Can Wii Fit Help Posture?

can wii fit help postureBalance and Posture

A healthy posture is made up of several interlinked components – muscle tone, flexibility, movement, and alignment. When all these factors are working correctly, your body naturally falls into a healthy posture. When any one of them is less than optimal, a common side effect will be poor balance. The good news is that if you improve your balance, you will also improve your posture. Which leads us to ask, can a simple device like a Nintendo Wii Fit be used to improve your balance and hence your posture?

Can Wii Fit Help Posture?

In a word, yes.

Way back inĀ 2009 Nintendo released their revolutionary product the Wii Fit Plus which included a unique input device, the balance board. The balance board can measure all sorts of information about the person standing on it, including their weight distribution (centre of balance). This ability, coupled with some simple, fun games, means that users can train themselves to stand in a more balanced stance. A balanced stance translates to healthy posture.

Wii Fit Plus Balance Games

There have been over 80 games written to work with the balance board. The Wii Fit Plus package released in 2009 included remakes of some of the best. The following games are in the Training Plus section and are all played while standing on the balance board. They are designed to help train your balance.

woman on wii balance boardIsland Cycling
Rhythm Kung-Fu
Driving Range
Segway Circuit
Bird’s-Eye Bulls-Eye
Snowball Fight
Obstacle Course
Tilt City
Rhythm Parade
Big Top Juggling
Skateboard Arena
Table Tilt Plus
Balance Bubble Plus
Basic Run Plus

How Accurate is the Wii Fit Balance Board?

There have been several scientific studies into the reliability and accuracy of the system. The general consensus is that it is very accurate. You can read a comprehensive summary of the research here.

Other Ways a Wii Fit Can Help Posture

Strength and flexibility are two other areas that the Wii Fit can help with. The Plus version includes flexibility activities such as Gate and
Grounded V. The strength activities are Balance Bridge, Single-Leg Reach, and Side Lunge.

The yoga training section is actually quite advanced and people wanting to do the exercises might benefit from some technique instruction first. Yoga is an excellent way to improve posture, but it is also a very precise exercise where the way you perform each move is vital to its effectiveness.

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