Not long ago, one of Coach Nicole’s blogs generated a pretty interesting discussion about how playing Wii Fit games compared to “real” exercise.

Can lurching across your living room carpet, remote in hand, to return a vicious topspin forehand from your TV set ever compare to a real game of tennis, with racquet, ball, and real life opponent?

That’s a question we may have to leave to the philosophers and sports purists among us to decide.

In the meantime, though, it’s becoming pretty clear to doctors everywhere that Wii Fit sports can generate just as many sports injuries as the real thing, and probably even more. In fact, according to this article, “Wii Warriors” have been turning up in doctor’s offices lately in even greater numbers than the Weekend Warriors of earlier generations, and doctors are beginning to develop a special vocabulary to describe their problems. It’s not just “tendinitis” these days—it’s “Nintendinitis.”

Is this just because more people are using Wii Fit for exercise, or is there something about these “virtual” sports that makes them even more likely to cause injury?


According to Dr. Brian Halpern, a sports medicine specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, it’s probably a combination of both factors. With over 10 million Wii sales in the last couple years, and 6.5 million Wii Fit on top of that, there's no doubt that "virtual exercise" is a major player on the exercise scene these days. And that's a good thing if it means more people are actually doing exercise they wouldn't do otherwise. But it's also not the whole story--injuries related to Wii Fit activities are also up.

One problem is that Wii Warriors often play games designed for large, open spaces in the confined space of their living rooms. This can lead to traumatic injuries like twisted knees and sprained ankles. You can’t run to return a shot the same way you can outdoors if there’s a wall or a dining table 5 feet away, or a bunch of kid’s toys all over the place. But that’s your natural instinct, and if you artificially limit your natural range of motion, you’re probably going to put unnatural pressures on certain muscles, ligaments, tendons, or joints, and greatly increase the risk of injuring yourself.

Another common problem is that, once people figure out that the Wii Fit remote lets you return a tennis shot or bowl a ball with just a flick of your wrist instead of the full motions required in “real life,” it’s very easy to set yourself up for problems like tennis elbow. These kinds of injuries happen exactly when you concentrate the force of a normal arm/shoulder swing into movements using only the small muscles of your forearm.

But probably the most common risk is due to simple overuse. The same convenience and ease of use that make these games so popular also make it easy to overdo things without adequate preparation. You don't need to find a partner, worry about the weather, stick to a certain schedule, or stop when your court time is up. In fact, it's so easy to get absorbed in these activities that you can easily spend a lot more time on them then you might plan.

But that doesn't mean your body can absorb all this new activity without consequences. You can't go from couch potato to Wii Fit Tennis maven or boxing champ overnight, without paying your dues, any more than you can do that in "real life" without training and practice.

How about you? Have you had any injuries or problems with Wii Fit exercise like those described above? What do you do to prepare yourself for your workouts, to avoid these problems?