I'm a lemming...

[selenay]

One of my resolutions, or at least intentions, this year is that I need to get fitter. Two years ago I climbed Snowdon. Today I do well to climb my stairs. Well, that's an exaggeration but it's a little embarrassing, really.

I hate gyms, but my company offers a corporate rate at a local one and I was thinking about doing that. The problem is that I probably wouldn't use it enough to justify it. Let's face it, what I'm looking for is something that I can do several times a week that only takes half an hour or forty minutes out of my day. The gym definitely wouldn't do that! By the time I drive over, change, do a circuit, clean up and change, and then drive home it's going to be more like two hours. Possibly more. Not practical after work (unless I eat really late) and guaranteed to eat up my entire evening if I do it after supper. I want to get fit, but not at the expense of never doing anything else!

There is a treadmill sitting in the corner of my rec room. I was good for a couple of weeks last year, but it's very boring and keeping up my motivation is very hard. Even worse, there's no target or incentive beyond vague thoughts of walking to Mordor and even that challenge didn't turn out to be enough. I barely made it to Wood End. Also, a treadmill on its own isn't enough to work on my upper body strength or core muscles.

One thought that I had over Christmas was a dance class, but most of the beginner sessions have filled up already and the one I did find is on a Thursday night. Even for dance, I'm not missing my knit nights for an entire term! I'll take a look in a few weeks and try to get myself into a class for the summer term, when the weather will also make me a little happier about going out.

This week a lot of my colleagues have been talking about the Wii's that they got for Christmas. Some bought them for the kids but more than a few got them for themselves. Most of the rest already had a Wii. We're thinking about how to do a Wii night as a team event :-) There is talk of projectors and working out how many remotes we can gather.

Anyway, they've all been raving about how much fun they are and how good a lot of the fitness and activity games are. Wii Fit Plus gets big thumbs up from everyone and there's a tennis game that also sounds great. I've been doing a bit of research (including a price comparison against that corporate gym membership - half the price!) and I'm thinking that it might be the answer. Lots of fun, you can set goals and get motivated, I can use it in my rec room and there's the potential for gaming evenings with fellow Wii owning friends. Hmmm.

There's one of these "buy this plus these and save x" deals on Amazon for the console, nunchuck and Wii Fit Plus with balance board that looks very good. I could use my Christmas bonus! It seems like a good place to start, anyway. There's a tennis game included with the Wii, but there's also a more advanced one that I might get further down the line. I've been weighing up all the pros and cons of my options and the Wii looks like the best of all of them. It feels weird to be thinking of a games console as a solution to my fitness dilemma (I've never owned a games console!) but perhaps this is what technological progression really is: new solutions to old problems.

Comments

[boulder-girl.livejournal.com]

I haven't played the wii fit plus but I do enjoy wii fit. I don't like the running part as it teaches horrible form and would kill my shines and ankles very quickly but I like the yoga and love the balance games. It is fun and if you do it regularly I do think it would get you to a nice base fitness level. It tracks things nicely and allows you to track your activities besides the wii fit as well (walking, running, skiing etc).

Plus it is a game console so you could play other games or try things like DDR (dance dance revolution) as there is a Mario version. It is nothing like 'real' dancing but it is fun and is a good cardio workout once you figure out how to play.

And that is enough nattering on that. :)

[selenay]

The jogging is one thing I don't intend to touch - I know that impact stuff like that will murder my back. The ability to track what I'm doing is a big part of the appeal and being able to play other active things is the other big appeal.

[netgirl-y2k.livejournal.com]

If there are two things in the world I loath it's plumbing and exercise. Okay, the plumbing's a bit random but the exercise is on topic. I actually think I'm allergic to the gym. But I adore my Wii, because it doesn't feel like exercise, okay the Wii fit does a bit, and is probably quite good if you like targets and checking your progress and the like. But the sports games are brilliant. I especially love Wimbledon, I probably burned off most of my holiday indulgences leaping around my living room like a maniac trying to beat my sister's high score, and winter sports, the downhill skiing on the balance board is brilliant.

