Workout 1/3/10

Bought EA Active Personal Trainer for the Wii today. Wow, what a workout. I went through the setup typical of Wii, I input some personal data and designed a character that looks something like me and all was set.

My wife and I watched the introductory videos and figured out the basics. The game asks you perform controlled movements, with proper form and timing. You also have to make sure the remote and nunchuck are oriented correctly at the beginning and end of each rep. During certain exercises your movements are not registered correctly if they are not pointed in the right direction. The instructional videos do a good job of explaining this.

I decided to start a 30 day challenge right off the bat. In retrospect, it was not the thing to do right away. You can do individual exercises and that would be a better way to get familiar with the game play. You can also select from 3 intensity levels. Not giving this thing much credit, I selected to start my 30 day challenge on the highest level. It showed me the list of muscle groups to be addressed and off I went. A really hard 30 minute workout ensued. The cool thing is, every workout is different, so I don't know what is in store for me.

Lower body movements consisted of walking and running in place, high kicks (butt kickers we used to call them) lunges, squats and jumping. The nunchuck goes in a band around your leg and does a good job of keeping your form in check. My legs especially got blasted. In fact, they are still sore and I'm sure they will be for a couple of days. Nothing I have done has fired up my legs like this. Spin class, biking, leg machines in the gym, nothing has done this. I credit the jumps and the lunges, which I would never just do on my own. It was kinda like Plyometrics, which are great and suck and I cannot make myself do them on a regular basis.

Upper body movements are tracked by holding the remote and nunchuck in each hand and using a resistance band. The game comes with one but it does not provide much resistance. I bought a high resistance band at Target when I bought the game and I used it instead. The nice round handles on the band I bought made holding the remotes and the band at the same time difficult but I managed. I may cut the nice handles off and just leave the nylon strap to hold. The one that comes with the game is like that. The upper body workout was not bad. The band I bought was a good choice for me, easy enough to get through the sets and keep the heart rate up. Not like lifting weights, but a good workout. I did bicep curls and shoulder raises and bent over rows. All of these are pretty effective with resistance bands.

I hope to continue on my advanced level 30 day challenge. It was tough and I probably should do the intermediate level first but I'm going to plow through for now. My plan is to do the Wii routine each day (21 workouts in the 30 day challenge I think) in addition to my gym work and riding. The Wii alone would be a good routine for someone who didn't work out at all, but is not enough for me.