The Wii Fit has demonstrated its applications to gamers and yoga enthusiasts alike. It is a source of unfolding entertainment and increasing challenge as our family unlocks more games and yoga poses, we never tire of the repertoire of choice! And now, its usefulness is being recognized in the health care arena as a physical therapy tool with wide applications in treatment and health maintenance. I read a fantastic article in the ‘Wicked Local Billerica’, November 26, 2008, about an injured firefighter using the Wii Fit as a therapuetic tool in recovering from a serious knee injury sustained on the job. Owen Thompson, is among good company with others recouping from a variety of disorders and injuries, using the feedback from the balance board to gauge that he is working his body evenly and developing a sense of his equilibrium. Thomsons doctor, Brinklow, has been impressed with the improvements her clients have gleaned using the Wii Fit:
“Just prior to beginning her work with Thompson, Brinklow and the clinic had caught word of a new alternative exercise treatment for patients that was proven to improve their strength and entertain them at the same time, the Nintendo Wii gaming system. While the Wii is already a popular tool for geriatric patients inside assisted living facilities and senior centers across the country, the videogame is now all the rage as a therapeutic tool for stroke, pediatric and orthopedic patients.
After reading extensive studies on clinics and centers across the country like Ohio State University Medical Center and Children’s Hosptital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., which use the system on pediatric cystic fibrosis patients, Brinklow and the staff at the clinic decided to bring it on board.
Since bringing it in to the clinic in October the Wii has become a staple tool with many of the clinic’s neurology patients and orthopedic patients like Thompson.
“We’ve done all different types of balance activities and stuff,” said Brinklow. “Originally they used it with a lot of geriatric patients with getting them to move. We’ve been using it more with orthopedic patients as rehabilitation for ankles, knees and shoulders.”
We are not recommending that one should use the Wii Fit as rehabilitation tool without the guidance of a physical therapist; the system is not a replacement for physical therapist any more than a substitute for a yoga teacher. As a biofeedback tool, it is indeed a fascinating experience to work with the Wii Fit and the Balance Board, and I have derived great benefit and pleasure from the Wii Fit. I think there are amazing potentials for such a tool and it is great to have the enthusiastic support of health care professionals behind this amazing technology.
The experts have their say on the Wii Fit Yoga as The Desert Sun, of Palm Springs, put local yogis to the test. Seasoned teachers Kristin Olson and Chuck Burks from Urban Yoga in Palm Springs were given the Wii Fit and were asked what they thought of Wii Yoga.
The Pros
This is a great way to introduce people to the world of yoga.
The game isn’t intimidating.
In most of the poses, there is a yellow circle on the screen. Players distribute their weight and maintain proper balance by keeping a red dot inside this circle. This is a nice way to focus on the core muscles.
It will help people feel comfortable doing yoga in their own homes.
The interactive nature of the Wii Fit makes it more interesting than a yoga DVD or video.
Even though yoga is not a competitive sport and is not about racking up points, the Wii scoring system can motivate players to keep practicing and continue working on their poses.
Even people who have no interest in yoga will benefit from slowing down and stretching.
Complete Article Here
The experts noted a few cons: that the practise lacked the heart of yoga in exploring the connection between mind, body, and spirit. The meditative quality of yoga practise is lost as there are stops between postures, clicking through to the next, without consideration to sequencing, and holding the wiimote is annoying. The teachers also noted that some postures could be advanced for newcomers, and risk of injury is present if the pose is held incorrectly.
I agree with them and these are all points I have made of this blog before and the obvious conclusion is the wii fit is not a replacement for a regular yoga pratice, and thus should not be compared to yoga as a whole. The Wii fit is only a very very small sample of yoga but the percentage of people crossing over from the Wii yoga to a local yoga class to daily pratice should be noted as positive movement for the yoga community.
When my four year old goes for a run on the Wii Fit she gets a real sweat on! To our amazement, she powers through it effortlessly and scores 104% calorie burner ( i don;’t kow how you can get 104). Quite an impressive score, and i think, ‘well this is really great fitness tool. it’s so good to have the kids interested in fitness and health’. But with interruptions, stops and starts between exercises, the wii fit only offers a few occasions to raise your pulse in a cardiovascular excersise. The University of Kansan posted a study warning that the Wii Fit is not as beneficial as regular excerise:
“Electronic games like the Wii are not substitutes for regular exercise,” says Joseph Donnelly, director of the Energy Balance Laboratory at the University of Kansas. “They cannot give you the same workout as a regular workout.”
In fact, some health experts have estimated that it would take six to eight hours on Wii to expend the equivalent amount of energy of a regular 15- to 30-minute workout.
They say 6-8 hours to approximate energy expended! It is likely that this is the case, on average, and that some excersises, like the running, certainly can approximate the activity and its benefits much better, or at least my daughter can. The researchers admit that the Nintendo Wii and Wii Yoga are of benefit if not only just to have people take an interest in their health and to introduce people to yoga. it is great guidance on how to do postures with awareness to alignment and use their bodies with greater awareness, and that’s not a benefit more important than calories burned!
CVG is reporting a Wii Yoga game (?!) being developed by JoWood currently planned for released in the second quarter of 2009.
The publisher says young at heart gamers will be able to experience the “favoured doctrine for mind, body and soul” with Wii Yoga, and promises a truly “unique” gaming experience unlike anything else. Apart from Wii Fit.
The JoWood website has no official information at their website so for now you might want to consider this information a rumor but one must have to assume that the gaming development sector is racing to come out with a Wii Yoga type of game on the heals of the Wii Fit success. If a gaming company out there could release a halfway decent exclusively yoga program for the Wii Fit by this 2008 Holiday season, the masses would buy.
I would like to add: calling yoga a game just doesn’t sound right. “Practice” makes better sense but may sound too boring for marketing. Second, as CVG reported, Nintendo already has said no to developers using “wii” in their game titles so JoWoods may have to use the name “We Yoga” just like the “We Ski” game. I’d place my bet on “iYoga” but yogis don’t gamble.
Please add you ideas for a “Wii Yoga game title” in the comments section below:
The Wii fit yoga poses offer a good variety of postures to ensure a well-rounded practice. It is important to ensure that your yoga practice includes twists, forward bending and spinal extension to bring the body into balance. Once you’ve unlocked the 15 wii fit yoga poses be sure to design your practice with a range from these categories. The Nintendo wii fit demo is good to watch prior to trying the poses, as your ability to look at the screen is compromised in certain positions, eg, to be bent over in sun salutation. The Wii fit demo video illustrates how to go through the exercises, basic information is given and reference to the breath is made, but remember that there are differences between traditional yoga and the wii fit yoga poses. The final 4 poses are more advanced, and care should be exercised moving into these postures.
