Will a robot steal your job in the not-too-distant-future? Marshall Brain thinks there's a high possibility. And Wii Fit, released today at the
Nintendo World Store, might make you a believer. A video game for the
Nintendo Wii, Wii Fit creates a fitness routine personalized to each user -- and provides a virtual trainer to guide you through the exercises. Should personal trainers start looking for new jobs? Not quite yet, but at this rate, possibly in the future.
Wii Fit utilizes the Wii Balance Board -- a special peripheral that resembles a weight scale -- to measure your weight, center of gravity and Body Mass Index. By evaluating your performance on a few basic exercises, Wii Fit tells you which parts of your body are strong and which are weak. Like a personal trainer would do, Wii Fit schedules a goal -- two weeks, for example -- for when you'd like to see improvement in any particular area.
You can choose from four exercise categories: Strength Training, Yoga,
Aerobics and Balance. I was surprised by the Wii Balance Board's extreme sensitivity: During a push-up exercise, the board was able to detect when I dropped my hips -- and the trainer scolded me to correct myself! Disturbing but cool. I remain skeptical, however, by* Wii Fit*'s calculation that I have a perfectly balanced center of gravity. My history of back problems and sub-par performance in Wii Fit's balance exercises would beg to differ.
Is
Wii Fit enough to replace a personal trainer? Amy Cotta, a fitness expert and personal trainer, doesn't think so. She explained that Wii
Fit doesn't take into account a person's medical history to know whether a certain exercise is good or detrimental to his or her health.
"[Wii Fit] looks like a fun toy ... but as far as it being an 'exercise' device, I think they missed the mark," Cotta said in an e-mail interview.
Of course, people will always be able to do things that computers cannot, and vise versa. Personal trainers keep their clients by assessing their personalities and offering constructive feedback, and
*Wii Fit *might not do so well by [calling people "underweight" or "fat."](https://more-deals.info/games/2008/05/obesity-experts.html "calling people "underweight" or "fat."")
Regardless, Wii Fit is certainly a large step in the direction of sparing you a trip to the gym. If you're solely looking to strengthen your core or improve your balance, Wii Fit's yoga and balance exercises might be enough to get you to cancel your gym membership. For aerobics, you can just as easily burn calories by jogging outside your home, but beating your high scores on Wii Fit is a fun motivator, and you'll definitely break a sweat. As for strength training -- Wii Fit's exercises are useful and challenging, but if your main goal is to sculpt your guns, you'd probably get faster results lifting good, old-fashioned weights.
All in all, Wii
Fit is meant to make exercise fun -- and fun it is indeed. If you can't grab one at the Nintendo World Store today, you can always sprint to any video game store on May 21; the price is $89.99. Don't pull a hamstring.
Photo [qhlp/Flickr]
