Get Fit and Loose Weight with Wii Bowling Blaster!

I have a confession to make. I played too much Nintendo Wii over the Christmas Holidays (It was a Christmas gift from Amanda’s Parents!) The Nintendo Wii has transformed the video game industry and brought it to a new level. No more sitting on the couch and starring at the video screen hitting buttons on a controller that makes you get cramps in your thumbs from hitting the “A” button too many times. Wii forces you off of your butt and makes you go through simulated movements to make the ball move or to swing the club. Heck, I know of a major Division I Athletic Training Room that has one and uses it for “Wii-Hab” when athletes are recovering from injuries! Pretty fun but very dangerous if you let go of the controller and it almost hits the $3,000 flat screen that you got for Christmas.

The next day after our first big night of playing the bowling game that comes with the consol, I noticed two things. One, that Amanda’s Gluteal Muscle (the king of core stability!) was sore and two, I had done a LOT of squatting from sitting down when my turn was done and getting back up when it was my turn to throw the bowling ball again. We must have bowled 5 games that night and I know I burned more calories playing then I did playing 42 (dominoes) with our family!

Nintendo Wii also has an add-on to their regular consol called Wii-fit. As you can probably imagine, we really want one of those badly. The problem is, I think everyone else wants it too because it is nearly impossible to find one in any store. So, I got to thinking about all the squats I did and how Amanda got sore the next day after we had played the games. With no chance of getting the Wii-Fit any time soon, I decided to turn the bowling game into one heck of a fat blasting, calorie killing, and intense video game! For all of you out there who are like us and can’t find the Wii-fit, here are the rules.

Game Set Up:

Write down 10 or more multi-joint exercises that you can do in your home on 10 separate index cards. Feel free to incorporate as many apparatuses as you can think of such as Jump Ropes, Thera-Bands, Dumbbells, Barbells, Medicine Balls, etc. Beside each exercise, write down how many reps you want to do of that exercise. Example: DB Squat to Push Press x 8 Reps. Shuffle the cards and stack them face down.

Wii BOWLING BLASTER : GAME RULES

FIRST ROLL OF EACH FRAME

A. Strike – Free Pass and go on to the next frame.

B. Not a Strike - Add up the remaining pins and get a total. For example, if the 10 pin and the 5 pin are still standing after your first roll that would be a total of 15. Pull a card from the stack and add 15 reps to the total that you wrote down next to the exercise. Using the example from above, if your total was 15 and you drew the DB Squat to Push Press x 8 card. You would do 23 DB Squat to Press.

SECOND ROLL OF EACH FRAME

A. Spare - If knock down the remaining pins and get a spare, you must draw on card and do the reps assigned to you on the card.

B. If you leave any pins on the second roll, repeat the same steps as the first roll. Add up the remaining pin(s) and add it to the total on the card that you draw.

Try this out and make sure you wear the wrist strap!