Wii - Stealth Exercise and Tennis Elbow

Lazy gamers report feeling muscles for first time in years

Posted by Staff
SPOnG has had one major concern regarding the Wii: doesn’t motion control involve (whisper it) doing exercise??

Is this the case? Are we to become fitter, happier, more productive human beings due to the couch-potato killing capacities of the magical Wii console?

A report in none other than The Wall Street Journal during what our Mercan cousins like to call, ‘Thanksgiving’ weekend certainly posits this particular argument. It claims that, “…surprisingly vigorous workouts are being triggered by Nintendo's new Wii videogames…as players spend more time with the Wii, some are noticing that hours waving the game's controller around can add up to fairly intense exertion -- resulting in aches and pains common in more familiar forms of exercise. They're reporting aching backs, sore shoulders -- even something some have dubbed ‘Wii elbow’."

The W.S.J. proceeds to with some case studies:

Wii Sports is ‘harder than playing basketball’”, Kaitlin Franke, a 12-year-old Kentuckian, tells the magazine.

Computer programmer Jeremy Scherer, who describes himself as, "not very active", tells the Journal that after a three hour session on Wii Sports he was very aware that he was “using muscles I hadn't used in a while," and now plans to use nightly Wii sessions as a fun way to getting fit.

Avid gamer Ryan Mercer from Indianapolis, who claims to lifts weights several times a week, says that after a mere 90 minutes of Wii Sports boxing that, "I was soaking wet with sweat, head to toe - I had to go take a shower."

Unsurprisingly, Nintendo’s Perrin Kaplan takes up this wonderful PR relay-sprint baton and runs with it, saying that the Wii “was not meant to be a Jenny Craig* supplement. If people are finding themselves sore, they may need to exercise more."

To make sure that lazy gamers weren’t too alarmed at the idea of being tricked into getting fit, Kaplan also hastened to add that it was also possible to play while vegged-out on the couch.


*A U.S. weight loss programme.
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Comments

majin dboy 27 Nov 2006 13:47
1/3
cant wait to get my hands on wii sports.
kinnggpinn 27 Nov 2006 15:51
2/3
I have been playing it for a week now and it is great! The first few days I did find myself getting a little sore playing games like Baseball (my elbow was sore from over-swinging). But after discovering that you do not need to do the complete motions in some of the sports to get the desired results, I felt better. I love watching my kids sit around and play it, they all get completely involved in the action - moreso than they ever used to on all the other consoles. Wii is great!
Smelly 27 Nov 2006 20:11
3/3
Flipping heck, must be a lot of unfit people out there (or a lot of dumb people who havent figured out small movements work just as well)
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