EA Sports Active

Initial ImpressionWii Active is AWESOME! AWESOME!! I was holding out big hopes for this game because while I love wii fit, golds gym coach and my fitness coach, this game offers full use of the wii motion controls and balance board for feedback. If you do not have the balance board, the game is just as useful.The balance board makes some exercises more "total body" and intense but the game was designed to be used without it. This game is honestly what I thought I was getting when I bought the wii fit! This game is more of a gym style workout consisting of strength exercises with resistance, cardio, and sports drills. There is no yoga in this game nor is there any abdominal work (which I find kind of strange because they were pretty thorough with everything else).Intensity/Sports DrillsI just finished my second full 40 minute workout and it was great! I feel like I just came back from the gym. I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed the sports drills.I dont enjoy the tennis or baseball on wii sports. But the sports drills on Active are really intense, you actually have to jump to do volleyball serves and the motions are exactly as they are when you play the game.Sports included are Baseball (pitching and batting and catching), volleyball (serving, bumping and setting), Basketball (so far I've just seen shooting and passing), Skating (with leg lifts), Tennis (serving, fore-shots, volleying,backshots). Basketball shooting involves twisting to grab a ball and then making a jump shot. It really gives a virtual reality feel to sports exercises. During kickboxing you are able to use the balance board to kick the heavy bag and do knee ups which really got my heart rate up. During running exercises, you are placed on a track and the game has you alternate between running, walking, knee ups, and kick ups. I really felt as though I had a coach with me. I used to work out with a personal trainer and this really had the same feel.Balance Board UseYou ARE able to use the balance board with this game. For the sports drills it made me (uncoordinated as I am) less accurate but it did incorporate more total body usage. For instance, in baseball when you catch you do a side lunge before you reach up or out to catch the ball. There is an option to use the balance board with all the sports drills. I havent seen any resistance exercises that used the balance board though.High Intensity ExercisesThere are some hi-intensity or slightly more advanced strength exercises included such as jumping lunges, jumping squats, squat and hold, side to side jumps, bicep curl with shoulder press, bicep curl with kickback, lateral raise with row, etc.SetupAfter setting up the resistance band and leg strap (easy, took 2 minutes tops) I had to set up a profile. There was great variety on how personalized you can make your avatar look with very cool outfits to choose from. It doesnt let you really change the height of your avatar or age (in appearance) so when I set up avatars for my kids, they looked like adults. You set your goals such as how many calories you want to burn over a period of x number of days, how many workouts you want to complete per week or month, and how many hours you want to workout per week or month. I was surprised it didnt include weight loss goals but then I guess it would have to assume you have the balance board and it tries to stay away from that.30 Day ChallengeI chose the 30 day challenge simply because it seemed like the quickest way to get started. The range of activities was really astounding and I enjoyed the entire workout. It was great to have the game give feedback on form. Before you do every exercise the first time, it automatically shows you a video on proper form. While I was familiar with most of the exercises, the videos are useful because it shows you how to hold the remote for each exercise. You can skip them if you really want. After you watch them the first time, you don't have to see it again. The exercises included cardio, sports drills, resistance upper and lower exercises and track. Even if you choose the 30 day challenge, you can still just select individual workouts as well, but I found the challenge to be a great motivator because it will take me through all of the exercises...not just my favorites.Pre-Set/Customized ProgramsYou can also choose from more than 50 pre-set programs such as 30 minute lower body, 20 minute sports drills, 40 minute whole body, 60 minute upper body hard or easy, 40 minute cardio only, athletic exercises, 30 minute low-impact, 50 minute hi-impact and many others. Literally, I don't see potential for getting bored with your exercise routine anytime soon with this game. You can also create your own program by just picking the exercises you like. You can customize it further in that you can choose the duration and intensity for each individual exercise, and intensity and length of total time that you would like to work out for. It sounds like a lot of choices, but it was very simple and I created a very kid-friendly program in about 4 minutes.Multi-Player ModeThe multi-player mode works really well also. It is best to have the additional player accessory kit but I found that most of the sport drills and upper body strength exercises only require that the second player have a remote and nunchuk anyway so even without it, my kids and husband are able to work out with me. My husband said he would work out with me with the Active because it looks like a real workout (He thought my wii fit and my fitness coach were cute). He was especially impressed with the sports drills.Bad Knees/Problem areasThe great thing about it is that if you have a weak area or injury, such as bad knees, you are able to see all the exercises you will do in either 30-day challenge mode or pre-set mode and if you can't do those exercises, you can simply uncheck them. I have bad knees and so I uncheck some of the jumping exercises. It would have been nice if you could set that up in your profile and it simply took those exercises out of your program but being able to select or deselect them day-by-day is probably more flexible.Age-AppropriateFor those of you who wonder if small children would like it, my kids (age 3 and 5) were able to do the sports drills with me like tennis and baseball very easily (they don't fare so well with the wii sports version). Since the game is not trying to simulate actual playing, all they had to do was swing the remotes at the right time. They didnt have to worry too much about moving to be in the right place.Final AnaylsisI honestly am in Love with this product! Of course I could make suggestions for improvements, (everything can be improved on), but I really think they did an superb job with this. This is what I thought the wii fit game was going to be from the beginning! Since this game focuses more on a gym-style workout, combining it with the balance, core and strength exercises from wii fit and the yoga and variety from my fitness coach really enables me to get a full and varied workout.However, if you don't own the other games, honestly I would recommend getting this one. It just gives me a more realistic workout feel.Tips1. the resistance band that comes with the game is either light or medium. For those of you who would like to increase this, just purchase stronger resistance bands and use those instead. This really increased the intensity of my workout.2. Make sure you insert the nunchuck in the holder face down toward the floor or else your mii positioning will be backwards (ie your mii will be squatting down when you are standing upright)3. It takes some getting used to positioning the remote and nuncheck in the right way for each exercise so that it can properly evaluate your movements....watching the videos, even if you know how to maintain proper form in the gym, is recommended. Dont get frustrated, the game has been pretty accurate as far as I have seen, you just have to make sure you hold the remotes as they tell you to.4. Those of you who would like to work out with weights or cords versus bands can incorporate that for certain exercises on your own (the game doesnt say anything about this...this is just what I noticed while working out). Things like shoulder presses, bicep curls and squats with ankle weights would work fine with this game.

