Nintendo Wii Update / Mental Health Benefits

I usually don't blog twice in a day, but I thought this would be interesting. I wrote in a previous blog post about my Nintendo Wii as an exercise alternative. See the article linked below (or on the left nav bar in August):

http://www.throughabceyes.com/2009/08/nintendo-wii-as-exercise-alternative.html

Since I wrote the post, I've personally played the Wii quite a bit. I use it as an exercise alternative on those days I don't get much physical activity. I've even used the Wii recently to supplement any other exercise I've done during the day. I currently only have Wii Sports to play with but it's been good enough thus far.

I also mentioned that my mom's doctor recommended she get more exercise. While walking should be my mom's primary form of exercise, I introduced my mom to the Wii to get her some additional exercise as well. I initially planned to just have my mom do the Wii Fitness portion of the Wii Sports package. Alas, that plan didn't work out. My mom struggled with the speed of the baseball and tennis games as her reaction time wasn't good. Given time and practice, she probably would have gotten the hang of it.

However, I wanted something she could learn more quickly. After exploring, I found that the bowling and golf target practice games worked well. Both games required only simple button pushing and arm movements to play. I should note that I taught my mom to simulate the action bowling a real ball and swing a golf club instead of flicking the write like some people do. I figured that would get her more exercise (I do this myself as well). It took my mom a relatively short amount of time to learn how to play both games. In fact, my mom torched me in one round of the golf target game 495 points (!!?!?!) to 255 points.

Admittedly, the physical benefits of playing these games aren't huge unless we play it for hours. However, burning off even a few calories is beneficial for someone her age. One unexpected benefit may be for my mom's mental health. My mom got a great deal of joy scoring 495 points on the golf target game (I don't think she cared about beating me). I underestimated how the sense of accomplishment could make someone feel better.

There are many studies on how the Nintendo Wii has helped various segments of society. While I don't have any scientific proof to back what I see, I definitely see the Wii has had a positive impact on my mom. I didn't expect how much she would like playing with the system but I am not complaining!