that Wii Fit is really helping me here. Yes, it is very low-impact (for the most part, there are a couple of hard exercises). Yes, if you do any kind of (semi-)strenuous physical activity every day over a period of time your health, strength, and endurance will improve (unless you overdo it, obviously). That just means the challenge for any given fitness system is to actually get people to follow it.

The Wii Fit does it for me. The fun is in the game-like format (not to mention the dirty trick of making your mii/avatar fatter or thinner depending on your real-life weight) and the semi-competition where exercises are awarded points for a variety of metrics like # of repeats, balance, weight distribution and so on – a top-10 list is kept for each exercise and competition can get… intense, especially in the balance games area.

Speaking of metrics, Wii Fit keeps track of your performance and weight over time and gives you pretty graphs which any statistics geek is going to enjoy.

Finally, the elementary yoga exercises have really helped my back – it hasn’t felt this good in the last five years. Straining my back is what led to reduced physical activity is what led to couch potato syndrome in the first place. Poses like the cobra really helped reduce back strain over time. Good stuff.