I am one of 500 lucky women to be given an EA SPORTS Active
So when the box arrived on May 30th, I couldn’t wait to get started.
Easy set up
June 1st came around and even though I woke up before 7 a.m. to get started, I had a full audience – my mother-in-law, my husband and my two children, Nathan and Lucie. Nothing I hate more than working out to an audience.
The kids were fired up thinking that they’d be playing the new Wii game, too. (More on that later.) After I assured my two Wii experts that they’d eventually get their turn, they helped me set up my profile and character. (You can pick your character’s hair, skin color, body type and outfit.)
Then I entered my stats (weight, age and height) and went through a few more menu choices like type of music I wanted, male or female trainer (I chose a gal pal) and level of workout (easy, moderate or hard). I chose moderate, picked the 30-Day Challenge and started working out.
Working out with EA Sports Active
You get a variety of workouts with the 30-Day Challenge – lower body, upper body, fun stuff like boxing or tennis, jogging – and lunges, lunges and more lunges. The only thing is missing are core exercises, but not for long. This holiday season the EA SPORTS Active expansion pack will included curl ups, crunch and punches. Great!
The biggest challenge was making sure I held and moved the Wii remote and nunchuk correctly when I used the arm resistance band. The game features a video for each activity, so you know exactly how to point them. Still, there were times where the game didn’t “see” what I was doing with the nunchuk and I had to repeat my curls over and over again.
I also felt that the moderate level was too easy for me, though my workout buddy thought it was very challenging. So, even though the next day was a rest day (it’s usually two days on and one day off) I worked out doing at the hard level, which I liked better.
Cool features for weight loss
I love how the game measures your calories, so you can track your energy output. I’d love to see the game work with a BodyBugg or GoWear Fit monitor
There’s also a journaling feature, which isn’t very detailed but does make you more conscientious about avoiding junk food, eating your veggies, drinking water and monitoring your stress and sleep. There’s also a place to record any other physical activity you do for the day. And you get rewards for burning certain amount of calories or working out for so much time. It’s silly but kind of fun like getting the star stickers at Weight Watchers meeting.
Mostly EA SPORTS Active is terrific for circuit training. It gets your heart rate up, then you do some curls. Then you get up your heart rate by jogging, then you do some lunges. You work up a real sweat and feel sore afterwards, which I never did with Wii Fit. (Speaking of which, if you have a Wii Fit balance board, you can use it with EA SPORTS Active. But it’s optional.)
Instead of doing the 30 Day Challenge, you can pick a variety of other workouts (lower body, cardio, etc.) which you can do on your day off. You can also pick your own exercises to do in a custom workout. There’s a bunch of variety, so you never get bored and are motivated to work out the next day.
Drawbacks
I didn’t find the arm resistance band challenging enough even when I shortened the rubber band. So I went to Target and bought a set of resistance bands similar to this set that I could clip on to the handles that came with EA SPORTS Active. (The handles that come with the Target set are too big and make holding the nunchuk and Wii remote next to impossible.)
My recommendation to EA SPORTS is to include a variety of resistance bands in future releases so players can further challenge themselves. (Note that when you use bands with more resistance, the game doesn’t know that and you may be expending more calories than the game measures.) I’d also like to see Neoprene padded handles since the nylon ones have a tendency to hurt your hands.
Other things I’d like to see – better music (maybe ways to download your favorite tunes or share them from games like Boogie Superstar
Getting the kids to work out? You bet!
Yes, the kids created their own profiles to try out EA SPORTS Active. The game automatically adjusts the exercises for their ages. However, Lucie, who’s a slip of a six-year-old girl, was unable to use the leg band – it was too big. We got around that by slipping the nunchuck into her underwear, which I realize isn’t the most sanitary thing, but she’s a pretty clean kid.
Both kids enjoyed the games and probably would like to do the two person workouts so they could compete with me. However, that would mean I’d have to purchase a EA Sports Active Multiplayer Pack
EA SPORTS Active expansion pack
EA SPORTS will expand the genre this holiday season with a new expansion pack for EA SPORTS Active to bring your workout to the next level by adding more challenge and variety. It will include 30 brand new activities and exercises that target the upper and lower body, as well as cardio.
New to the EA SPORTS Active expansion pack will be an emphasis on core exercises including curl ups, crunch and punches, and a warm up/cool down feature. Sports activities will include step aerobics, an obstacle course, squash and water skiing, while a new emphasis on combinations will populate the upper and lower body exercises.
An all-new presentation will bring users to the tropics and will immerse them in warm weather activities in a picturesque setting. The product will also feature the Six-Week Challenge – another step in the journey towards better health and fitness with new daily workouts that ramp up in intensity each week. This personalized full body challenge will give users a new customizable weekly schedule and a weekly check-in with the virtual trainer to track calorie, weight and workout goals.
Can’t wait!
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*As part of the EA Sport Active campaign, Ammo Marketing sent me an EA Sports Active Fit Club Kit which included:
- Two copies of the game. One copy for me and the other copy to give to my 30-Day Challenge buddy
- Fit Club Guide
- Sponsored EAS Active House Party ($50 gift card for food and drink)
- Fitness Goodies like a water bottle and headband
- Weekly Fit Club e-newsletter
- Opportunity To Win Additional House Parties and Fun Fitness Prizes
