Wii Fit: Not Just for Your Christmas List
Nov 2008Physical therapy offices are catching wind of "Wiihab" as a tool for patient rehabilitation.
With the holiday season right around the corner, the Wii Fit game system by Nintendo is likely to be on nearly every family's wish list. As the tinsel hits the trees, doctors' offices may very well be asking Santa for a Wii Fit, too (that is, if he can find one before stores sell out), once they realize how much Wii Fit can help their rehabilitation patients. Luckily, Drs. Robert and Anne Pinto of Pinto Chiropractic and Rehabilitation in Williamsburg picked up their Wii Fit two months ago, and so far their patients have benefited immensely.
Since Nintendo launched the Wii in 2006, it has quickly become the top video game system on the market. Easy to use and interactive, Wii soon found its way into rehabilitation clinics around the world, a phenomenon that has come to be jokingly called "Wiihabilitation."
Physical rehabilitation can be painful and tedious for patients who often do hours of stretching and lifting exercises each day to recover from injury, illness or even surgery. Wii games are competitive and interesting, and for a rehab patient they offer a more exciting goal to accomplish beyond just lifting a leg or reaching out an arm.
Earlier this year, the media reported many instances where "Wiihab" was being used successfully in U.S. hospitals, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other armed services hospitals, WakeMed Health in Raleigh, N.C., and St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., among others. The practice has been so successful that the University of Minnesota has teamed up with researchers at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis to test whether Wii increases a patient's function after injury.
Generally, clinics use the sports-related Wii games that call for precise hand and arm movements from players using the wireless Wii controller. However, Pinto Chiropractic uses the Wii Fit accessory rather than basic Wii games as a new approach to "Wiihab." The accessory pack comes with a Balance Board that incorporates even more body movement and conditioning principles than Wii games alone. The Balance Board also acts as a scale and can chart a player's body mass index, help set fitness goals, calculate a player's fitness level and provide tips for improving balance.
"There has been a great deal of coverage on the use of the original Wii in therapy," says chiropractor Dr. Robert Pinto, "but not much has been published on [this use of] Wii Fit."
Adds Dr. Anne Pinto, also a chiropractor: "We don't know of anyone in this area who is doing what we're doing with Wii Fit."
To demonstrate how the Wii Fit works for rehab purposes, the Pintos asked two patients to jump on Balance Boards and play some of their favorite games.
Robert Pennington, 44, wriggles and squats on his Board, trying to get marbles on the screen to roll into holes on an oddly shaped virtual platform. There are numerous children's handheld games that follow the same principle, but the Wii Fit is the only game system that requires players to use their entire body and their balancing skill to win.
"It's amazing how on-target this is with our original therapy program," Dr. Anne Pinto says. "It incorporates core stabilization and movement, and posture - all the things we do with our patients in other ways."
So far, this "Wiihab" seems to bring about excellent results, too. "I really feel better from playing," says Pennington. "The games are interactive and fun, and I can tell a difference in how I feel."
Even an athlete can hone his or her skills on the Wii Fit. One local athlete*, age 21, says he chose a strength-training game with an attractive virtual woman as the personal trainer. She has "coached" him on what strength exercises to do, from squats and lunges to pushups and Pilates. It hasn't been an easy win either, since he first came to the Pintos for treatment for a spinal disc issue, he has progressed from a "fitness age" of 30 down to 23, but his strength-training abilities still remain a few years beyond his actual age.
This athlete's experience brings up another reason why the Pintos believe Wii Fit is the perfect tool for physical therapy patients actually enjoy doing it. Typical rehab involves repetitive movements, stretching and strength exercises, with no immediately visible goal other than getting out of the clinic as soon as possible. When working with "Wiihab," patients may not want to leave.
"With this system the patients can measure and chart their progress and see where they were and how far they've come," says Dr. Robert Pinto. "They do just the movements we want them to do, and they want to keep doing them for a longer time. Some may even go home and buy [a Wii], and that's great."
But rehabilitation that uses the Wii isn't all just fun and games. Patients undergo passive treatment for pain on their first few visits, and then fitness trainers evaluate each individual before taking them through the traditional rehab exercises that the Pintos recommend, which focus on core stabilization and balance. Only after all this does a patient graduate to the "Wiihab" portion of their therapy.
"We have therapists who monitor patients' posture to make sure they're doing this the safe and proper way," says Dr. Anne Pinto. She also warns that, to avoid injury, patients who have any kind of stabilization issues shouldn't use the game system.
The Pintos' first few months of offering "Wiihab" were successful enough to turn them into advocates hoping to help spread this idea far and wide. "With all that it does for a patient, I can't see it not being used a lot more in the future," says Dr. Robert Pinto.
Dr. Anne Pinto agrees: "It really fits with what we're doing here. We even have one at home."
The Pintos plan to continue recording the results from their patients' use of Wii Fit in their clinic and hope that their experiences might help other rehabilitation facilities adopt "Wiihab" as a therapy tool. Perhaps one day rehab patients will leave clinics not only healed and in better physical shape to boot but in search of a Wii of their own to continue their efforts at home. Now, if only stores could keep Wiis in stock.
