Fitness Games Don't Have Enough Shame

[Tazza]

Fitness games obviously aren't the be-all and the end-all of fitness - most err on the side of caution and fear of legal suits against them and present the user with a workout with about as much physical impact as shopping at the mall. That said, I believe they can have a place in a fitness routine. As with any genre of games, there are some gems amongst the dross that are worth buying.
Wii Fit might have started a craze, but fitness games have been around for a lot longer that that - the old dance mat games that predate Wii Fit by quite a number of years were addictive, fun, and could give you a great workout. Some of the Playstation 2 Eye Toy games were also decent workouts. My current favourite, "My Fitness Coach" for the Wii, is more like an exercise video than a game, but swaps the order of the exercises around each session and changes your routine according to your settings. It definitely gets you puffing. And even Wii Fit, although it does little to improve your cardio fitness, does improve your balance and make you think more about posture.
These games are not an adequate substitute for going to gym or going for a walk - the outside world offers things like sunshine, trees, and people to interact with while you exercise as well as greater fitness opportunities. As a supplement, however, they excel in offering you a workout on an overly hot, windy or rainy day when you might otherwise choose to sit in front of the computer instead of going out for a jog or a cycle. Not everyone can get to the gym easily due to distance or time constraints, and these games can add some welcome variety to a home exercise routine.

PS: 'My Fitness Coach' is a remake of 'Yourself Fitness' for the Wii

 

[Arbitrary Cidin]

For anyone still in high school, my plan seems to work pretty well: Take Gym Class (Or Weights, Aerobics, Team Sports, or whatever is available). Being forced by the school (assuming you choose the class) is one hell of a success in getting you to do things you don't like.

 

[boandpop]

Nice tongue-in-cheek humour, especially the part about Mario. So damn true - stupid Batman: AA. It kinda motivates me to blow the dust off of my WiiFit and continue with my weightloss attempts.

 

[Labyrinth]

There's a reason it's hesitant to prescribe a diet. Diets don't work. Oh sure you'll loose weight, you might even lose a lot, but unless you keep counting the calories and beating yourself up every time your willpower slips your body will continue to think it's starving.

The distinction here is between a diet and food. It's also the distinction which needs to be made between losing weight and genuinely being fitter, stronger and healthier. To put it bluntly eating shitty food and sitting on ones backside all day cause health problems whether one weighs 150kg or 55kg.

"Healthy eating" is around about three meals a day covering a range of food types yes, even including dessert if you feel like it. It means that when not addicted to junk food one eats what ones body needs, not what a diet book prescribes, or a set of scales. The former is unlikely to work for any but the very few and the latter is a piss-poor measure of health.

Why? Mostly because it's skewed to hell and back. Muscle is denser than fat for example and stating that a set range of height-to-weight ratios is 'healthy' avoids all kinds of other things which may skew it. How much water one drinks, bone density, the density of food consumed, etc. It also fails to take into account actual measures of health such as the levels of bad cholesterol in blood. You can't measure that with scales, just as you can't measure heart rate and blood pressure. Deciding on a goal weight seems a little ridiculous. It also fails to take into account genetic predisposition [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/health/08iht-snfat.5614611.html?_r=1] to body fat, or muscle content, or bone density...

What Wii Fit and its ilk do is provide people with the potentially fun exercise option they need, not to lose weight, but to strengthen and build muscle. I don't think the best way to do this is to push it as the fat gamers alone (as one, it's not my thing, I'd rather walk) but rather to encourage all games regardless of size to give it a crack.

The focus could also be changed from the aforementioned weight counter to say, grinding points or rewards or something better than just watching the scale tick over.

 

[tiger_cub684]

lol, greatest article ever.

I too hate exercise. Good thing i've got demanding friends who drag me to a gym every once in a while. XD

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Remember, if you want to keep your weight down you need to excercise constantly, it needs to be a routine, you can't just lose a few pounds and then forget about excercising.

I like martial arts, it's how I stay reasonably fit.

 

[tighem]

Look, I don't think the Wii Fit is anymore effective than standing up during Rock Band and dancing around. Seriously. It's a game board. How much could you possibly do on it?

