We’ve owned a Wii Fit for nearly 2 months so I thought it would be a good time to write down some first impressions. I’ve got to say that overall I’m very impressed with it. Build quality is brilliant, the actual levels of the activities are broad enough to suite most people, starting of very easy and yet going to very tough. Some of the later muscle challenges would be enough to test even the fittest person. The biggest disappointment with it as a whole is nothing to do with the fitness side, but rather the scales.

Whilst the pressure sensitive pads are great at sensing even the slightest movements they just don’t seem very accurate as scales. Your weight will fluctuate all over the place which can put you off if you’ve been working hard for weeks. Wii-Fit also wants to measure your weight each day which I just don’t agree with, there is no quicker way to put somebody of trying to get slimmer than pushing their daily weight fluctuations in their face. I’d suggest you only weigh yourself once a week (and try to move the Wii Fit onto a solid surface) and ignore the BMI guide. BMI was so 1990’s! It just doesn’t take any account of natural body shape and you’ll always end up confused by it.

As a fitness tool the Wii Fit has various categories. Yoga, Muscle, Cardio and Balance. My wife (a big fan of the Wii Fit Yoga) asked one of her colleagues who is a Yoga instructor about it and she said that the Wii Fit Yoga moves are quite advanced from the start. Do it often and you’ll certainly feel the difference in your posture. The muscle work outs are all based on using your own body as resistance. This is a great way to workout and as I said above some of the challenges are extremely difficult, even to the fittest person. I can easily push out a few hundred push-ups but having to do them deliberately slow on the Wii Fit is always a challenge. The Cardio side is probably the weakest of all, you’re just not going to get a great cardio workout in your living room. But I’ll say this, IT DOES WORK. I strapped myself to my Polar heart monitor and went at the hula, boxing and running for half an hour. I managed to burn over 220 good fatty calories. That’s not too shabby at all, not quite cross-trainer workout level but if you’re the sort of person who spends their evenings glued to a TV then it’s good enough. Finally there are the balance games, probably the most like traditional computer games. These are great fun but I’m not sure how much they do for your balance. My balance has always been great so it’s hard to judge.

So the Wii Fit in my opinion delivers everything it promises, it will work your body. Even for people who just don’t like exercise, 40 minutes on the Wii Fit might be acceptable. For example last week my wife (an avid anti exercise fan) wouldn’t take a walk down the shop. It’s only a 15 minute return journey. But she would go on the Wii Fit and managed to do nearly an hour. Whilst the Wii Fit might not change your attitude to exercise, you’ll probably find it fun enough to keep it going.

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