WINFIELD | Gordana Josifovski was so excited about the progress of her rehab, doctors had to close the door so she wouldn't bother other patients.

After rotator cuff surgery, Josifovski's left arm wouldn't raise high enough to put her blonde hair in a ponytail. So when she bowled a strike, she couldn't help but celebrate.

"I used to cheer so loud," Josifovski said, "but now I just turn the volume off and put the headphones on."

Seeing patients excited about the work necessary to come back from any kind of surgery isn't something physical therapists are used to.

But, using the Nintendo Wii machine has become the newest phenomenon in therapy. Moving past geriatrics, now hospitals and rehabilitation facilities are also using the interactive games to help patients recover from occupational and sports-related injuries.

"You see patients more enthusiastic about doing their therapy," physical therapist assistant Cindy Mullinax said. "They'll say 'Yes! I got a strike!' not 'Oh, I pulled three pounds today.'"

The different movements required when playing games varying from bowling to tennis to baseball, so Josifovski is forced to move her left arm -- on her non-dominant side -- in ways that would typically require multiple techniques in a typical therapy situation.

Add the Wii Fit balance board, and physical therapists can help patients return from ACL or other knee reconstruction surgeries by simulating skiing or hula hooping.

"You're putting it all together and using it in a functioning sense," said Frank Kilian, director of rehabilitation services at St. Mary's Medical Center. "You get to use it like you would in real life, without taking a nasty spill that you could get on a ski slope.

"This part of the therapy is definitely different from a kid or somebody that has a Wii at home and is just playing different games. We target specific skills and are able to work things in a more functional way."

But, using it at home has also helped coaches teach young ballplayers while there is still snow on the ground.

Becky Mateja, who is the community relations coordinator at St. Mary's, is also a softball coach in Chesterton. She invited her 6- to 13-year-old ball players over in the winter to practice their hitting and throwing on her home Wii.

"For them, it's just fun and they don't realize it's helping them," Mateja said. "They're picking up the same cues they would typically use on the field. In the winter they don't get outside much, but they think they're only playing a game. Their eye-hand coordination has gotten better and they're practicing without having to go to the school."

As much as playing a game vs. pulling on a rubber therapeutic band helps an athlete or rehab patient's range of motion, the retraining of muscles is what research is starting to show that the Wii has helped accomplish.

"This is still relatively new," Kilian said. "This is not just about range of motion. That is the last part of what we would use the Wii for. We talk more about the integration of skills, the entire muscular-skeletal system -- the signals that the brain sends out to other parts of the body. If you're talking about eye-hand coordination, it's going to be that sensory integration."

And, important for Josifovski, she's having fun, so coming back from an injury doesn't feel as much like work.

"When I'm hitting a ball or bowling and hitting pins, I'm not concentrating at all on my arm," Josifovski said. "I'll get home and it hurts, so I know I've worked it, but it's a mental thing. I can add weight to my arm while doing it and work even harder."