Study: Nintendo Wii fails cardiovascular fitness test

The shockwave arrival of the motion-sensing Nintendo Wii might have managed to successfully pry the assess of static gamers off their collective couches but the question remains ‘is it really beneficial as an exercise tool?’ Nintendo Wii does not provide a good cardio workout, says Canadian university study. Credit: Nintendo.

Nintendo Wii does not provide a good cardio workout, says Canadian university study. Credit: Nintendo.According to a new study carried out by twenty-eight students at Dalhousie University in the Canadian city of Halifax, the answer would appear to be no, reports the Reuters news agency.After fourth-year kinesiology student Justin White noticed just how much interaction exertion was necessary during a bout of Wii boxing in the hugely popular Wii Sports title, he moved to form an exercise test that he and his peers in the Applications in Exercise Physiology class then promptly tested against other activities."I thought to myself, ‘I’m working up a sweat doing this Nintendo thing; I might run with that,’" commented White. "So I put together an outline and the class thought it would be a good project to take on,"The class of students then compared 30 minutes of physical gameplay on Wii boxing against 30 minutes of walking through a local park and a 30-minute session of following a boxercise video workout. Each of the students participated across the differing exercises, with their heart rates being monitored throughout as well as how hard they perceived they were working.The study revealed that the Nintendo Wii, while certainly promoting an increase in physical activity, failed to impress in terms of convincing as a decent form of cardiovascular exercise.Specifically, the 30 minutes of boxercise emerged as the most taxing on the cardiovascular system, while the 30 minutes on Wii boxing came in second and a 30-minute walk came in third.White advises that anyone seeking a beneficial cardio workout should look beyond the Wii as its fails to provide enough intensity. However, he did offer that Nintendo’s innovative console would be a good place to start for those looking to accomplish weight loss.Nintendo Corp. is preparing to release Wii Fit across North America later this year. The non-game exercise experience, which has already sold more than a million copies in Japan, will arrive offering users a wide selection of healthy home-based activities while also monitoring alterations in their BMI (body mass index).