Jul 23, 2008, 4:55pm

Since Nick asked for an update (comment on a previous WiiFit rant), here goes.

Still using WiiFit almost every day, but I had a bad week last week - went off diet, drank too much booze while out having fun, and missed 3 days out of seven on the balance board. The result was, a gain of several pounds, which can be highly discouraging.

Also, I'm doing aerobics almost exclusively now - with yoga to warm up, and I've run into a bit of a problem - my two favourite aerobic exercises, advanced step and expert rhythm boxing - I've hit a bit of a wall - they're too easy now. Weird, huh? Now I sorta get how super-fit people say the Wii Fit isn't much of an exercise. I find myself wishing there was an advanced-expert boxing, and super-advanced expert boxing. And that there was a 20 minute advanced step (instead of "free step".

I have found ways around this, to make the workouts challenging and get my heart rate up which burns off the fat, albeit very slowly:

Advanced Step
I do four of these in a row - it's a 5 minute workout, so 20 mins total. I also do a lot of arm movement in rounds 2 and 4, which brings up the heart rate. In rounds 1 and 3, I really concentrate on my coordination and balance, aiming for perfect steps. That means clapping, which I still find a bit difficult to keep in timing with.

I've started upping this to six rounds, one after another, giving me a 30 minute dance step workout. I may add weights in my hands to make it more efficient in a short while.

Rhythm Boxing - Expert Level
I used to do three of these in a row as recently as 10 days ago, which would give me a workout, but make my arms tired, and take up about 45 mins (13 mins per segment). By the middle of the second round, my heart rate would be up sufficiently enough, but I've figured out a way to get the heart rate up fast, and keep it there.

First, before my first round, I do some shadow boxing - start slow, then pick it up fast. I admit I look pretty goofy doing this, so I'm glad to do it all on my own without anyone else around. I do about three or four minutes of this, getting faster and faster, and "tighter, clenched" punching. Then I start the expert round.

I know the rhythms pretty well now, so in between segments when Joe Boxer shows you your next movement, I do some fast paced shadow boxing for the 15-30 seconds of downtime... this really gets the heart pumping. It does throw me off on my timing quite a bit - I go from super fast punching to the more "slower" paced of the rhythm, so it's a challeng again, which I like (ironically enough, expert rhythm boxing on the Wii is about 50% faster than the basic or advanced levels lol). I've been doing two of these in a row for the last few days.

Other
Hula hoop hurts my back when I do it too long, and I'm not convinced it's "good" for me, so I've given it up for now. Running? Well, I don't want my downstairs neighbours to think there's a herd of elephants running above them, so I don't do it for now. I wish there were more aerobic options - I find myself searching the web now for new Wii balance board workout games in the pipeline and while there are (EA Sports plans one, some fitness chick from The Biggest Loser is planning one), they are far away. I was hoping there'd be "super advanced" hidden stuff in Wii Fit, but I've not found any reference to this so far.

I also stopped doing most of the strength exercises for now - my core muscles and endurance and stuff has always been pretty good, I just need to reduce the massive tire I carry around.

Day 47 Results
Well, my BMI is down about 4.5 points from where I started, which I'm fairly happy about, but not thrilled - it really slowed down in the past 14 days, mostly due to my own faults. I fully expected it to slow down after the first two weeks, but not stall, stop and climb a bit. Fortunately, in the past five days it's started creeping down again, which is a good sign. I need to stop going to Costco. ;)

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