The Nintendo Wii sports video games have become an awesome rehabilitation tool. Innovative, very motivating and fun, they are being used across the country at rehabilitation facilities. Many of the body movements that the video games require are similar to movements in traditional physical therapy exercises. 

The most popular Wii games in rehab involve sports: baseball, bowling, boxing, golf and tennis. Mimicking the arm swings used in these sports, players wave a wireless controller that directs the actions of animated athletes on the screen.

Wiihabilitation, as it is affectionally called, is being used for patients of all ages. Kids to seniors in their 90s, with all kinds of rehabilitation needs, from rotator cuff injury to spinal cord injury, are using it to gain strengthen, endurance, range of motion, coordination and balance. Since many of the games require you to beat the opponent on the screen, it creates a sense of competitiveness that makes patients want to move their bodies. Plus it’s more fun so patients play longer and heal faster. 

Wii cant wait to treat you.

For more about Wiihabilitation you can read a great article at:

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/LIFE04/803300320