Help My Hurt

Wii Fit report

by Marijke Durning, RN on September 6th, 2008

Whew. I’ve had my Wii Fit since Thursday and it’s pretty well wiped me out.

As I’ve written before, I know that the Wii Fit can’t and won’t replace going to a gym or hopping on a bike and taking a good long ride. But, I work from home and sit at my desk most of the day. My hobby is quilting, which means I sit and only my right hand gets a work out. I know that I was getting my heart beating when I played the Wii Tennis, but I wanted more - particularly the yoga. I figured that this would be better than what I’m doing now. Now, I’m taking a good 20 minute or so walk or two a day, but that is it.

I also felt that exercise like this will help reduce my chronic pain, ranging from my lower back, sciatica, and maybe even the joint pain if I can become better balanced and lose a bit of weight. Not much - I don’t have that much to spare, but I should lose about 10 pounds to get back into my average or so-called normal range.

For those who know about the Wii Fit, my Wii age is 33. I’m not quite sure how they figure that because my BMI was 25 (a bit above acceptable) but my balance was very good. But, at 47 years old, I’ll take anything that says I’m only 33!

My favorites aren’t the yoga, although I’ll get more into that as I get more used to the game, but I love the aerobics. I’m pretty good at the Hula Hoop, terrible at the Ski Slalom. I’m ok at the stepping game and moderately good at the soccer. I’ve tried some of the yoga poses. I am going to have to try to figure out a schedule because I don’t think (I might be wrong) that I should be doing yoga after I’ve just pooped myself out doing the other exercises. Because I tend to get anxious easily, I’m hoping that the yoga will help me learn how to calm myself. At least, it may give me a start and if I like, I can sign up for a real yoga class.

I haven’t tried the strength exercises yet. My husband, who goes to the gym at 5 times a week, made fun of me for buying the Wii Fit (light-heartedly). He felt the exercises would be really easy. Hah! He was only able to do a couple of the push ups and he found the lunge very difficult. That was more the balance thing than anything else. So, we’ll have to see if he keeps trying because it did give me a good laugh.

But in all seriousness, if someone who is very fit, like my husband, finds the strengthening exercises tough, then maybe there is something to this.

I do have to admit, my back hurts more than it has for a while, in the lower back, off to the side. But, I think it’s really just because I’m working it as I’ve not for a long time. I am being careful and not overdoing it and I will stop if it starts to hurt more.

So folks, if any of you are wondering if you should try a Wii Fit, I’ll post regular updates here. I put as my goal that I want to lose 10 pounds in 2 months and the system will keep track of that. Let’s see how it goes now.

~~~

Images: MorgueFile.com

Tags: chronic pain blog, pain blog, exercise, chronic pain, back pain, wii fit

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POSTED IN: Ergonomics & Exercise, Fun stuff and "just stuff"