Fun With Wii Fit, Part 2

Today, I decided to spend my 30 minutes primarily on the aerobic activities. I started off with a short run around Wii Fit Island. To a person suffering from television blindness, this would have looked like I jogged in place for 3 minutes. To me, however, it looked like I was running with an encouraging round stranger through an idyllic, round countryside. Several of my round friends (many of the people who have made Miis on my Wii) were out and about, cheering me on as I got closer to the finish, and at one point, a dozen very round puppies ran across my path. I wonder if the puppies are a regular feature, and resolve to go for another jog tomorrow to find out.

The game uses the jiggly-scope in the Wiimote to guess how fast you're running in place--it recommends putting the Wiimote in your pocket, which is probably the best way to get an accurate read of your activity. I didn't have pockets, so I held the 'mote in my hand. Part of the way through the run, a message came up suggesting that I would burn more calories if I made big movements with my arms--always willing to take a machine's advice about human fitness, I started really swingin' the old sleeve-sticks. This made my Mii counterpart start sprinting. At the end, I think I got 2 stars for attempting to keep a steady pace. An ambitiously unambitious person could probably get 4 sitting on their 'tocks and shaking the Wiimote like a maraca.

Then I did some hula-hooping, which I wouldn't have previously considered to be aerobic, but when you really go for it, hoo boy. I'm good at hula-hooping, so I like to play it. Wii Fit also offers stair stepping as an aerobic exercise--a natural fit since the Wii Fit Balance Board is a solid thing that's a little higher than the ground you put it on. I've played the basic stair step game 4 times now, and the music has been the same everytime. It's nondescript enough that I don't expect to get tired of it for a while, but your score is based on your ability to match where you're supposed to step and to match the rhythm, so you can't really turn the sound off or listen to something else. The advanced step actually uses the same music, just a little faster and in a higher key. It would be nice if you could unlock new music to step to.

I finished up with some yoga because that felt like the right thing to do. All in all, I did 20 minutes worth of Wii Fit activity, and it took about 40 actual minutes. While that does include the initial body test (my Fitness age was up 10 years today and my weight is just about back to my starting point) it illustrates another possible area for improvement. Wii Fit assembles your favorite activities into a menu for easy picking, but there isn't really any way to cut out the downtime in between exercises. You have to go back to the menu, pick the next thing out, and then sometimes wait for your fitness instructor to get her act together (I don't need to hear about mirroring your movements and how the warrior pose stretches my hips again, that's water under the bridge) before you start moving again. Something like a playlist, so you could pick activities to play in sequence and get the most exercise out of your time would be smart.