[selenay]

Hee, a really good tennis game appeals hugely. I want to have fun while exercising so that I don't notice that I'm exercising!

[notsoshygirl.livejournal.com]

I make the treadmill bearable with my Ipod and whatever novel I'm reading at the time.

[selenay]

I've tried that :-( I still get bored really easily and can't make myself even start after a few days.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I know a couple of people who really love their Wii fit, but one of 'em hasn't kept it up.

I keep myself on the treadmill with a combination of music and either reading or computer games.

[selenay]

I've tried iPod, music, TV, reading - none of it keeps me on the treadmill. Plus I don't feel like it's doing a good job of exercising everything that needs working on.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

In my case, a computer game I like is *only* on the computer by the treadmill. But that's a terribly OTT way of keeping my ass on it.

The other thing I'd suggest is to stop trying to do something else while exercising and doing an exercise tape/dvd. You can find 'em that work out every possible part, and they have set beginnings and ends. (Another advantage - not having to go anywhere or in most cases, buy anything else special.)

But get a bunch... the one time I tried to work out all week to the same tape, I wanted to punch out the woman by Wednesday.

[paranoidangel]

I found over Christmas that it's possible to play on the Wii while sitting down :) But I'm not allowed to play tennis because I do proper strokes and consequently hit things. I don't feel the need for a Wii Fit, but then I got the Wii last year so I could have something vaguely physical to do when I needed a ten minute break and the weather was too horrible to go outside. Then after two months I was too ill to play it...

[selenay]

The weather is one of the reasons I'd like to do this - having something physical to do no matter how bad it is out there appeals.

[sazandra.livejournal.com]

My parents got a Wii back in August, okay they got a Wii for mum (don't think dad has ever played with it). My favourites are archery (my sister and I spent August bank holiday trying to beat each other), golf (beware of low flying TV remotes that you don't think are in the way but sooner or later are, as I have learned), wakeboarding and power boating. I bought Sonic and Mario at the Olympics and am totally useless at everything on it, so I am sticking to the games that came with the motion sensor plus.

[selenay]

It does look like there's a ton of fun things to do on the Wii that will get me up and moving, which is what I really want. Hmm...archery...

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

I'm often skeptical of people who buy a Wii for the Wii Fit - it sounds to me like rationalisation. But then, if you've never owned a console, perhaps you'll be okay.

I've never been one for getting fit without a reason. I used to manage a small number of exercises every day with a pair of tiny dumbbells (small amount every day being better than intermittent overdoses), but I was only properly playing Ares at Redemption, and pretty much stopped after that. The fencing supposedly would help, but there are other physical problems that mean I do far less of that than planned.

So, in other words, if you can find a goal besides getting fit - dancing, like you say - then you're more likely to keep at it.

[selenay]

It's the Fit and the tennis games that really appeal to me. I've never owned a console because I know that I'd get addicted and just sit, not moving, for hours and that would be bad. Getting addicted to a tennis game where I have to jump around sounds a lot less dangerous!

I'm terrible about getting fit without a reason. When I was training to climb Snowdon, it was easy because I had that goal. I know that this time I want to lose about six pounds and strengthen the muscles around the joints that are dislocating regularly, so it's not a totally directionless goal although I am looking around for something like the Snowdon challenge again.

Of course, having a goal like "beating that flipping computer at tennis" might help :-)

One of the big problems with living here is that it's so difficult to get out walking in the snow and I know that I don't like driving in the snow, making it much more likely that I'll give up on a dance class in the winter. The spring is therefore a better time to get myself out to a dance class. Having something that I have fun doing at home no matter the weather is a huge appeal. Perhaps that's why so many of my friends here have the Wii Fit?

[gmul.livejournal.com]

While you're at it, get Wii Sports Resort. Lots of things which can, if you want, exercise various bits of you, even sitting down if necessary.
I bought my own controller/nunchuck set at New Year since I've been playing with other people's so often. A console of my own will have to follow at some stage but first I'd have to buy a TV...