Review of Nintendo's Wii Fit

Dan bought me Nintendo's Wii Fit when it first came out. We were both very excited with the purchase and actively played it for a couple of weeks. If you have not made this small investment for your Wii system (it's about $100), you should. It's a fun activity for the whole family.

Wii Fit is meant to help you improve your balance, get exercise and have fun doing it. There are four core options in Wii Fit: yoga, strength training, balance games and aerobics. Within each of those sections, there are lots of fun, useful activities.

When you start doing Wii Fit, you get to create a character and choose what kind of goal you are trying to acomplish. You will weigh yourself and be able to set up your own, private account. You are given a piggy bank that keeps track of the time you spend doing your workout throughout the system. Everyday you sign in, you will be given an opportunity to do some balance tests and determine your Wii age. You will also get to place a stamp on your calendar if you decide to do certain tests. After each activity, you will get coins in your bank. After thirty minutes of exercise, you will be reminded to take a break. Throughout the game, your Wii Balance Board talks to you and makes exercising fun. In addition, each time you perform an activity, you will see what rank you receive for your efforts. This is a fun tool for motivation. You will also be able to open more activities within each section.

I will start with the funnest section and that is the balance games. There is soccer heading, ski slalom, ski jump and table tilt. There are also more games that open up once you have played more. These include tight-rope walking, a penguin game and a bubble river game. These are all fun to do and help to build balance.

The aerobics section has boxing, step aerobics, running, and hula hoop. Each of those are available in beginner and advanced. If you continue to do several of the activities, without stopping, you will find that you do get a pretty good workout. No workout is more than 5 minutes long, unless you choose an advanced level, and then I believe they might be a little longer.

For the strength training and yoga sections, you will be offered one of two personal trainers who will guide you through each exercise. They are great at encouraging and helping you to perform the exercise properly.

The strength training section which includes various activities, when done in repetitions can be really beneficial. Again, as you continue to perform the exercises, new ones open up.

With the Yoga section you will be given many popular poses to strengthen your body and help find the center of your balance. These include the Warior pose, the Half Moon and the Standing Tree.

As you can see, Nintendo's Wii Fit is fun for the whole family. In my opinion, it is not meant for mega workout freaks, but I think it is a good low-impact type of exercise for anyone who just wants to get off the couch, have fun and get a little bit of a workout.