Friday, June 20, 2008

Wii Fit Workouts

A justified complaint about Wii Fit is the lack of workouts. Other pairings between Yoga and Strength exercises, there is no guidance about how to spend your workout. This allows for freedom and self moderation, but it also can lead to aimlessness.

I have put together four workouts. The first one focuses on the core, the second one focuses on the upper body, the third one focuses on the lower body, and the fourth one focuses on the three "challenge" exercises.

You can download my sheets for these workouts here: XLS PDF

Feel free to email/post comments/questions/suggestions!

2 comments:

Foster Family said...

I couldn't agree more. We just bought a Wii and love Wii fit. However, after doing it for a week you wonder where to go from here.

Could you explain how your chart works a little more clearly?

I also don't see a 4th day.

Thanks.

Coop said...

The 4th day is the asterisks.

My idea when setting up this chart was to have day one focus on the core, day two focus on the upper body, and day three focus on the lower body. Day four was just a general "push yourself" day. I just rotated through the days.

All four days need tweaking, because I set it up when I had just unlocked the basic version of everything.

I think the Wii fit MO should be:
First, mess around and unlock everything. Next, find some "good" exercise combos and do those regularly. However, do not neglect the other exercises completely since they may become "good" with more reps/time or better technique. Finally, build a routine, stick to it, and regularly (monthly) tweak it.

Also, I am not, in any way, trained in exercise. So this is not necessarily the "right" way to organize things. I actually did not follow it for more than a few weeks. I have tried other combinations, but they haven't really kept my interest either.

We recently purchased My Fitness Coach. It looks very promising, solving the "lack of workout" and "annoying menu" problems. However, it does not have the automatic feedback mechanisms that are Wii Fit's strengths.

I just noticed EA Active in the store today for pre-order. I know nothing about it, although it looks like it could be promising. It sounds a little wimpy on the variety, but I would suggest researching it some more if you are interested in this kind of thing.