In the past, my good intentions to exercise have only paved the way to greater inertia and exercise avoidance. If only exercise were actually FUN rather than merely dreary dues one has to pay to one’s body and mind to help keep it fit, I used to say, I might actually do it.
So, following a tip from a friend, I got myself a Wii system and Wii Fit Plus.
I installed the Wii system first. I don’t have a TV; instead, I have a VCR which shows tapes through a video projector, the kind people use when giving talks with slides in an auditorium. I use the wall as the screen, and placing the projector nearer to or farther from the screen makes the image smaller or larger. No chasing larger and larger TV screens for me, even if I could afford to do it. Just push the projector table a little farther back. I can see Lawrence of Arabia, 13 feet wide, in my very own basement! Or interact with a 30″ Wii image.
The Wii system uses a sensor bar to detect motions of the remote when you play games or do exercises. When installing it, you have to place the sensor bar above or below the TV — and I don’t have a TV. But I was able to place the sensor bar on my side of the video projector, and that works fine. Ah, the virtual world!
I had some fun right away playing sports from the Wii Sports disc that came with the Wii unit. I played baseball, and didn’t do badly as a batter; but I realized my right elbow won’t let me pitch anymore. I’ll have to see if there’s a way I can do just batting practice; or I’ll have to learn to pitch left-handed. Guess how you bat: you hold the remote in two hands, as you would the handle of the bat, and you swing. That’s it! The system senses the remote’s motions. I hit a triple and a double, but I also struck out. The system tells you if you’re too early or too late on your swing when you have a strike.
The next day, I installed Wii Fit Plus. It uses a balance board and sometimes the remote to let the system sense what and how you are doing in various activities.
I learned that I need to keep the sound on. Since the text describing what comes next or offering choices is written on the screen, and since I find sound distracting while I’m reading, I had turned the sound off. But once I got my head down with downward-facing dog in the warmup, I couldn’t see the screen, so didn’t know how I was doing or how long to stay in that position. My guess: the trainer was telling me… but the sound wasn’t on.
I did really well on the warrior pose, getting a rank of “Yoga master” — 4 stars out of 4. By contrast, I was a mere “Chickadee” (1 star out of 4) in flying (barely made it to the first landing pad — still a fledgling). Coordinating leaning forward to go forward on screen and waving faster to go higher, and having to steer, too, by leaning left or right, will take more practice. It’s a little like driving a shift car at first: it seems as if you don’t have enough legs and arms to do all the things you need to do. I now know how fledglings feel when they try to fly from the nest for the first time. I think.
I also bicycled partway around the virtual island, although I kept overcorrecting the steering. (You stand on the board to pedal, stepping from foot to foot; but you hold the remote crossways in two hands to steer.) Maybe I should try to go a little slower until I get more used to it; it’s not a time trial. A dog barked at me because I passed too near him, and I managed to crash into the third flag… Ah well, the virtues of the virtual! No cuts and bruises for me — and nobody else hurt, neither the dog nor the flagpole. It’s easy to walk away and try again another day!
The up-front body test, which helps you measure your progress, told me my Wii age is 3 years younger than my chronological age. Woot! Once I finish digesting brunch — I’m waiting that hour or more after eating, just as you should before going back into the water when you’re at the beach– I’m going to go downstairs and try it all again!
