Wii Sport [Injuries]

[Lo]

So, there I was, delighting in all of my wonderful Christmas gifts on "The Day" and minding me own when my brother handed over the grand finale to Mum - the "last minute" gift of the Nintendo Sport thingie pack thing.....

Needless to say, he was eager to get it all set up immediately after he cooked Mum and I a fantastic Christmas dinner and once done, we all took it in turns to have a go at the sporting events offered on (what I presume came with the equipment), package.

All was going great after we re-arranged the family heirlooms and repositioned the cat to a safe haven under the coffee table until I sampled the fencing challenge.

In spite of having a basic controller to hand, it's amazing how the eye-to brain signal makes you use as much physical stealth as though you were really "in the game", so to speak. I have to say I was pretty impressive at knocking off my able opponent in about 18 tactical moves on the first go and after six consequetive goes, I narrowed it down to one foul strike to knock him off his perch with a swift and cunning stealth move

Now that's all well and good but because one gets so drawn into the game, there is a tendency to remove yourself psychologically from your spacial awareness and start flinging yourself up onto the lampshades. Thankfully, the fencing was pretty contained as myself and my opponent were on a virtual small fighting platform but my brother and Mum were really aghast at my "actual" technique - which I can only assume comes from playing Tomb Raider and developing a killer instinct in spite of there being no fencing in the games

But.....

Come the next morning my right shoulder blade was as stiff as a board - which means that this Wii biz is really working as though you were ACTUALLY performing the sport and carrying the weight of say, a sword, in this instance.

Sadly, though, the tennis rendered my already precarious spinal alignment to shift out of synch and I spent the next four days walking around like a cleptomaniac trying to outsmart the store exit alarms...


Thing is, you don't notice just how vigorously you are going about it and this is in many ways a good thing. I don't think I could have enhanced my work-out any more by carring a controller that weighed in at six pounds, frankly.

But do be careful if you are using these Wii Fitness programmes. Stop for a break. I am only slim and fairly fit but even I was stripping off in favour of a light tee shirt after 10 straight minutes. Be sensible - I am sure some of you either got these machines or already have them and got new games this Christmas - and know that it's OK to sit down for 20 minutes or so before resuming. I wasn't that aware of my back until the next day of course but it won't be right again now for a good 2 weeks and that means, sadly, keeping on the move so I can daily start to straighten up when I walk. It takes me so long to get vertical that it's almost bed time and the fun starts all over again the following morning but it is getting slowly better....