Word. I got the other plank exercise unlocked this morning. In that one you just have to hold yourself in push-up position with your forearms on the balance board. That was hard as hell too.
Yeah, the plank is a doozy. I try to get that one in each day. I often don’t make it through.
I’m getting close to having unlocked all the exercises - I just have to unlock two of the strength ‘challenges’, a couple more yoga poses and the lower-right on aerobics (one of the running things, I believe?). I still have plenty of exercises to unlock more reps for, though.
I love Rhythm Boxing. Right now I’m doing mostly that and a little step and hula hoop for aerobics, and the rest of the time split between yoga and strength. Sometimes I’ll do the balance games for ‘cooldown’ but they don’t seem to do much for fitness.
I like the boxing too. I also like the straight step - i have a set of hand weights that i use with that to get some arm movement in. 20 or 30 minutes of that is nice some times.
I’m aiming for about 45 minutes of the aerobic portion and about 15 minutes of yoga/strength/balance (balance just as I cool down though) daily. I learned that if I aim for daily and occasionally do less/skip a day I’m ok with it, but if I aim for 5 days, I’m much more likely to only do 3 days.
People’s feedback here sound great, I think it’s now on my next buy list.
Between the board, and the wiimote, I have just imagined the coolest game in the universe. My idea is free to any game developers reading this…
Segway Lightsaber Joust!
One reason to get a Wii fit (if you have a cute girlfriend)
(mildly NSWF - tshirt and panties)
Brian
That…is…AWESOME! Make it happen someone! STAT!
I tried to track one down yesterday - they are unobtainable. Any sources that aren’t stupidly expensive?
Same here. I’ve stopped at a couple of game stores in the last few days; they’re all sold out (of course) but what gets me is no one knows when more are coming in. Guess I’ll have to just keep checking in…
The young (seriously, man, when did retail salespeople start being diaper-clad infants?) man at Gamestop told me that Nintendo doesn’t even know when more are shipping. That seems like it is probably not true.
I found mine at Target on Tuesday, where they only had two. Your best bet is to keep checking back and see if you get lucky. I personally wouldn’t go the scalpers yet; I bet Nintendo is cranking these things out as fast as possible (they like money, after all). You also may want to check places not everyone thinks of, like Blockbuster.
I tried online at Target on Saturday and it sold out while I was perusing the other available games (got yoinked right out of my cart). I tried again Sunday a number of times, and around 8 am some more appeared as available. I guess you have to be persistent.
We’ve had similar problems tracking down Mario Kart Wii in our area. Most of my (small) company is playing, and trying to get copies for people who didn’t get it right at launch has proved exceptionally difficult.
Essentially what we have heard from local vendors is that they do not receive advance notice of Nintendo products. They are shipped by Nintendo and the first notification the local stores get is when they arrive. Some places say Sunday mornings, but, the best strategy we have found is to call around on weekday mornings or just ask everyone to watch out for them when they’re out and about.
Try places like Target, Sears, and K-mart, as they aren’t being monitored as closely by gaming fiends as Best Buy is and tend to get greater quantities than game stores. Failing that, buy online. My boss had to order Mario Kart Wii through Newegg.com after searching for about a week, though. Wii Fit is just as difficult to find.
Someone actually took it out of your cart? Seriously? Jesus.
Ah, I missed that key word “online.” That makes much more sense.
I think part of what Least Original User Name Ever was trying to say is that you’ll outgrow Wii Fit quickly unless you are pretty out of shape. To make progress past casual levels of fitness you’ll need more advanced exercises and routines. That’s not to say that you can’t get in good shape with just body weight exercises — because you can get in crazy shape from doing gymnastics skills, which are almost entirely body-weight based — but Wii Fit by itself is only going to get you so far.
The good things about the game are that it gets you moving, gets you competitive with yourself (which is better for most people than external competition for long-term motivation), and gets you into a routine. Like that guy who blogged about his Wii Fit experiences, it’s probably great for getting you “addicted” to exercising.
For those reasons, even though my personal standards of fitness are darn high and getting higher as I get in increasingly better shape (I do Crossfit) I still think that Wii Fit is valuable for the target audience. Light exercise like that featured in the game is a whole lot better than nothing, and it makes a much better launching point for real workouts than ass-on-the-couch. If you do Wii Fit like that guy with the blog did, you’re going to be past the achy “I don’t want to do this” stage and probably ready to start some basic weight lifting or other strength work.
