Wii Fit was released in Europe on Friday and I bought a copy right away. I had preordered it, even though I don’t think it’s going to sell as well in Norway as it will (and has) everywhere else; Norwegians generally prefer to get their exercise outside. This leads me to think it might have been smarter for Nintendo to release it in winter.

But in any case, I am not Norwegian, and don’t fit into the stereotypical sport-loving Australian persona either. I generally struggle to maintain any kind of exercise or fitness regime in the long term, and would usually be happier inside with a book, movie or computer game.

So those happy little elves over at Nintendo tapped right into my needs and desires with the Wii Fit balance board and game. I can exercise daily with fun activities without having to leave the comfort and privacy of my loungeroom, and I can keep track of how well I’m doing with my weight, balance and activity level and mark my success (or lack thereof) on a calendar. SO COOL!

As those of you who come here often will know, I made April a bit of a fitness challenge for myself and I’ve been pretty impressed with my progress so far. Now I’m so happy that Wii Fit came out right at the end of this detox month, because now I have a new and fun reason to keep up my efforts.

Wii Fit has four basic exercise types; yoga, muscle training, balance and aerobic. Each type gives you a couple of basic exercises to start with and the more you do them, the more new activities you unlock. You also unlock higher amounts of repetitions so that you can give yourself more of a challenge as you improve.

You also have the ability to perform daily tests that measure your centre of balance, agility, weight, BMI (Body Mass Index) and give you a “Wii Fit Age” based on a combination of the measurements taken and balanced against your actual age. When you first log in with your Mii (that’s a personalised Wii character for those not familiar with the console) you enter some data about yourself (such as height and age) so that Wii Fit can give you accurate feedback. You can even choose to password protect your profile so that others using your console can’t see what you’ve been doing (or how much you weigh!).

Each day you can take a tailored test to gauge how your balance and posture are improving over time. Obviously this is meant to be done in conjunction with daily exercise with Wii Fit so that you will eventually see some progress. Your centre of balance and weight are measured and plotted on a graph and you are given a new Wii Fit age each day. So far mine has varied a lot depending on the sort of tests I do. For instance, there is one test that requires you to stand still and measures your ability to do so without shifting your weight or wobbling too much. I am hopeless at this, so that day my Wii Fit age was 37 (several years older than my actual age). Whereas another test where I was required to walk on the spot to measure the steadiness of my pace and balance gave me a Wii Fit age of 27 (several years younger than my actual age). So I think for me the key will be to get a consistent Wii Fit age which is, hopefully, the same or younger than my actual age.

Another thing I really like about the Wii Fit is that you can record other activities you’ve done outside so that you can really keep a good record of your general activity level. You can record light, medium or heavy levels of activity ranging from gardening through walking to aerobics or weight training. This is great for me with motivation and is similar to what I’ve done in the past with a normal calendar and a pack of gold stars.

Yoga

So far I’ve tried all the yoga exercises that I’ve managed to unlock in my four days of Wii Fitting. Poses such as Sun Salutation, Standing Knee, Warrior and Half Moon are included, amongst others. All help you work on perfect technique, balance and posture by showing you the correct way of performing the pose and showing you where to hold your centre of balance on the Wii Balance Board. A friendly personal trainer steps you through all the exercises and gives you feedback on your performance. There is also a guide for when to breathe in and out with visual clues and sound effects.

Muscle strength

These are good resistance and stretching exercises that can be used in conjunction with the yoga poses to complete workouts for different muscle groups. Your trainer tells you which muscles are being worked on for each exercise and gives you feedback on your posture and balance. Exercises include push-ups, lunges, rowing squats jack-knives. As you perform more of the exercises, you unlock the ability to perform more repetitions.

Aerobic

These exercises are a little more fun and a bit less serious than the yoga and muscle strength exercises. You use your Mii for them, and not the personal trainer. Activities include hula hoops, step aerobics (which is more about coordination than aerobic fitness), jogging and rhythm boxing. If you’ve ever done a step aerobic class and hope to be able to do the same at home with Wii Fit, think again. This is quite a slow-paced exercise which involves keeping time with the other Mii characters and stepping on and off the Balance Board in the right directions. It’s still quite fun though, and if you raise your knees high with each step you still get a sweat up.

The jogging is done on the floor while holding the Wii-mote (the Board is not used). You jog behind another Mii, trying not to lag behind or overtake in an effort to run at an even pace. This is the only activity you can do with two players at once in Wii Fit.

Balance Games

The balance games are a lot of fun and, at times, extremely challenging. You can walk a tightrope, roll down the river in a bubble, ski or snowboard down a slalom track or ski-jump or smack some soccer balls with your head. Because these are more like video games than exercises, they’re very engaging, but they’re also very different in the sense that you use your body and feet, not your hands, to control what your Mii does. You can really hear your brain squeaking as you try to use your entire body weight to succeed at things your hands really want to take control of. For example, in one balance game you have to use your body weight to roll a ball around on a board to get it to fall through a hole (and not off the edge of the board). As you progress you must attempt to get multiple balls through multiple holes within a time limit. It’s a lot harder than it looks or sounds.

So all in all, I’m extremely impressed by Wii Fit. I had been looking forward to its release for several months, but it still exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in building their core muscles, balance and fitness and who has trouble with motivation and would like to inject a little fun into their exercise regime. It’s not for fitness junkies who are used to a regular dose of the gym; if this is you, you will probably be disappointed. It’s more for those wanting to start out at a reasonable pace and make some changes to their sedentary lifestyle.

I’ll keep you updated as to how long my motivation lasts. Happy exercising!