Off Topic

Whoever said that you can’t get fit on a Wii Fit never tried the Expert level of Rhythm Boxing, or even Super Hula Hoops: 2 minutes into the 10-minute boxing session, the sweat is running down my back. You can get fit with this, and I’m on a mission to drop some weight and get fit over the summer while my travel schedule is light.

The Wii Fit journey started in late May, when we scored one for my mom for her 85th birthday and had a fun weekend at their place trying it out; a week ago when we returned from holidays, we picked up one for ourselves. After having to reset the first few days of results due to an error in setting the original date (the Wii does not shift the date of your results when you change the date on the device, making for some weirdnesses: get it right the first time), we’re now on day 7 of using the Wii Fit.

One big benefit is the daily body test: each day, you can check your weight and balance — the Wii uses balance as a measure of your fitness — and track your weight and BMI on a graph. That lets me see, for example, that I’ve dropped 2 pounds in the 7 days that I’ve been using it, which is very encouraging. My BMI indicates that I’m over the line from “normal” into “overweight”, and my goal is to get that back into the normal range, which is only 6 pounds away at this point, and further into the range to be close to the ideal BMI of 22.

The Wii Fit gradually unlocks the full range of exercises available as you accumulate time, and I have most activities unlocked (except for some of the strength exercises, which I’m not using yet); some activities also have basic, advanced and expert levels within them, so there’s even more variation that you might guess from the initial menus.

Although I do want to work on strength eventually, my morning workout current consists of about 30 minutes of aerobics — a combination of the advanced step class and rhythm boxing to get both the upper and lower body working — and 30 minutes of yoga once the muscles are warm from the aerobics. The yoga positions are really good, since most of them are done on the Wii balance board, and correct your position by noting when you’re off balance. It has a demo for each yoga position, telling you what muscles to contract and how to do the move, and an on-screen instructor does the pose with you. I’ve had pain in my left shoulder for several months now, and the yoga is helping it a lot.

There’s also balance games, which are fun and do help improve your balance and therefore build up some of your core muscles, but not really a workout: I use these mostly when I want to take a break from my desk.

The real advantage for me is the ability to do all this in my living room: although there’s a gym in our condo building, I rarely use it since even the minimal hassle of going down there seems too much, and takes me away from my phone in case of a client call if I’m working out during business hours. Also, the Wii is just a lot more fun.

I just saw this unfortunate juxtaposition of headlines in my newsreader, both published in the G&M health news within a few hours of each other:

Isn’t an editor supposed to check for things like this?

Our new exercise regimen started this week on Monday: three days per week on weight training, alternating between upper and lower body, and the alternate three days per week on aerobic exercise. Sunday, we rest. We’re doing the Body for Life plan which requires only about 45 minutes on the weights days and 20 minutes on the cardio days, so it’s hard to make the excuse that it takes too much time. However, with Damir off to a customer early each day this week, that means getting up at 5:30, in the gym by 6 at the latest, and back here for a shower by 7. I’ve never been an early riser, but I’m finding this not too difficult and even waking up before the alarm, maybe because we’re doing it together. Or maybe because I’ve cut out most alcohol during the week.

I started with upper body on Monday, and yesterday my arms and chest muscles were aching. Today was lower body, which is a lot harder because of an ancient injury to both of my quadriceps that makes it difficult to do even the easiest exercises. A few weeks of workouts should take care of that. I like a lot of the lower body exercises because I can really feel the muscles stretching (I may not be liking that so much tomorrow when the pain sets in): I feel like I’ve become too inflexible and the stretching of my calves and hamstrings feels good. The upper body ones are just weird — I guess because most women don’t do anything to develop their upper body, me included, and trying to find my triceps, much less work them out, is difficult. I have to keep moving things around slightly to make sure that I’m even working the right muscles and not causing any undue joint strain. I hope to start dropping some weight after the first few weeks, I’m currently as zaftig as I’ve ever been, and it doesn’t feel comfortable — I’d be happy to drop 20 pounds or so over the next several months. Oh yeah, did I mention that this program is 12 weeks to start?!

One cool thing about getting up much earlier than I usually do is that when I turn on my computer around 7, I see a wide variety of friends available on Skype: Australia, Europe and other early-rising North Americans all online at once.