Wii home exercise booming (bust-ing?)

Thu Jun 18 11:05AM by Yahoo! UK Games Editor

Recent articles

British women prefer time at home with Wii Fit to holding a gym membership, according to report findings today. They need to be more careful though.

The Daily Telegraph reports that 13 million women now prefer to exercise at home than head to the gym, and the trend is being fuelled by the success of console and PC exercise software, among them Wii Fit. The figure compares to 8.7 million women who are actively visiting the gym or have held a gym membership within the last year.

Indeed Wii Fit is one of the most popular alternatives to treadmills and music videos. The survey upon which the Telegraph story is based, conducted for Sheilas' Wheels home insurance, ranked Wii Fit third after walking (63%) and swimming (34%). Wii Fit (22%) is more popular with women than cycling or going to the gym (both 17%).

It's heartening to learn from the Sheilas' Wheels research that exercising has increased "six-fold" in the past year among women. Anecdotally, a young female friend of ours started out on Wii Fit and was so encouraged by the yoga that she took up Pilates.

A word of warning: accidental household damage amounting to £1.3 billion has been caused by these ladies exercising indoors. Vases are the most commonly destroyed items, but TVs have been getting a tough time of it also from the likes of low-flying Wii Remotes.

The girls themselves are suffering too - almost a fifth of them injured last year at home through flailing their arms and hopping around like good 'uns. They'll know better next time. If the TV still works we're good (just kidding).

Any health professionals / coaches care to comment on all this? Care to share your Wii Fit horror stories? Let's hear it!

Comment on this article

Please to add your comments.

User comments

  • (1)

    Yes I love exercising using the Wii Fit. I also play tennis each morning on the Wii Play, and workout using My Fitness Coach. I do, however, have gym membership and swim once a week!

    Posted by: sueallbrighton on Thu Jun 18 09:16PM | Report abuse
  • (2)

    Run your fat bloated arses around your local town a bit more and get some real exercise instead of reaching for the cream cakes

    Posted by: zebeedee1968 on Thu Jun 25 11:37PM | Report abuse
  • (3)

    Wii fit, fitness coach and sports active give mothers with young children the opportunity to exercise in their own time. Also with the rising cost of living its a lot cheaper than gym membership or classes. Anything that gets people active has to be good doesn't it? And they can always pay for their new games with the insurance payouts on the broken vases.

    Posted by: paulinefernley on Fri Jun 26 10:29AM | Report abuse