http://wii.ign.com/articles/869/869127p1.html
In summary, he says it won't replace an actual physical fitness instructor on account of it not being able to correct bad habits with yoga or muscle training, but it certainly does it's job to get you to excercise and have fun doing it.
Wii Fit: The Professional Opinion
James Mitchell, Esquire magazine's fitness columnist and top London trainer, puts Wii Fit through its paces.
UK, April 24, 2008 - It's a foregone conclusion that Wii Fit will fly off shelves when it's release across Europe on April 24, but the question still remains whether it's worth the hefty asking price. Sure, you're getting the nifty new Wii Balance Board for your money but can it really get the nation in shape or are we simply paying for a glorified set of scales?
That question in mind, IGN invited James Mitchell, Esquire magazine's fitness columnist, head trainer at London's One Aldwych gym and – it turns out – games geek to delve deep into Nintendo's latest system seller and lay the fat-busting facts on the table. Working from initial character creation right through to a hearty workout with the title's balance, aerobic, muscular and yoga exercises, we were keen to hear his thoughts on Wii Fit's philosophy, execution and, of course, health benefits.
So, first impressions, James? "For a start I'm quite positive in the sense that anything that promotes physical activity is a good thing. Obviously, playing games and watching TV are traditionally very lethargic pursuits; you sit on the sofa with no activity levels involved. I think, as a concept, Wii Fit is a fantastic idea, bringing some activity into the home and sharing that across the family, whether it's with adults, teenagers or younger kids."
An encouraging start then but we were keen to explore some of Wii Fit's core concepts. When you fire up the title for the first time, you're given a rundown of its basic health philosophy, focussing on improving posture and centre of gravity (COG). As James notes, it's a good starting point for Nintendo's title: "COG is based on your foot balance on two feet and it's a great skill to learn. We work on it a lot in training – exactly as Wii Fit says, it's relative to your posture. Basically, if your centre of balance and posture is correct, you're not taking strain into the wrong areas of your body and you're body is working the way it's supposed to work. The idea of benefits to posture through awareness is perfectly sound."
However, early on things were less rosy, Wii Fit mistaking James's muscular heft for blubber, suggesting he might lose a few points to reach tip-top form. The problem here, he explains, is with Wii Fit's reliance on Body Mass Index (BMI) as a measure of fitness. "While BMI is an industry standard, it's generally frowned upon within the personal training fraternity for the exact reason we just saw. It just told me I'm obese and need to lose weight, which is obviously not true - my body fat is lower than 6%.
"Unfortunately, BMI is simply a height to weight ratio. If you're broad, muscular or slightly heavier boned then it's inaccurate and misleading. For instance, there's no need for me to lose weight, despite Wii Fit's assertions – that would be a bad thing. BMI is a medical term and even the medical community is trying to switch to body fat percentages. Of course, how could Wii Fit take an accurate reading of body fat? Simply, it couldn't - the machines we use are very, very expensive. Even a simpler calliper test is out of its range - I really think some kind of option should have been incorporated so you can tell it if you're more muscular."
That said, James does concede that BMI does have its uses: "If you look at population as an average, then BMI is reflective as an average for the average person, not into hard fitness." The moral then is to be aware of BMI's deficiency and not take Wii Fit's recommendations at face value – and the less said about your Wii Fit Age, the better.
Those initial concerns out the way, we thought it time to head into training mode and see what James has to say about each exercise category's design, implementation and effectiveness, starting with those balance games. For the uninitiated, these purport to improve your balance and posture through awareness, offering a variety of mini-games including tightrope walking, slaloming, skiing and river racing. They're undoubtedly fun but can they really offer any serious health benefits? Yes, says James: "Anything that's getting you to move and increase your awareness of how you stand is great. You tend to find that when you have difficulty with those exercises, it's usually because you have something out of balance - either through lack of training or due to posture issues. If that's the case, you'll have trouble getting your balance right, you'll lean to one side and have to physically pull yourself over to the other. And that's good stuff, being aware of that and having that highlighted. The only downside is that nobody is looking at you - you might find ways to hold yourself that cheat the system, which is not necessarily fixing the problem."
