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Summary
On episode 44 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan digs into a 2014 study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that tested whether playing the Nintendo Wii can build real cardiovascular fitness, comparing four Wii games against a treadmill and a stationary bike.
The Wii didn’t beat the treadmill or bike for raw cardio gains, but it came surprisingly close, especially for people who normally exercise at a lower intensity, and every participant said the Wii sessions were more enjoyable than the “dreadmill.”
Allan uses the study as a jumping off point to talk about the value of play: finding activities you actually enjoy, using sport and games to move more without it feeling like a chore, and then using resistance training to support whatever sport or activity you love.
Links
- https://olderfitness.com/44
Key Takeaways
- The Wii is a legitimate, if secondary, cardio tool. The study compared Wii boxing, tennis, cycling, and step games against a treadmill and stationary bike; the Wii didn’t match dedicated cardio equipment but produced meaningful results, especially for people who normally trained at lower intensity.
- Boxing beat tennis for results, even though both are upper body games. Boxing gave the best cardio results of the four Wii games tested and tennis gave the least, which surprised Allan until he noted that boxing pulls your whole body into a fighting stance rather than just your arm.
- Enjoyment matters as much as intensity. Every participant in the study reported enjoying the Wii sessions more than the treadmill or bike, and Allan argues that enjoyment is what keeps people consistent long term, which matters more than whichever modality is theoretically best.
- Fun is a legitimate fitness strategy, not a distraction from one. Rather than starting with “what burns the most calories,” Allan starts with a client’s goals and then asks what they will actually keep doing, since a program nobody sticks with produces no results at all.
- Play was normal before adulthood made it optional. Allan points back to childhood, riding bikes, building forts, and playing pickup games, as proof that dynamic movement doesn’t have to be structured as a formal workout to count.
- Gamifying a workout and a little competition add real motivation. Turning exercise into a game, even mild rivalry with family members, tends to get people to push a little harder and move a little more than they would working out alone.
- Use exercise to support the sport or play you love, not just as a workout for its own sake. Once you find an activity you enjoy, hiking, tennis, or getting down on the floor with grandchildren, tailor a strength and mobility program to that goal, such as balancing hamstring and quad strength for tennis or building general strength for hiking.
- Resistance training reduces injury risk in whatever you play. Allan ties targeted strength and mobility work directly to performance and injury prevention in sport, arguing it should complement, not replace, the activities you enjoy.
“We didn’t quit playing because we got old. We got old because we quit playing.”
Coach Allan