Wii Fit Update
I promised a couple of you I'd give updates on this, so here 'tis:
Two weeks in, I'm still using it faithfully, which is good. I can definitely see that it will get less "fun" down the road as I get more used to it, but I've never considered working out fun, just something I needed to do, so that's not necessarily a bad sign. When I'm really trying to get in shape, I'll do it.
It is definitely giving me a total body workout (if I do the right exercises). I never really realized before that I wasn't doing much for my upper body at all. Which I should have, because that's my problem area. When my weight goes up, the first place I see it is in my belly, and my arms have always been horrendous - flabby even when I'm at my lower weights. Meanwhile my legs tend to be in decent shape. I guess that's because when I do exercise I do aerobic type things or run, which mainly works the leg muscles. So naturally the things I'm good at on Wii Fit are the aerobic exercises and the strength training and yoga exercises that concentrate on the lower body. My balance still sucks.
A typical workout for me goes like this:
I start with about 25 minutes of aerobic exercise. The different kinds are:
Basic Step: Very simple step aerobic routine. You step on and off the balance board in rhythm. Easy enough to do but it does get your heart pumping. Each round is 3 minutes long, I usually do 3 to start off. On screen you see your Mii doing it along with a bunch of other Miis, including ones you created. I finally got around to playing with the Mii feature, so this morning I worked out alongside Mii Colin :) It was kind of cool. He kept turning his head and smiling at me. He's a nice guy ;)
Basic Run: Just running in place. You hold the Wii remote and run. On screen they scroll scenery by like you're running through a park. It reads your movements from the remote and tells you if your pace is steady, that you need to move your arms more (I always get that), etc. 4 minutes - I usually only do it once, though I'm trying to motivate myself to do it twice in a work out.
Advance Step: More step aerobics, with slightly more complicated steps like kicks and turns, and a faster pace. 5 minutes. I do this twice.
Other stuff: After I do the stuff above, I vary what I do next. You can do hula hooping, where you just swivel your hips to keep hoops in motion. There's also rythm boxing, which I totally suck at. You throw punches and try to duck them from your oponent. My Mii takes quite a beating here. Sometimes I'll just do another step routine.
After you complete an exercise, you get anywhere from 0-4 stars based on how well you did the exercise (and for step you get a numeric score based on the number of steps you did in rhythm, how many you at least did, and how many you missed). This category is where I do best. I get 3 stars after most exercises (except boxing). It's fun to try to improve your scores, so the challenge aspect of it is helpful in keeping me coming back to it. I especially like trying to top my step score in each successive round.
Strength Training: There are about 30 different exercises to pick from that work various muscle areas. I haven't even unlocked them all (you unlock them by successfully completing others. You follow an onscreen trainier, and you get scores on most of these too. I'm a lot better at the leg/thigh/abdominal exercises than at the upper body, so I'm really trying to concentrate on the upper body ones. I usually get in the 1-2 star range here depending on what I'm doing, because you do have to balance for a lot of them. I really, really have sucky balance! I never realized that before... I also have no arm strength, so I can't do pushups. I do see improvement in some of these, although my scores are generally pretty low and generate snide remarks from the trainer like "it's tough to maintain your balance when you're tired, isn't it?" Bite me.
Balance Games: See above comments re my sucky balance. Games include slalom skiing, where you move your body from side to side to get through flags, soccer heading where you move back and forth to hit soccer balls with your head, a thing where you're a penguin on an iceberg trying to catch flying fish without sliding off into the water, etc. I am finally starting to see SLIGHT improvement in the slalom skiing, which is the one I do most.
Yoga: Very similar to Strength Training, and you follow the same onscreen trainer. I do about as well here too, depending on which part of the body the exercise is focusing on.
I weighed myself this morning and I was down half a pound since I started, which, big whoop, but since I really haven't dieted in the past 2 weeks, that impressed me. It must be doing something right. I always end up sweating like a pig, and I can feel my muscles throbbing afterward. So, so far so good, and I think it was definitely a worthwhile investment.
