From a "Newbie"
I tried the WII FIT yesterday for the 1st time & I am wondering if wearing my regular lightweight "running shoes" will interfere with my WII FIT workouts and games--either hinder me, damage the equipment, or skew results. These are the shoes I always wear for ortho support. I tried using the Balance Board without shoes, as is recommended, and could not continue after a few minutes. Need some answers please 'cause I can't continue if my feet hurt!

I usually just wear socks and have a neoprene (sp?) cover on the board. Haven't had any foot pain so far.

I am a wii fit newbe with a similar problem. I have only used my board for three days and have a pain in the arch of my foot. I always have arch pain when I go bare foot. In shoes and trainers I have an insert to provide support. Does anyone know if you can wear trainers when using the balance board as I see the instructions are to go bare foot. Why? Would I damage the board or invalidate the warranty if I wore my trainers?

shoes have been known to damage a board. I play in my slippers in the winter but they're extremely light weight.

The standard recommendation is to purchase a pair of arch support bands. They're made out of elastic or neoprene and they velcro on over your socks. I've used something similar to workout and it's never been a problem. You can usually pick them up at a drugstore or you can get them at amazon.

I have worn shoes on the WII board and it has caused no damage at all.

I suffered a stress fracture in my left foot and could not work out without shoes any longer. I had to wear a surgical boot on my left foot and thus a sneaker on my other foot.

I purchased one of those skins for the WII board
Wii Fit Balance Board Silicone Sleeve

(you can also get them at Walmart)
and went right on working out.

I put in a lot of hours Stepping and that puts the most "stress" on the board and the Wii board is still going strong after a year.

I still workout with sneakers on.

what is this?

Hi joyi2011,

Not sure what you mean, by what is this?

This is a conversation between members of the wii fit forum, as to whether its ok to use the wii fit balance board with footwear on when they excercise , Do you not have the wii fit plus? were you unaware of what type of forum you registered with? Not sure of what else I can say to your question......except if you do have a wii fit plus & balance board you might like to expand on your question if your unsure of anything.

Regards
Auldnewbie

A pair of the right shoes really is very important, not but to wear comfortable more important is of good quality. I recommend this pair of shoes(Womens Puma Cabana Racer II Green White Red) is very good, can consider, thank you.

I'm a beginner user and shoes are fine and cannot damage the board unless you are pounding on it. It makes no difference to the board if skin touches versus leather or rubber. But, think about your particular foot problem and the various exercises.

Balance exercises are low or no impact and don't take long to play. The ones I have played last 1 to 3 minutes. I think for these it is pretty important to be barefoot because you are trying to make subtle shifts in weight to control the game. In doing this you are training your kinetic memory, teaching your feet and leg muscles to react quickly and accurately. The more I play the more aware I become of my posture too and how it can throw me off balance or make it more difficult for me to regain my balance once I start to lose it. If at all possible I would do these barefoot.

No problem wearing shoes during the yoga and strength training because that is zero impact. Again, if you can do barefoot, it's best. I have discovered I have very weak ankles and feet. The yoga poses make all the small muscles work harder than they would if I were wearing shoes. I have planar fasciitis so I never ever walk around barefoot and an hour on my feet is usually the most I can take, two if I am willing to end up with sore feet. I have a yoga routine set for 12 minutes and I can manage that barefoot for now. The yoga and many of the games allow for using supports like chairs or a walker or a person to lean on. I do have to use support for all the stand on one leg yoga poses and strength moves.

The game taught me that I am placing too much weight on my heels. Working on my center of balance with the yoga poses has been very helpful. I can see now that I have muscles in my feet that are not strong enough and I compensate by placing more weight on my heels which causes me a lot of pain. Yoga has also improved my posture rapidly. I am keeping my shoulders back more.

I have not tried all the games yet, but Step and Kung Foo seem fine with light shoes. Cycling and running are both fine. The key is not to hit the board any harder than you would if you were barefoot and don't wear construction boots or anything with cleats. The board can't tell the composition of the weight placed on it. We could put a pile of bricks on it as long as we were gentle. So, just be careful you are not putting extra oomph into it because your feet are protected.

People with foot problems aggravating enough to prevent them from going barefoot for the length of a short work-out are likely the kind of people who can most benefit from a system like Wii Fit. It's very low impact. It's being used in therapeutic settings and seniors homes.

If you need to wear shoes 100% of the time, don't be afraid of damaging the balance board. Just be extra cautious that you are not pounding on it more heavily than you would if you were barefoot.

That was a really good, informative post, Gisele. Thank you for that.

I am sorry for the late reply, but I have been a bit busy.

I would like to welcome you to the forum. I see from another post that you are just starting out. You will find this forum a bit quiet at the moment, but if you look over the old threads, especially in the 'Hints and Tips' section, you will find loads of information that can help you.

As well, the others and I will be glad to help you if you have any questions or problems.

Again, welcome to the forum.