EA Sports Active « Allison Cooke

EA Sports Active

20Jun09

When WiiFit first came out I was super excited about it and thought it was going to be revolutionary for me. For a while I was doing it on a regular basis and having a pretty good time, but after a while (or a couple weeks) it became boring and frustrating. I was tired on having to pick a new exercise every few minutes, interrupting the workout. I thought that there was going to have to be an expansion pack, something with more exercises, with the ability to create a workout — a series of the individual exercises.
active
I have to admit that I haven’t done the WiiFit in several SEVERAL months, but I have been pretty good about going to the gym three times a week. But once I saw EA Sports Active, I thought it looked like the improvement that WiiFit needed. Since I had a birthday coming up, I thought maybe it would be a nice think to ask for.

I have only worked out with it twice, but I have to say it is quite an improvement from WiiFit. After my first workout, doing the Day 1 easy workout, my hamstrings were so sore! I could definitely tell I had worked my body. After today’s workout I didn’t feel as sore, but we’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Active has a ton of preset workouts — ones that are 15 minutes up to 45 or so, easy to hard levels and workouts that target specific body areas. The balance board can also be used with Active, but I haven’t tried it yet. The trainer is nice and offers lots of encouragement. While that may sound cheesy, I think it actually is pretty encouraging without being obnoxious, but then again maybe I’m just that desperate for praise! :)

There are a couple downsides I have found – 1) the exercises alternate between using the nun chuck in the leg strap and holding it in your hand, so that means you have to wedge the nun chuck in the holder and wrestle it out between exercises. 2) The leg strap starts to fall off unless you have it tight enough to cut off circulation to your leg. But, I do sweat a lot, so it may not be a problem for most normal people.

So, based on my first impressions, I give EA Sports Active two thumbs up. I have enjoyed it so far and think I can keep it up.