As for aerobics, reports were similarly positive, James trouncing Wii Fit's pelvis-swivelling Hula Hoop and DDR-like Step games, even if a three-minute whirl around a tropical island as part of the jogging exercise left him slightly out of breath. "The aerobics stuff is fantastic," he states. "It's probably the most beneficial of all the exercises on Wii Fit. What's great is that it's exactly the kind of thing you should be doing at home and it's not massively technical - nobody needs to be there to check you're doing it right. Plus, you can see how much of it you've done throughout the day and you've got something to stimulate you visually. One thing to bear in mind though is that you shouldn't simply stick to one thing - you want to chop and change between different aerobics exercises."
However, James is keen to point out some of Wii Fit's on-screen omissions, citing the need to warm up before embarking on exercises as crucial. "Another thing that concerns me slightly is that it didn't ask about wearing trainers. If you're running on a concrete floor, as with the jogging game, there's a lot of impact and jarring going through your joints which could be easily rectified by wearing decent footwear. These days, high impact exercises are kind of frowned upon because they cause hip and knee problems over time, particularly on a hard floor – carpeted flooring is much better. If someone decides they love running on the spot and does it constantly for 20-30 minutes a day, then they're going to cause themselves problems."
Despite his praise for Wii Fit's balance and aerobics components, James has serious reservations about its muscle and yoga workouts: "They're pitched at quite high levels. The problem is, guaranteed, if I told you how to do an exercise and left the room to film you, you'd do it wrong - whether that's a shoulder imbalance in a press-up or relying on momentum when you're doing a jack knife. I'd certainly be concerned that if someone's going to use this as their exclusive form of exercise without going to see a trained professional at any stage, they're not going to do the exercises properly and there's no corrective feedback - it's a machine and can't tell you you're not doing something right.
"If you've not been assessed correctly before you start doing this kind of training, you're likely to cause muscle imbalances. My worry is that it's not a particularly balanced programme – for instance, doing full press-ups is going to build muscles, it's a difficult exercise to do. However, there's not a single protraction exercise across the whole of the muscle section. Why? Because you can't do it on the floor, you need something else to do it. That means you'll cause tightness and you're not going to counteract that with something else, risking long-term posture injury." Still, James applauds the use of the Balance Board's hardware: "For some of the exercises, it's quite clever – for instance, when you have to hold your balance in the green area. It makes you concentrate on form which is good – I'd find that useful to use as a tool for a trainer, although I wouldn't necessarily want to leave people to their own devices with it.
"With regards to yoga, it's a very technical thing and I don't advice anyone touching it unless they have some one-on-one tuition to learn how to do it first. It's like a martial art – you've got to learn how to do it before you start, even the basic exercises. I would be less happy that one of my clients was doing yoga on their own instead of going to a one-on-one tuition class – purely because it's so technical."
That said, James can definitely see the benefits of Wii Fit as a tool for those who know what they're doing. "If you have someone who's going to give you professional advice," he notes, "even if it's just checking your posture every now and again, making sure everything is ticking over, then it could help counter-balance some of the bad habits you might form through using the software – in that case, fantastic. I think it's a good tool and there're a vast number of things that are beneficial. The cardio side of things - doing some exercises everyday, getting some body awareness and working on your body balance – is great.
"The good thing about the aerobics and balance stuff is that it's fun so just crack on. It's a great way of doing fitness, it's interactive. One of our biggest problems with clients is getting over the fact that training can be boring - some people can't stand gyms, can't stand running. Wii Fit can potentially make fitness feel more accessible to people who don't think it is – a gym is a very intimidating place for a lot of people. If you're someone who's particularly overweight or you're intimidated by doing things in the gym then this is an option. Doing something is better than doing nothing. I got out of breath doing a couple of pieces – that won't give me the body beautiful and it's not a replacement for good, well-structured exercise but that's going to make me fitter and should definitely be taken seriously in that respect."
Ultimately then, is Wii Fit worth the money if you're planning on bumping up your fitness levels? "If someone has a use for it and uses it in a responsible, educated manner, then it's definitely worth it, " says James, "after all, it's cheaper than an exercise bike and, frankly, a lot more fun".
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