 |
| GET IN SHAPE |
My Fitness Coach
I bought Wii Fit and the balance board and after using it a few times I thought that it was good enough to use instead of my £32 per month gym. So, I cancelled my gym membership and off I went, for about two weeks. The more I used Wii Fit the more it became frustrating because of two show stopping reasons.
The first and least show stopping was that the trainer repeated himself so often that I ended up having to turn the sound off. During a 20 rep arm exercise I heard `this exercise will strengthen your arm muscles' four times! At the end of every exercise you hear `doing that exercise regularly will help.. blah.. blah.. blah...'
The second and complete show stopper is the fact that you have to choose every exercise individually, one at a time. This means that, let's say, you chose to do 10 push ups. You tell it that and off you go. At the end of that you have to go back to the chose exercise menu and chose 10 sit-ups or whatever it is you decide to do. It took me about 45 minutes to do a half hour workout because of this.
So, there are none of these problems with My Fitness Instructor. It's a much more fluid and well designed workout program.
When you first install it you are asked to do an initial fitness evaluation. This involves entering your measurements, age and weight. You then do a fairly brief fitness check which has you measure your resting heart rate and then measure it again after doing a few minutes of exercise, which you follow on screen.
When it has your information it asks you if you own any of the following.
1. Heart rate monitor.
2. Aerobic step
3. Balance ball
4. Weights
If you answer yes to any of those it will incorporate them into your workout.
Finally, it asks what your goal is. This can be weight loss, cardio fitness, upper body strength etc. It will make recommendations too, based on your weight and fitness test. It recommended I lose weight, and it's right unfortunately. When you tell it your goal it then sets up a weekly routine for you. It told me to do a total of two and a half hours per week, which it spread over five days. You can tweak the days and duration as much as you like. You can also go back at any time and adjust it if it's too much or too little or inconvenient days.
The first workout. I loved it. The on screen woman that you follow is really good and hops around like a real instructor. She does very occasionally repeat herself but it is very occasionally, unlike the three or for times per minute in Wii Fit! I'm quite fit but the workout made me sweat and I found it just about bang on for what I was after. I did a full (uninterrupted, unlike the Wii Fit) half hour aerobic workout which incorporated my step, weights and balance ball. Occasionally I was asked during a brief rest period if the previous exercise had been too easy, bang on, or too hard. It then adjusts the rest of the session accordingly.
After a few sessions (which are always different and interesting) you unlock new exercise rooms (garden, dojo etc) and new music types (dance, Latin etc). This only happens if you follow your weekly routine, so don't be a couch potato : )
After every 10 workouts you are asked to do the initial fitness test again. It then shows you on a graph how you have improved in all areas. I've lost half a stone in three weeks with this and laying off the alcohol.
I can't recommend this program too highly.
Build a Fighter s Body aims to pack all the professional fighting
expertise it can into one informative and easy-to-use book. In the first
section we have put together a 12-week plan to get you into shape,
based on the format of a typical fighters training camp. Then, once you
are in shape, you can tweak your training with moves, routines and
tricks from top-level athletes and coaches. There is also advice on how
to tailor your diet to your new training plan, and how to improve your
recovery which is just as vital as training hard. Whether you want to
fight or you are after a fighter's body, there is something for you
inside.
