Who would’ve ever thought that playing a video game could help someone get healthy? The Nintendo Wii seems to have done just that. And, just about everyone on the planet has heard about it. The Wii has helped people put down the remote, get off their couch and get active.
The Detroit Free Press wrote in an article on Nov. 22 about a woman, Sherry Bridson, who wakes up almost daily at 3:30 a.m. to spend 90 minutes with her Wii. When Bridson started using Wii Fit, it put her on a system to lose 130 pounds – at the time that the story was written, Bridson had lost 98 pounds and was quickly closing in on her goal.
The American Council on Exercise (ACE) named technology-based fitness one of the top 10 trends in 2009. The ACE commissioned several studies to determine the success of electronic exercise. One study at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, showed that people using game fitness could almost reach six-pack abs.
In the studies produced by several universities, they found that the popular “Dance Dance Revolution” offered the most extensive workout with Wii Sports coming in second and the Wii Fit console as the most ineffective. ACE fully funded each of the studies.
