We have had a Wii gaming system in the house for about two years now. I am not a gamer, but my kids are. They have on occasion prevailed on me to play Wii games with them. But that has been fairly rare.

For Christmas my Mom gave our family a second Wii system. This has already reduced tension, since different children can play on different systems simultaneously.

This second system has been set up in the room where I work out and where the family exercise equipment is kept. I have a pretty serious daily workout regimen. The other day when I went to do my cardio workout, my kids got me to play the boxing feature on the Wii Sports program instead.

Holy cow. My eight-year-old consistently beat my tail. The game had me huffing and puffing pretty hard. Three of my kids kept trading off so that I could get a good, long cardio workout. (I jogged in place between bouts.) Although I regularly do strength training that includes working the back, my back muscles have been quite sore from the boxing workout.

From years of regular exercise, I have discovered that I can usually work some of the soreness out of my muscles by repeating three to four days later the same exercise that caused the soreness. So, yesterday I again did the Wii boxing. This time I only competed against the machine (which is still quite challenging for a non-gamer like me). It was still a very intense and strenuous workout. And thankfully, my back muscles are much less sore now.

If you have a Wii system and you want a serious full-body cardio workout, try the boxing feature on the Wii Sports disc (that is included with many Wii systems). You’ll end up panting and sweating. It’s also kind of fun (even if it’s a bit violent).
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