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Updated: December 22, 2009, 11:02 am	Share    Print    Email

Yoga for Wii brings the Indian mental and physical disciplines to your living room. Photos courtesy Sandbox Strategies

Southampton - And they say that too many people are playing too many video games. That fact remains, yes, but there is hope. There are websites dedicated to stories about weight loss playing the interactive Dance Dance Revolution. Impromptu Rock Band and Guitar Hero concerts - Mom on guitar, Dad on keyboard, the kids on the mike - have sprouted up worldwide. More than anything, it's the Nintendo Wii game system that has taken it to the next level, encouraging kids and even families to get off their feet and burn calories with games ranging from the ever popular Wii Fit and Wii Sports to Shaun White Snowboarding. There's even a wiiweightlossplan.com.

Yoga for Wii will be available for consumers in November.

Next month, JoWood Productions and DreamCatcher unveil "Yoga for Wii," just another way to transform your living room into a fitness center. Among the ailments that Yoga for Wii vows it can help with specialized routines include back pain, common cold, headache and arthritis. According to WebMD.com, more than 11 million Americans practice yoga regularly in an effort to improve flexibility, strength, posture, concentration and other aspects of life.

"In designing Yoga for Wii, we wanted to make sure that players are walking away with not only a great workout for the body but also for the mind," said Markus Reutner, the marketing manager for JoWood Productions. "We've done extensive research about yoga and the way it can affect different pains and incorporated that into Yoga for Wii."

Yoga for Wii has received a stamp of approval from none other than Anja Rubik, the Polish model who has been on the covers of titles such as Vogue and Elle and lent her image to all the top designers, from Versace, Christian Dior and Gucci to Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. "Yoga enables me to stay fit and maintain my body shape; my joints stay relaxed and agile," Rubik said.

Having such a product available at home begs the question: Just how is one's performance analyzed and is it safe? The game offers the Wii Balance Board - a mat placed on the floor which is integrated with the Wii-mote (the system's controller) and provides feedback on the exercises and thus allows the player to adjust his/her posture to achieve perfect balance.

But what about the competition? After all, that is what video games have been about dating back to the days of "Pong" and "Space Invaders." It's a video game, not a video. Yoga for Wii gives you three choices: Training (yoga instruction), Routine (exercise routine customization) and Story (build your prowess from novice to yoga guru). In each phase, the game allows you to select from a wide variety of exercises based on the routine thats been set up or specific needs. For example, the back pain routine would strengthen the player's muscles in that area through poses such as the cobra, locust and corpse. Building up your abdominals, a healthy heart, even helping rid yourself of a cold - yoga can help.

One has to wonder whether young Wii users, with a zillion entertainment options on the television and computer at their fingertips, will be interested in such a soul-searching exercise, or if yoga enthusiasts would go as far as putting their health in the hands of a video game system rather than a health professional. Game developers are daring to bet that the masses will answer "yes" on both counts.

Yoga for Wii will be made available in November just in time for the holidays. For more information, go to www.yoga-game.com.

Flexibility, strength, posture and concentration are just some of the benefits of practicing yoga on a regular basis.