games.
Wii Fit ranks players on each game differently. For example, we were ranked according to whether we were in sync with the aerobic steps, how fast we could walk across a tightrope and how much strength we used in boxing.
My 20-year-old brother and 16-year-old sister trumped my fitness records in the last four weeks consistently. They are fitness buffs, but this digital coach exposed their bodies to yoga and balance exercises, something they didn’t get much of in the army and in school.
My 52-year-old father took the plunge and tried out the Wii Fit last week, and he surprised us. Even though he is in the overweight category, he did really well in the balance games right from the first try. He played a penguin that needs to collect as many fish that jumps onto the see-sawing iceberg.
It was hilarious. My mother wanted to grab the video camera.
Wii Fit is a G-rated game that almost every member in the family would enjoy. But one of the drawbacks is its single-player mode. It would be fun to do the exercises together.
Some of the exercises require the player to watch the screen to check his balance, which can be strenuous on the neck when you’re in push-up position. And even when Wii Fit praised me for having “good balance”, my brother pointed out several times that my posture didn’t look too good in some exercises.
VERDICT
I missed my goal of losing weight in the last four weeks, but I did feel fitter from the regular yoga stretches. Plus, I got better at the balance test; my fitness age dropped to 24 after two weeks; and now, I have the fitness level of a 22-year-old. - TODAY/fa
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