Wii Fit part deux
This was an email that I recently got and I decided that I would post my response below it.
Hello Ben,
We got your bulk mailing for KDR Fitness.. I did spend some time on your web site and liked the overall concept of your program.. maybe place a photo of you and your staff in the about us section..
I wanted to say I think you miss the point of the Wii Fit.. if there is a point.. owning one I would never never say that it replaces a good fitness program and common sense nutrition life styles.. what it does is, hopefully, get young people to get off the couch and do something with their body other than push a game controller button..(come on parents get your kids active please!) .. maybe even a few adults.. it certainly does not replace a personal trainer.. or trips to the gym.. my grand daughters use the Wii Fit (and yes Guitar Hero) and both play soccer, hoops, dance, are active young adults.. I admit that I use it for yoga poses as a cool down after treadmill or elliptical work outs.. the Wii may seem like crap to a Navy Seal.. but if it motivates a kid to get up off the couch for some light weight workouts.. maybe they’ll begin to see the value in sweat equity.. now if we can just get them off fast food and high sugar sodas..
Best regards and wishes for a successful venture
My response:
Great points. Wii fit is just a bad concept period. There is no good point to it. Basically you have society saying “hey, we have a serious problem here. Our kids are the first generation in the history of human kind that are predicted to die before the parents. We have to do something about it!”. Enter the Wii and Nintendo. Enter Wii Fit. Everyones happy because they “think” that its just about getting kids active, but you have to get kids active in the right way. For instance teaching a child how to run. My girlfriends son got home from spending time with his grandparents and he told us that he played the Wii and it was a running game. The whole while he was running in place. Not a bad thing, however, running in place is not RUNNING. It is actually a single leg hop w/alternating knee drives. Running requires propulsion forward and upward initiated by the toes and finished by the force absorption of the opposite foot.
So the Wii is fit is good because it elevates your heart rate, makes you sweat, gets you breathing heavy and is better then the traditional video game. However, a high school student goes through those same body functions on their first date, or any time their “crush” walks by. I know some friends who get that way about eating a big meal! In fact, I just saw an episode of Man vs. Food where the host was kind of looking like that! Activity for activity sakes is not good in young kids. Let’s get them moving is a good quote. But it should be lets get them moving in a way we were meant to move. We were not meant to move in place, in side with incorrect tactile/visual and proprioceptive feed back. I wont even go into the incorrect messages the brain is getting with the Wii fit as it pertains to “sporting movements”. I wish I could agree with you about maybe leading them into a more active lifestyle by showing them the value of sweat. But the only real value they are getting is an external rewards based system. The more I sweat, the more points I get. Not the more I sweat, the better I can perform at my chosen activity, the better I feel, the better I look, etc.
As a stand alone, there is no excuse for using the Wii and classifying it as exercise. As a supplement, absolutely! Speaking of which I think I may challenge my girlfriend to a game of tennis now…on the Wii!
Great thoughts!
Ben
