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Wii-Habilitation - How the Nintendo Wii and the Wii Fit Are Pioneering Gamercising
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Since its release in 2006, the Nintendo Wii has skyrocketed to success among gaming consoles and revolutionized the way people play games through the use of its unique controls. The console has been so popular that it sold more units than both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 combined during the first half of 2007, and has been at times difficult to find in stores since its release.
Unique to the Wii has been its ability to gain traction in areas not traditionally thought of for gaming consoles such as physical therapy. Due to its interactive format and motion sensitive controls, the Wii has seen increasing use as an aid in physical therapy.
Dr. Justin Liu, chair of back and trauma rehabilitation at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, developed a program named "Wii-habilitation" which uses the Wii in ways that move the body similar to traditional therapy exercises. This program is used to help patients recovering from strokes, spinal injury, broken bones and surgery.
And St. Mary's isn't alone in its use of the Wii for physical therapy. Ohio State University Medical Center's Dodd Hall Rehabilitation Hospital has been prescribing Wii time ever since Robbie Winget, an occupational therapist at Dodd Hall, heard about a rehab hospital in Canada using the console.
The Wii Fit, which includes a balance board extension to the Nintendo Wii, launched in the U.S. on May 19th and was designed with exercise and fitness in mind. Considering the amount of traction the Nintendo Wii has already received from the physical therapy community, the introduction of the Wii Fit may very well revolutionize how hospitals go about the process of physical rehabilitation.
The Wii Fit comes with over 40 activities including an extensive set of yoga poses and mini-games that stress the use of balance and coordination. The balance board extension that comes with Wii Fit is capable of measuring weight, center of gravity, and can calculate the user's body mass index when given their height.
Among the activities on the Wii Fit are aerobic and muscle-building exercises. The system can track a user's progress and will unlock additional activities based on that progress. These unlocked activities include new yoga poses and muscle-building activities.
Alongside these traditional exercises are a series of mini-games that can inject a high dose of fun into a workout. These games include ski jumping, snowboard slaloms, tightrope walking and a neat game where the player uses their head to knock flying soccer balls towards a net but must be careful not to mistakenly use their head to deflect objects such as a telephone or a shoe.
The idea of gamercising is gaining traction with new exercise programs targeted at the Wii Fit's balance board. Majesco has announced a new balance board title aimed at the gamercising crowd titled Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009. And, as you might have surmised from the title, The Biggest Loser star Jillian Michaels will be featured in the game.
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