 

[Zetsubou]

...sic
"At this moment, I can't help but feel a bit betrayed. If any one company had a hand in my fall from svelte, toned grace, it was Nintendo. You didn't have to put 96 levels in Super Mario World, did you, Miyamoto? And what was I doing when the other boys were playing football? I was catching 'em all, that's what."

I apologise in advance for the unsympathetic tone of my reply. But people should learn to take responsibility for their actions rather than palm it off onto others.

And you didn't have to play the game. That was your choice. Play Mario or go outside with your chums - Nintendo didn't make that decision for you, you did.

You really shouldn't blame Nintendo for your own decision.

You...um....get that was mostly a joke right? There's no need to respond that harshly to a joke.

Alright, Wii fit and such doesn't have enough real exercise. There's little bits, but you're not going to get in real shape or be moderately healthy just by basic exercises from fitness games.

 

[richtaur]

I swear, everyone misses the point. Consider this:

You want me to exercise. I am just sitting here minding my own business. You want me to start running, and I don't want to start running. What can you do to get me to run? I'm not exaggerating when I say you'd have to chase me with the threat of violence. You'd better have a chainsaw or a pet lion or I'm sitting right here, thanks.

Or, here's a better solution: throw a frisbee. I'll fuggin' run fullspeed after that *****! And if you put skates on me and give me a stick and puck, I'll exercise even harder, because to me hockey is even more fun than frisbee.

My point is that fun is the best motivator. These games shouldn't provide shame as content; games are supposed to be fun! They should just be more fun to play, to the point where you want to do it daily. I tell you, when somebody figures out how to make players exercise when playing a really fun game (such as Left 4 Dead), suddenly you'll see a lot more gamers in terrific shape.

 

[FoolKiller]

... but Wii Fit is in my opinion very unappealing. Even from a casual point of view...

Yes, it does. It's a drinking game. =)

 

[Low Key]

WiiFit is no substitute for a real world workout in a gym. It's designed to get lazy people off their asses, even if it's for a mere 15 minutes, with the hopes players might start doing something active on their own.

If you take on such a commitment to use WiiFit as a makeshift workout, you should at least do other things that are healthy, like walking a couple of blocks to the store instead of driving or eating right. I shouldn't have to tell anybody: no matter how much you workout, if you eat shit, you aren't going to lose weight. That should be common sense.

 

[LeonLethality]

I don't trust wii fit the only reason I had gotten the balance board was for a certain cow riding mini game
(I'm aware this is my second post but this isn't relevant to my first post so I didn't feel the need to edit it)

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well I'm going to pick on one point that has little to do with this arguement: Gamers being depressed.

There is some truth to this actually, and frankly I'd say that most of the first world is probably depressed, if not the majority of humanity. If your in a civilized country your pretty much educated with the whole "U R Special" individualistic attitude that you can do anything. Kids are brainwashed from an early age to think that they could a a doctor, lawyer, astronaut, etc... even long after the point where any genius program they could possibly have qualitified for is a foregone possibility. For those without a wealthy family (most of us) and who are anywhere from "very bright" (below the genius level that is recruited) to "dumb as a rock" we go pretty much from being told "we can do anything" to taking a "temporary" job after community college or whatever, while waiting for that massive oppertunity that will come to our specialness that simply does not exist. Having ambition and "chasing your dream" typically means sticking your head into a titanium vice being cranked by scam artists who are out to exploit specifically that sentiment.

As a result, yeah... people are depressed. Gaming is escapism. People who are into gaming heavily and seeking a lot of escapism are looking to get away from something even if it's just a 'go nowhere' grind and a relization of eternal mediocrity. Gaming doesn't really cause depression, it's simply something people use to escape FROM depression, or at least to pass the time from cradle to grave. Being what it is, your going to find a massive number of depressed people involved in it, and given that depressed people tend to be overweight... well the conclusion is obvious.

On the subject of the "exercise" games themselves, they are like any other kind of exercise. It comes down to the person doing the activity and their desire/willpower more than the actual routine itself. The vast majority of people out there will never be pursueing fitness to a level where the exact type of routine is going to matter. The principle of a Wii Fit for example is no differant than say the idea of riding an exercise bike while watching TV or whatever. If you have the motivation to want to get in better shape you'll do it, stick with it, and it will work. If you don't it will fail.

