Cheaping Wii games by just flicking the Wii Remote with your wrist is even more hazardous to your bodily health than wildly swinging your arms, doctors say.
Most people with some experience with the Wii experience a common epiphany. At some point, maybe after your shoulder’s tired from playing Wii Tennis or you smashed your hand into some hard surface after going for a strike in Bowling, you realize that you don’t really need to try so hard.
The Wii doesn’t notice if you’re swinging your arm around like a maniac, and it doesn’t care. You can just flick the Wii Remote slightly, using no more energy that it takes to move your wrist, and you’ll get the same results. It means that you can sit down, and what true gamer has fun standing up?
It also seems like it would mean no risk of tearing out your shoulder or straining your arm muscles, but apparently this isn’t the case. Contrary to common assumptions, flicking the Wii Remote with your wrist might actually be just as bad for you. Reporting on the rise of Wii-related injuries (little bit late to that party, guys), The New York Times spoke to doctors who pointed out that wrist flicking is “the exact motion – concentrating the force of a swing in the muscles of the forearm – that can cause tennis elbow.”
So what to do if you still want to play your Wii without breaking your wrist from overuse? Well, maybe you should listen to those silly “go outside and take a break” messages Nintendo sticks in all of its games. This is especially true for you older guys and gals out there. Because, as Nintendo’s Denise Kaigler told the paper, while “the rush of beating kids a fraction of your age in Wii Sports far outweighs the discomforts of getting older,” it may hurt you in the long run.