If you’re motivated to get in good shape, as opposed to just not-fat and not-all-that-flabby, you will greatly benefit from having access to some equipment. A pull up bar or rings, if nothing else. This is where a gym membership is probably a good idea. You can set up a home gym, if you have space, but it’ll cost you a thousand to maybe two for good long-term equipment. Unless you know without a doubt that you’re going to actually use the stuff for at least a couple of years of regular workouts, a gym membership is more cost effective.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if that would happen in a store, though!
Silly me thought that it being in the website’s online shopping cart meant it had “dibs” on it for a reasonable amount of time. I think I was poking around the website for 10-15 minutes looking at the other stuff, I put Resident Evil 4 in the “cart” too, and saw both items in there. Now the next part is a little unclear in my memory but I’m about 90% sure I put in all of my billing info and hit submit, and then it said something about an error and popped up the order again minus the Wii bundle.
It did arrive yesterday and both my husband and I have used it. He’s overweight but in good shape in many ways - he’s a letter carrier who walks his route, and so he walks several miles per day with a heavy bag on his shoulder. He has a decent amount of muscle on his body under the extra pounds, though his legs are far more developed than his upper body. He put in 30 minutes of activities on the Fit yesterday and was sweating lightly at the end.
If you haven’t tried the Fit - it is harder than it looks! I found a lot of it comparable to when I took tai chi in college - the balancing requirement turns what look like simpler exercises into carefully posed moves where various muscle groups whine about the tension/positioning. This is especially true of the “Strength Training” exercises which are not weightlifting by any means - though you could add hand, wrist, or ankle weights to these exercises as you get better at them.
It’s definitely not a gym membership, and for a lot of people, that’s a good thing. It’s fun, it keeps me focused and interested, it’s easy to start doing. I found myself laughing when I made mistakes, rather than getting frustrated - it can be annoying if you’re not doing the moves right in an aerobics class, but if you’re trying to “head” back electronic soccer balls and accidentally get “beaned” with a panda toy thrown instead of a ball, it’s hard not to laugh.
Fit users: I’m not sure if I’ve gotten the idea behind the jogging - I mean, I try to keep a slow pace behind the pace-setter, attempting to match his speed while leaving a good gap, and I got decent scores the two runs that I did, but is that the best way to do it? My husband noticed you could get the guy to run faster if you came up close behind him, but then a little later he got a warning about keeping to 60% of the pace or something like that. Does that mean sticking to that runner’s initial speed is the ideal? He keeps turning around and waving and I don’t know if he’s encouraging me to speed up, or trying to tell me I’m doing fine, or if he’s just the most popular Mii-dude on the island and is waving to his adoring fans. The other exercises are pretty clear so far but I thought this one was just a tad confusing to me.
My SO is really into the running bit (not my cuppa). He’s “pushed” the pace-setter’s pace to go much faster. In fact, the third time he did the jogging, he got 103% which I didn’t know was possible. He was pretty much running in place but didn’t pass the pace-setter.
I passed the pace setter and followed the dog off on an alternate path.
I think the “free” step exercise is my new favorite activity. In that one the game plays the audio cues (clicks) through the remote so you can flip away from the Wii and watch TV while you’re stepping. I did 50 minutes today watching a Law and Order rerun. 
Yeah it’s a light workout (although it can start to burn if you grab some hand weights), but hey, it’s better than sitting on the couch. 
So, now that many of you have had Wii Fit for a little while and the initial honeymoon might be fading…are you still enjoying it? If you’ve unlocked everything, are you still motivated? Would you still recommend it to others?
It’s working out to be exactly what I need for a couple reasons. Here’s what I’m getting out of it:
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I like having something to track my progress. It keeps track of how much time I’ve spent exercising, and how much weight I’ve lost (around 3 pounds in the first week) on handy graphs. Yeah I know you can do this with a scale and some paper, but hey.
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I kind of like yoga.
I never would have known that otherwise. I sure wouldn’t have signed up for a yoga class at the gym. -
I’m finding it really easy to at least get in 20 or 30 minutes of “free step” every day. Watching TV while I’m stepping makes the time fly by. Today I put a board under the balance board to put a couple extra inches on the steps and held 5lb hand weights to make it a little more difficult (swinging my arms appropriately of course), and it worked. I was wiped after 30 minutes.
Overall, I feel like it’s a good thing for me. It’s convenient to be able to just pull it out whenever I have a few minutes. And I don’t have to go out in the 100F Texas heat to jog or hit the gym. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who just needs to get off the couch a bit. Obviously as mentioned above you’re probably not going to get yourself ready for a triathalon with the game, but if you’re motivated enough, you’ll get out of it what you put in.