So I just got done reading that a Manhattan NY gym by the name of Gravity Fitness instituted a Wii Fit program for $110 per hour. Curious to find out exactly what the program would entail, I decided to give them a ring.

Me: Hi, so I read that you guys have a new program you started with the Wii — for fitness?

Gravity: Mhmmm.

Me: How does that work?

Gravity: Well, all you do is you call and schedule to have a room at a particular time, and its like a big screen that they put down, and — you know — a trainer will come and they will help you.

Me: Is it a one on one session or a group of people?

Gravity: Hold on let me find out for you.

[Very nice 1920s hold music]

Gravity: You can do it by yourself or you can bring up to four people with you.

Me: Is there a difference in the price either way?

Gravity: Um, hold on let me find out for you.

[ Very nice 1920s hold music -- the only thing better would be Wii Music]

Gravity: It’s the same charge sir.

Me: So, it’s $110 regardless of whether you…

Gravity: …are by yourself or with a group.

[She completed my sentence . I'm pretty sure we just shared a moment.]

Me: Ok now. How does … is there someone I can speak to who knows more about what is done in the session? Because I mean, I’ve worked out with trainers before, but from what I have read about the Wii specifically, its not really meant to make you — fit.

Gravity: Really?

Me: Yea. Even the creator himself came out and said that it’s wasn’t intended to make you fit. So I’m curious as to why your gym decided to build a program around it. Isn’t it more of a casual in-home video game thing that revolves around you shifting the weight of your body on the Wii Board?

Gravity: Well, they have Wii Fit now, which is to make you fit. It’s specifically to make you fit, and its like, it has the exercises, and it has the pad you step on, and you also use the Wii controls. They have you swinging your arms and doing stuff. It’s a certain program to the video game that has to do with getting fit.

Me: So do they just put the video game up on the big screen you mentioned, and the trainer walks around and makes sure you are doing what you see on the screen?

Gravity: Ok, well I’ll have to ask a trainer about that. Hold please.

[I was then forwarded to a trainers voice mail -- guess he was busy getting his Wii Fit on]

I wasn’t able to get a hold of a trainer, but I believe that he would have likely told me something very similar. The program is most likely targeting people that want to feel like they are working out even if they really aren’t. Now you can tell your friends that you went to the gym, even if it means the only weight you lost was in your wallet. Just great.

Source: Newsday (via Destructoid)