In the end I think a lot of people who buy the wiifit devices probably like the idea of them and have some dreams of self-improvement, but they areguably don't go anywhere because in the final equasion they figure "why bother?". It's not like getting in better shape is going to change anything, even if it leads to a 'longer, healthier life' is that nessicarly something a guy in a total rut aspires to? Better to get whatever kind of mild enjoyment you can with the time you have rather than hurting yourself for no paticularly good reason.

At any rate my points are basically that I feel gaming doesn't cause depression (rather the depressed gravitate towards escapism), and that in the end there is no point to trying to rate exercise devices like this because it's all about the person in the end.

 

[Gunner 51]

...sic
"At this moment, I can't help but feel a bit betrayed. If any one company had a hand in my fall from svelte, toned grace, it was Nintendo. You didn't have to put 96 levels in Super Mario World, did you, Miyamoto? And what was I doing when the other boys were playing football? I was catching 'em all, that's what."

I apologise in advance for the unsympathetic tone of my reply. But people should learn to take responsibility for their actions rather than palm it off onto others.

And you didn't have to play the game. That was your choice. Play Mario or go outside with your chums - Nintendo didn't make that decision for you, you did.

You really shouldn't blame Nintendo for your own decision.

You...um....get that was mostly a joke right? There's no need to respond that harshly to a joke.

Alright, Wii fit and such doesn't have enough real exercise. There's little bits, but you're not going to get in real shape or be moderately healthy just by basic exercises from fitness games.

If it were a joke, then that's fair enough. That's the trouble with text, I can't read facial expressions and ascertain the spirit of what's being said. I guess I did come across as rather harsh and abrasive. Though I stand by my opinion, I should have been more respectful of others. And for that, I apologise.

But getting back to the Wii games at hand, I think you are correct in saying that the exercises in them are too insubstantial to get someone fit. Though it's not bad to stay in shape if you already are fit and healthy.

 

[Gruchul]

For those without a wealthy family (most of us) and who are anywhere from "very bright" (below the genius level that is recruited) to "dumb as a rock" we go pretty much from being told "we can do anything" to taking a "temporary" job after community college or whatever, while waiting for that massive oppertunity that will come to our specialness that simply does not exist.

The wealth divide is not anywhere near as pronounced over here; things like university places are heavily government subsidised. I am probably not genius level (never been tested for anything like that and probably never will be), nor do I come from a rich family, but my dreams are still alive.

 

[TitsMcGee1804]

lol, this article is spot on

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

Seriously, if you need Wii Fit or any other "game" to help you lose weight then I'm sorry but you fail at life.
I keep fit by doing Parkour and conditioning 3 times a week, I don't eat shitty food and I'm not always on my ass for extended periods of time. It's not hard people.

 

[hcl777]

Funny, it seems like it's in vogue now to bad-mouth the Wii's usefulness for fitness.

My take on the subject is, yes, if you buy a Wii thinking it's going to replace 5 miles of daily running, or 30 minutes of aerobics at the gym, or intense weight training, you'll be disappointed and store your Wii with all your Acai berry drinks, Fen-phen tablets, the pile of Atkins hamburger buns, and the rest.

On the other hand, if you buy a bunch of the best Wii Fitness Games [http://www.nutwiisystem.com/best-wii-exercise-games.html] out there and play them every day until you sweat, you will lose weight. Guaranteed.

The people complaining that the Wii doesn't do any good are the ones going in with the mindset that they'll get someting for nothing. The truth is, with any exercise, you get what you put into it. Play Wii Bowling for 5 minutes, and yes, that's not much better than sitting on the couch gaining weight. Fly like the Wii Fit Plus chicken and hula hoop until you're exhausted for an hour a day, and I guarantee that'll be just as good as any workout in the gym.

So the Wii is only as effective as the person using it is committed to exercising to the fullest. Something tells me that these universities putting out these reports are not. But they are getting some good publicity, which is probably what they're after.

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

Doing parkour seems pretty hard to me, but seroiusly losing weight is pretty simple: less food more excercise.
people blame genetics, video games or anything else for their being fat rather than fixing the problem

Because just like with everything else nowadays(kids going off the rails, shoot ups in America, etc)they're all blamed on other things/people instead of the person taking the blame themselves(the parents and the crazy deceased perrson respectively).