Wii, Wii, Wii, All The Way Home

My lack of luck with technology continued yesterday when I went to do some of the 30 Day Shred video. We're a fairly geeky household (thanks to my husband) so many of our videos are saved on a server in the basement and accessed via a Mac Mini computer in our entertainment center and displayed on our television. Well, usually they would be accessed via that computer. Except yesterday it informed me that the specified file path was not available. Ooookay.

With the husband out of town and me just generally feeling like a big slug, I debated not doing anything at all. But, it's pretty rare that I have the house all to myself (except for the dog). Since I tend to feel self-conscious doing an exercise video in front of other people (although, I'm fine in a class and I don't seem to care that we have a huge picture window in our living room sans window coverings) I really wanted to take advantage of the empty house.

Thwarted by the inability to access the 30 Day Shred video, I decided to break out the Wii Fit. I got Fit for Christmas this past December but rarely break it out. Running and the gym took up most of my allotted exercise time. The introduction of the 30 Day Shred video took up the rest. In addition, I don't feel like I get that great of a workout from the Wii Fit. But it was what I had yesterday so it's what I did.

I did 30 minutes of aerobics first. Advanced Step, Rhythm Boxing, and some Super Hula Hoop. I admit, even with my dance background it took me a little bit to figure out the Advanced Step. And some of the advanced rhythm boxing, while incredibly fun, was also frustrating. It really took a lot of concentration. Super Hula Hoop really just makes me break a sweat.

After the aerobics, I moved on to strength training. First I tried the move where you do a push-up and then switch to a side plank. While, yes, I can do push-ups and side planks, I can't do them as slowly as the Wii would like me to. 4 months of Pilates and I still score a zero. I did better on the other strength moves I tried. Four star rating on most.

Then it was on to yoga. I tried a few new moves, did some of my favorites (Warrior and Tree come to mind) and scored as Yoga Trainer on most. I finished up doing the Ski Jump balance game since it's the only one I like.

Overall I did 50 minutes (well, actually over an hour if you count the breaks while switching between exercises), broke a sweat, and have a few sore upper back muscles today.

I have to say, though, that my biggest complaint with the Wii Fit (and one that I've seen on other websites) is that there is no way that I've found to set up a string of exercises and just let it run. No, you have to pick and choose and wait while it loads each exercise. It would also be nice if you could choose a time limit and it would choose which exercises to do. Otherwise I'm sure I'd just do the few exercises that I like and ignore the rest. There are separate games out there, though, that allegedly do something like this. The first one that comes to mind is Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009. Anyone tried that one? What did you think? It gets really bad reviews on Amazon. I guess there's still a market out there for an actual "personal trainer" game for the Wii.

Have you ever used the Wii Fit? What did you think? What are your favorite exercises on it?