Now back to squeeing over Clay's Montreal news ;)
Two weeks in, I'm still using it faithfully, which is good. I can definitely see that it will get less "fun" down the road as I get more used to it, but I've never considered working out fun, just something I needed to do, so that's not necessarily a bad sign. When I'm really trying to get in shape, I'll do it.
It is definitely giving me a total body workout (if I do the right exercises). I never really realized before that I wasn't doing much for my upper body at all. Which I should have, because that's my problem area. When my weight goes up, the first place I see it is in my belly, and my arms have always been horrendous - flabby even when I'm at my lower weights. Meanwhile my legs tend to be in decent shape. I guess that's because when I do exercise I do aerobic type things or run, which mainly works the leg muscles. So naturally the things I'm good at on Wii Fit are the aerobic exercises and the strength training and yoga exercises that concentrate on the lower body. My balance still sucks.
A typical workout for me goes like this:
I start with about 25 minutes of aerobic exercise. The different kinds are:
Basic Step: Very simple step aerobic routine. You step on and off the balance board in rhythm. Easy enough to do but it does get your heart pumping. Each round is 3 minutes long, I usually do 3 to start off. On screen you see your Mii doing it along with a bunch of other Miis, including ones you created. I finally got around to playing with the Mii feature, so this morning I worked out alongside Mii Colin :) It was kind of cool. He kept turning his head and smiling at me. He's a nice guy ;)
Basic Run: Just running in place. You hold the Wii remote and run. On screen they scroll scenery by like you're running through a park. It reads your movements from the remote and tells you if your pace is steady, that you need to move your arms more (I always get that), etc. 4 minutes - I usually only do it once, though I'm trying to motivate myself to do it twice in a work out.
Advance Step: More step aerobics, with slightly more complicated steps like kicks and turns, and a faster pace. 5 minutes. I do this twice.
Other stuff: After I do the stuff above, I vary what I do next. You can do hula hooping, where you just swivel your hips to keep hoops in motion. There's also rythm boxing, which I totally suck at. You throw punches and try to duck them from your oponent. My Mii takes quite a beating here. Sometimes I'll just do another step routine.
After you complete an exercise, you get anywhere from 0-4 stars based on how well you did the exercise (and for step you get a numeric score based on the number of steps you did in rhythm, how many you at least did, and how many you missed). This category is where I do best. I get 3 stars after most exercises (except boxing). It's fun to try to improve your scores, so the challenge aspect of it is helpful in keeping me coming back to it. I especially like trying to top my step score in each successive round.
Strength Training: There are about 30 different exercises to pick from that work various muscle areas. I haven't even unlocked them all (you unlock them by successfully completing others. You follow an onscreen trainier, and you get scores on most of these too. I'm a lot better at the leg/thigh/abdominal exercises than at the upper body, so I'm really trying to concentrate on the upper body ones. I usually get in the 1-2 star range here depending on what I'm doing, because you do have to balance for a lot of them. I really, really have sucky balance! I never realized that before... I also have no arm strength, so I can't do pushups. I do see improvement in some of these, although my scores are generally pretty low and generate snide remarks from the trainer like "it's tough to maintain your balance when you're tired, isn't it?" Bite me.
Balance Games: See above comments re my sucky balance. Games include slalom skiing, where you move your body from side to side to get through flags, soccer heading where you move back and forth to hit soccer balls with your head, a thing where you're a penguin on an iceberg trying to catch flying fish without sliding off into the water, etc. I am finally starting to see SLIGHT improvement in the slalom skiing, which is the one I do most.
Yoga: Very similar to Strength Training, and you follow the same onscreen trainer. I do about as well here too, depending on which part of the body the exercise is focusing on.
I weighed myself this morning and I was down half a pound since I started, which, big whoop, but since I really haven't dieted in the past 2 weeks, that impressed me. It must be doing something right. I always end up sweating like a pig, and I can feel my muscles throbbing afterward. So, so far so good, and I think it was definitely a worthwhile investment.
Now back to squeeing over Clay's Montreal news ;)