Low-impact exercise console games for bum knees?
January 21, 2011 12:11 PM   Subscribe

Looking for console game for low-impact in-home exercise.

YANMD; I will be talking to my doctor about the answers to this question.

I have bum knees (basically no cartilage at all in one knee). My doctors would like me to lose some weight. I'd like to buy a console and one or more exercise games that would let me do some low-impact exercise at home; as part of my research process I'm looking into Wii (Fit and Fit Plus) and Xbox (Kinect). I also see there may be Playstation games that will do from this question. I'm looking for anecdotal evidence of which consoles and games might be best for low-impact exercise for my knees. Any console bought might be used for other games, but it's the exercise games we're interested in. Thanks!
posted by immlass to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (6 answers total)
 
Best answer: I have a Wii with the Wii Fit Plus. I do not have a bum knee, but here are my thoughts:

Wii Fit Plus will have a number of low-impact options for you - it has yoga and strength exercises in addition to the more standard aerobic stuff. A lot of the aerobics focus on using the board, which often (but not always) involves stepping up. It's very low to the ground, but I don't know what your tolerance to stepping is. There are things like boxing, hula-hooping, and skiing which don't involve running or jogging in place. Overall, I think the Wii Fit would have more than enough exercises to keep your attention.
posted by tryniti at 12:18 PM on January 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I personally enjoy Wii Fit Plus, it helped me get started exercising and enjoying it. It's just so happy, and you get to see all your friends running around the island as you do your exercises. Although lifting weights is a much more beneficial method for improving body composition and I have primarily moved on to that, I still enjoy coming back to Wii Fit Plus for monitoring my weight and occasional light-to-moderate exercise. I recommend it.

Just as a note, Wii Fit Plus contains everything in regular Wii Fit and more, so there's no need to get the original.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 12:42 PM on January 21, 2011


Best answer: Kinect Sports has a variety of game modes, I'd say a third of them would be OK with a bad knee.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved has more structured exercise routines, and most of them require leg movement (side to side, jumping jacks, lunges, etc). Failing to do the leg movements will result in much scolding from your instructor. There are some mini-games that would be OK (boxing, slow yoga'ish thing).

I have not yet tried Biggest Loser or EA Sports Active 2.

For fun, you could try Dance Central and just ignore the leg movements. You won't get as high of a score, but the overall game is entertaining and a workout.
posted by Diddly at 12:47 PM on January 21, 2011


Best answer: You should also look into EA Sports Active. It has a lot of running exercises, but you can just not do those. It has a lot of core and upper body strength exercises as well.
posted by reddot at 12:49 PM on January 21, 2011


Best answer: I have the Kinect and really prefer it over the Wii. It doesn't require a controller and can actually see what your body is doing, so it will tell you if your form is poor or if you need to lift your arms up more during an activity. There are a lot of exercises in Your Shape Fitness and Kinect Sports that involve the upper body or very light low-body movement. The nice thing is that each exercise segment is 5 minutes or less so you can get a great amount of variety in a one-hour workout.

Also, I really like to recommend Dance Central (SO MUCH FUN, even if you don't have any rhythm) but it's probably a bit too high-impact for your knees.
posted by joan_holloway at 12:50 PM on January 21, 2011


Best answer: Just Dance and Walk it Out on the Wii are great and are as low impact as you want to make them.
posted by cross_impact at 3:29 PM on January 21, 2011


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