Yourself!Fitness

I just bought an Xbox "game" for working out. It's not really a game, it's an interactive DVD. It's personalized workout system with a computer generated personal trainer. It's called Yourself!Fitness and you can read about it here.

I read about it in Shape magazine, and picked up a copy of it last night ($35 at EBGames).

You start with a fitness evaluation, then Maya (the personal trainer mod) suggests what you should target. Believe it or not, mine was "weight loss" (5'2" and 160lbs, it's not surprising, eh). Then she suggests a workout regimine to help you with this. Now, this is changable; you don't have to go with the suggestions. It also allows you to use equipment that you may already have (free weights, heart monitor, stability ball, and step bench), but none are necessary (and you can add them if you get them later).

So I was able to max out on squats, but I could only do 10 pushups. Oh well. You re-evaluate every 10th workout, and the workout is readjusted. Maya encourages based on what mood you tell her you are in. She also will ask after each section how you feel and the next workout is either more or less challenging based on your answer (or the same).

I'm really excited about using this. I'm sorta half-assed when it comes to routines. I do what I feel like doing, and that's not the most efficient way to accomplish my goals. I did notice that my calorie burn on today's strength training workout was much too low for my needs (30 minutes burned 100 calories), so I did do 30 more minutes on the stationary bike. I also discovered that I suck at aerobics (oh, wait, I knew that), and I had problems getting my heart rate up to range doing her warm up. I may have to warm up on the mini-stepper to get in zone.

Definitely a good fit so far for me (and my beloved Xbox). I do wish that it utilized the customizable music function of the Xbox (but few games do this) and that there were more choices in personal training mods. I wish I could use Kain (from Blood Omen/Legacy of Kain series) as my personal trainer. Actually, I do think that having a choice between male/female trainer would have been a good idea. I think a male trainer would appeal more to the male gamer? Maybe not, as I already read on one of the boards that someone found a cheat to get a naked version of the trainer. Sigh. It just gives all of us gamers a bad reputation (get a life, or at least a girlfriend, dude)