Times Online published an article recently, where they look at some of the negative effects of playing Wii, namely the physical toll it takes on your body and the problem known as "Wii elbow." The article, for the most part, is one of the oldest hats in our closet, but what makes this piece interesting is the suggested physical warm up from Tim Hutchful of the British Chiropractic Association. His warm up includes:
- Shoulder shrug - slowly shrug your shoulders toward your ears, holding for two to three seconds before relaxing. Doing this three times will improve blood flow to your shoulders.
- Wrist stretch - slowly stretch the wrist backwards, hold for a few seconds, then stretch it forwards, holding it for a few seconds. Doing this three times will improve the tightening in your wrists.
- Make a fist - hold your arm at right angles from your elbow, balling up your fist and tensing it, along with your arm. Hold this for a few seconds, then allow your arm to fall to your side. Completing this three times will help blood flow and tense your muscles.
- Neck muscle stretch - attempt to make a double chin, stretching the muscles at the base of your neck. Hold this for a few seconds and perform the exercise three times, always doing so very slowly and carefully.
- Loosen the lower back - standing with feet a shoulder width apart, slowly circle your hips five times counter-clockwise, then reverse direction for five more revolutions.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-17-2007 @ 12:54PM
Sonic_13 said...
Its either:
A) Get fat on the couch button-mashing
B) Maybe be a little soar from getting exercise
For 90% of the cases, the physical problems cause by the games are probably representative of the player's physical fitness in the first place...
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4-17-2007 @ 1:22PM
Steve said...
What the hell is wrong with our species?
100 years ago life was tough. Men worked in the field using manual farming equipment, in a factory, or a coal mine while women used horrendously clunky hand-powered machines made from iron to run the household. You woke when the sun came up and didn't go to sleep until your lamps ran out of whale blubber oil. Your house was hot in the summer and unpredictably hot, warm, or cold in the winter.
Fast forward 100 years and suddenly humans are so weak that they can't even swing a 3 ounce piece of plastic around for a half hour. What the hell happened?
Good grief people! If playing WiiSports or Elebits or whatever caused me aches and pains the last thing I'd want to do is discuss it! I'd be so ashamed of admitting to being that out of shape I would keep it to myself.
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4-17-2007 @ 1:28PM
hvnlysoldr said...
Grandpa Jetson showcases this. George only pushes a button at work. Other jobs are also just a button push away. Grandpa is the liveliest character on the whole cartoon. Thus Nintendo shall win the console wars because their soldiers cannot only push buttons on war machines but actually walk over and thwack them with their form batons.
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4-17-2007 @ 2:45PM
Cameron said...
Speaking of thwacking with batons when are we going to get the Wii L.A.P.D. simulator.
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4-17-2007 @ 4:00PM
Geowat said...
Steve, I love you.
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4-17-2007 @ 11:51PM
Ghen said...
I ALWAYS stretch when I feel I need it... And its gotten to a point that it is necessary ALOT! I will add those stretches into my routine. My current method of stretching is to start at the neck and work every concivable muscle to my toes. Makes me feel like a million bucks and ready to punch people's faces with some WiiSports boxing.
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