Saturday, September 29, 2007

Forget the Gym Get a Wii

Here's a thought. Want to save money? Get a Nintendo Wii. Yeah, like I needed an excuse. Well, actually I did need an excuse so I bought it for my son's birthday. He loves it, and so do I. I knew the Wii would be lots of fun for the entire family, but what I didn't know was that playing the Wii can be real physical exercise.

People who know me, know that I cannot be bothered with physical exercise, with the exception of skiing which is an expensive and unfortunately all too rare activity for me. However, yesterday evening I spent three hours straight playing tennis, boxing and baseball against my brother who is in town for a visit. Best of all I did it all on the Wii.

You know what? After two rounds of Wii boxing you work up a sweat and your heart starts pounding. After three games of Wii tennis you feel like you just finished a good 3 kilometer run. In fact, after the first few Wii tennis games with my wife, my muscles were sore for a couple of days. It's a real workout.

So here's a heretical thought. Want to save $50 a month? Drop your gym membership. You can get a great cardio work out for the one time fee of $249. All you need to do is buy a Wii. It's fun and even better, it's a bargain.

3 comments:

Traciatim said...

I also have a Wii (the only reason was I won the 50/50 at work). I agree it's a pretty good workout, but you can 'cheat'. In tennis youdon't actualy have to stand and swing, you could do it all with your wrist. It's far from as much fun though.

I rented the game 'The Bigs' for a week. After the first night of pitching I couldn't play for 2 days because my shoulder hurt too much.

Once you get Wii Fit (The balance board thing) it will be even that much more of a compelling reason to pick one of these up. Nintendo really has a big hit with their game system for everyone marketing campaign.

Now, if only 2 years ago I was buying Nintendo Stock.

Armchair Fiduciary said...

I just got a Wii too and I love it. I would ease into it though. I consider myself fairly healthy as I run about 40 miles per week, and Wii Tennis actually made me sore which is kind of embarrassing.
Regardless, the Wii is great fun and a much more financially sound choice than the more expensive xbox 360 and PS3 if you ask me. Also don't foreget to get a Wii Points card and download your favorite old Nintendo games for cheap.

Anonymous said...

I own a Wii and I definitely agree with your article. Wii Boxing is a really fun aerobic workout.

Not too much for strength building though =)