ACE gives thumbs down to Wii!

This article/press release from the American Council On Exercise (ACE) provides some solid evidence regarding the physical fitness benefits of using the Wii and other similar systems (i.e. Dancetown). The study by the ACE focused on the most challenging activities of the Wii Fit program. This decision initially suggests that Wii Sport activities (such as golf and bowling) were not included due to their relative lack of physical challenges. This would help validate my previous suspicions that using these games in schools would have little effect on student fitness and activity levels. However, ACE's chief science officer in the article, states that:


"While we found that playing the Wii Fit burns twice as many calories as a sedentary video game, the outcome of the study suggests that Wii Sports, the Wii's suite of exergames that includes tennis, boxing, golf and bowling, is a better option and more capable of helping consumers meet minimum intensity guidelines for exercise".

It seems that, surprisingly, the Wii Sports games actually do a better job than the Wii Fit games when it comes to providing users with vigorous exercise.

However, this doesn't mean that the Wii sports suite is still able to provide sufficient levels of physical activity, merely more than the underwhelming Wii Fit suite.

The research found that in all cases, performing the actual activity yielded much greater calorie expenditure than the performing the virtual equivalent.