The apps that seem most likely to make a difference are the ones intended to enhance health, decrease pain, and support patient recovery. IPads and tablets offer the advantage of being able to set up the app wherever you are: on the ground, on the road, on the go. They can help you set goals, track your progress, and convince you to try something you otherwise wouldn’t do. Virtual exercise only works if you do it. “I never would have gotten myself together to actually go play tennis somewhere.” “What do you know? This actually works,” she said. The day after my sister and I played our first round of tennis, we found ourselves with very sore deltoids. We made more use of a different fitness game, WiiSports, which is designed more for entertainment than for specific fitness goals. But this digital sport was such a bully that none of us cared to engage with it once the weather improved. It proved a very useful and decently intelligent fitness resource: ideal for wintertime in the city, when going outside to run or bike is not only daunting but risky. But the rest of us took turns fiddling around with it. He didn’t use the WiiFit after that, opting instead for other outdoor activities. “What’s the deal?” my father said, trotting in place on the Balance Board.Īs each avatar passed, it would turn around and give my father a cheeky wave. There were plenty of other joggers out on the path, and every single one of them was in better shape that day than my father: each one of them passed him on the path. The faux-sky was blue with cartoonish clouds, and the trees were vibrant and pixelated. Grumbling, he chose his first activity: a jog on a dirt path through a simulated park. “I don’t work this hard to make money to pay for things that put me down.”
#Pocket yoga rainfrog series
After a series of queries and challenges, the game announced with incongruous cheer, “You’re Overweight!” The words floated on the screen in colorful letters. My father stood on it to create his Mii, the small person-like avatar meant to represent him as he jogged, did strength training and balance exercises, aerobics and yoga.īefore he could begin, the system calibrated his body on the board, and he took a fitness test. We set up the WiiFit, setting the Balance Board an appropriate distance from the screen. “But you did say you wanted to get moving.” “It’s for all of us,” my mother said, comfortingly. “Is this some kind of a hint?” he asked, as we sat in the living room in an ocean of wrapping paper. She also bought and informally assigned a game to each member of the family: I got Guitar Hero, my older sister got MarioKart, my mother bought a Survivor-style game for herself, and my father received the WiiFit. In a somewhat belated gesture, for Christmas of my freshman year of college – my first year away from home – my mother bought the family a Wii. In this age of prolific technological development – where no matter what you need, “There’s an app for that!” – I’d been wondering how effective and accessible these apps really are when it comes to things that specifically defy digitization: namely, things that involve exercise, yoga and physical therapy.
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