In the Yoga section of Mind/Body Fitness, there are now three detailed reviews of the Yoga Poses demonstrated in the Yoga segment of Nintendo's Wii Fit.
Safety First
These articles primarily provide modifications and tips on how to perform the poses safely without doing damage to important body parts such as the knees and neck. Some of the poses also include tips for improving your score, or alternative poses that use the same basic technique on the board, but stretch different muscle groups.
- Wii Fit Yoga Pose Overview covers the four poses that are initially available when you first start up the game.
- Seven Additional Poses on the Wii Balance Board covers the poses that are unlocked subsequently, and still use the Wii Balance Board as an inherent component of the pose.
- On the Yoga Mat with Wii Fit is about the final four poses, which do not use the Balance Board or the Wii Remote to monitor or rate what you are doing in the pose.
Why might yogis take offense at their practice being shared on the Nintendo Wii?
Focusing on the Breath, not Fitness
Yoga is a mind-body practice that is more about the connection with the present moment, the breath and the movement than it is focused on "fitness". In fact, for most yogis, the physique that results from years of practice is a happy side-effect of the stress-relief, awareness of the present moment, and overall health that they experience through practicing yoga.
In the New York Times article reviewing the Wii Fit, they asked renowned author and Om Yoga instructor, Cyndi Lee to review the game. Her response was that the game was "a little dumbed down" and that "they are teaching more from a fitness or gym perspective".
There is a nod to the breath in the Wii Fit - the first pose is "Deep Breathing", and the wavelike blue circles illustrating the breath do reappear in most of the subsequent poses to remind players to breathe.
However, it's possible to ignore the breath entirely while doing the Wii Fit yoga program, primarily because players tend to focus on keeping their weight distributed properly to keep the bar in the blue, or then red dot representing center of balance within the yellow circle.
Yoga is not about Scoring Points
For the vast majority of yogis, "Competitive Yoga" is an oxymoron. Though yoga competitions do exist, many take umbrage at this concept. One main school of thought contends that yoga is always practice, each pose is different for every body, every day. You never perfect yoga poses, you only practice them.
The Wii's Scoring and Rating system distracts from this important point of yoga: self-acceptance.
In many ways, the Wii Fit uses shame as a motivator (e.g. the ballooning of a Mii avatar based on BMI, the presentation of a Wii Fit Age, remarks about certain exercises not being a player's strong suit). The other primary motivation is competition (via comparative graphs and charts in the Wii Fit Plaza, and the display of the top ten results for every scored pose).
In yoga practice, self-love and self-acceptance are key points of the lesson. Appreciating where you are, and that you're doing something good for yourself is a large part of why you go to yoga.
In Mind-Body Fitness, "Posture" is a Dirty Word.
Leslie Kaminoff calls it "Intrinsic Equilibrium", F.M. Alexander calls it "Primary control". No matter what name you attach to the idea, the plain simple fact is that the spine doesn't need our muscular help to create proper posture.
In fact, our physical efforts to "sit up straight" are precisely what cause us to have improper alignment and back problems! Most of the reason why yoga assists us with "proper alignment" is in the ways it stretches, relaxes and eases the muscles surrounding the spine to release the connective tissues and bones to their natural state.
The poses and exercises covered are limited to what the Wii itself can measure. The Wii Balance Board can only monitor weight, distribution of weight and center of balance. The Wii Remote can only measure movement and range of motion. For this reason, the Wii Fit is reliant upon improving players "posture" for its ranking systems.
Try relaxing and releasing tension, not creating it.
Why is it a Good Thing that Nintendo Included Yoga on the Wii Fit?
At the very least, it can introduce people who have never tried yoga before to the benefits of slowing down and stretching. It may spark curiosity and interest. It may give students the confidence to try to attend a class, now that they have a few poses under their belts.
Though we may never know how many people make it into a yoga studio as a result of having tried yoga on the Nintendo Wii, at the very least, yoga is reaching a wider audience in some form.
Last But Not Least: Final Relaxation Pose
One of the most frustrating things for a yogi about the Wii Fit Yoga section is that it does not include Savasana, or Final Relaxation Pose. It would have been simple to allow the trainer to verbally guide players through a final relaxation meditation on the mat in a form similar to the final four poses.
Most yoga beginners find this pose, and their experience of complete conscious relaxation, to be the most profound event of an entire yoga class. Most instructors believe that the final relaxation portion of a class is the single most important part.
Final relaxation is used to integrate the movements and exercises performed throughout the class into the body, to allow the cells to really soak in the lessons learned. It is recommended that every student of yoga take 5 minutes to relax following their workout - even on the Wii Fit.
