I’m weak, I could stand to lose 22 pounds and I have the agility of an 80-year-old (I’m 53).

I paid $324 for this?

On Christmas Day, the Wii Fit entered our home, storming in with the attitude of a boot camp sergeant none-too-happy with its new recruits. It told the 11-year-old she was teetering on being overweight (she’s nowhere near: she eats better than any kid I know and is twice as active). It told the 15-year-old he was weak (he won the high school division of a local mountain bike race series this summer). And in addition to telling me I’m weak, a bit heavy and old, suggested I’m “unbalanced” as well.

I wouldn’t say I’d resisted getting the video gaming system intended to get you off the couch and into the action. But I hadn’t been convinced of its merits enough to spring for one until Nintendo recently cut the price of the Wii system $50, to $199.99. That seemed enough of a drop to justify weighing in on the debate around the Wii’s place in the nation’s ongoing battle of the bulge. There’s general consensus that waving the Wii Remote to play tennis or golf, or faux running on the Balance Board is better than sitting on the couch. Beyond that, though, will a Wii workout really help you get in shape? (Nintendo is careful not to make any claims about its Wii and Wii Fit, simply saying of the latter that it “is a fun, easy way for you, your friends and your family to exercise every day.”)

Obviously, with the chance to go snowboarding, ski jumping and to knocked silly by giant black balls on a mile-high obstacle course, the kids and I weren’t going to start with the Wii Fit’s more serious side. The Balance Board, we discovered, lends itself well to certain activities, not so well to others. Snowboarding down a slalom course on the Balance Board felt somewhat realistic (though I never saw stars after falling backwards and smacking the back of my head). Running the obstacle course, however, my Wii Me counterpart often continued on after I’d stopped, sending him/me/us into the abyss. The Wii Remote was more on target: I sliced just as bad with my WiiWood as I used to with a Driver. And I still can’t hit a high inside fastball, even if it’s thrown by what appears to be a 12-year-old Wii girl.

It’s fun, I thought, but … .

Then we switched to the strength training component.

Strength training includes 15 exercises. Some work your arms, some your legs, most your core muscle group, especially your abs. If you’re new to an exercise, your “personal trainer” walks you through it, then does the exercise with you. I started with push ups and side plank, and was disappointed to see we were starting with just six reps. Three days a week, I’ve been doing a workout that includes 95 push ups. What am I going to get out of this? I wondered.

For one, I was going to get schooled in how to do exercises correctly. My trainer had perfect form (one of the advantages to being animated), and I discovered by mirroring her moves my form — and what I was getting out of the exercise — was getting better as well.  Instead of rifling through my push ups, I was executing them slowly, better working my muscles.
Ditto the jackknife. Begin by laying on your back with heels on the Balance Board, then create a “V” by raising your legs and arms, keeping them straight. Hold for a two-count, release on the whistle. Ten reps. I may not have executed them perfectly, but watching my personal trainer on the screen and mirroring her moves I know I was doing them better than I would on my own. Same with the lunges that followed (10 reps, each leg) and the sideways leg lift (10 reps, each leg). I did three sets of the four exercises, intently focused on my trainer and mirroring her perfect form. After 30 minutes I felt like I’d had a good non-aerobic workout. Better, certainly, than the routine I’d been doing on my own.

Aerobically, I didn’t see anything on first pass that could truly benefit me. I’ve been backpacking and hiking about 70 miles every other week for the past few months, try to ride my bike three to five hours on the alternating weeks. Pretending to walk on the Balance Board was a distant second to those activities. But I did come away feeling that I’d stumbled onto something that could overhaul my strength training and build my core.

Later, feeling pumped, I returned to explore a little more. Apparently, the Wii Sergeant sensed my confidence and felt compelled to put my in my place. When I stepped on the Balance Board for session two, after a break that included Christmas dinner, it remarked with robotic smirk: “Your weight has changed since the last time you played.”

Probably not a wise thing to say to someone diagnosed as unbalanced.

I’ll report back in a few days, and continue reporting periodically, on how my Wii Fit experiment is coming along.