I received this 4 days ago and have used it all 4 days. After 2 days it wanted to give a day of rest but I wanted to do it anyway...BECAUSE I could tell it was working other muscles that I have been neglecting in my other daily workouts (videos/elliptical/treadmill/resistance tubes/wii fit/golds gym etc.I do find the nunchuck cord a pain. I did have a wireless set up but the one I have it too large to fit into the pocket and it would take too long to switch them out each time. The band is weak indeed. I overlap it as much as I possibly can to get the most resistance.I started the with the hardest workout you can in the 30 day challenge and I think it's decent. If I was just starting to workout though I'd try the lower ones.The kick backs SUCK (because I'm in my 40's and the knees are not what they used to be) I do kick backs on my other dvd's but they don't make you raise the leg the way this program does. This is hard on the knees in order to get a Perfect rating. If I do my regular way it says TOO SLOW :( but hey, I get it done and make up for in on other things.Boxing is fun, can't seem to nail that left cross every time though.I am not a fan of squats or jumps but I'm becoming one. Certain parts of my thighs actually hurt a bit when you touch them. To me that is a good sign this game is already working out parts of my body that need it.Lunges are lunges....yech. But again, my legs already feel stronger than they did 4 days ago.I like the baseball catching/pitching/batting etc. Basketball is fun, grabbing the ball and shoving it to a target while using the balance board.Tennis is good.I rate this best fitness Wii game to hit the market yet. Spend the money it's worth it. I've used the female coach and will probably now change to the male just for a different sounding voice.I also agree that I don't like that it doesn't show your weight loss. It does show the calories burned though which is nice. So far I've exceeded what they say you'll burn each time so that's even a nice ending to burn more than you thought you were if you give a little bit extra :)You get rewarded each time you pass a goal also. Miles, squats, calories...etc. So it makes a TADA noise while you're working out and shows the award also. Just a little boost.BUY THIS FITNESS GAME! You won't regret it.

Wish they included the strap too. I would have paid extra for it. It is necessary to have with this product.

Completamente nn soddisfatta..anche xche nn mi è stato consegnato come la descrizione..dove compare la scatola contenente gioco...fascia porta controller..e corda..mi è arrivato solo il gioco..tra cui nn posso usarlo nn avendo il porta controller..

Oui, il s'agit vraiment de sport !!! Pour une fois... Rien à voir avec le Wii Fit, qui n'est qu'un jeu et ne m'a jamais fait transpirer.Ici, vous pouvez choisir une des séances pré-programmées, suivre le "défi 30 jours" (avec des activités progressives et variées) ou alors très facilement créer votre propre séance, avec les exercices qui vous plaisent le plus pour travailler le cardio, le haut du corps, le bas ou bien "jouer" (tout en faisant travailler votre corps) au baseball, tennis, volley, basket... Et les abdos alors ? Eh bien, lorsque vous faites un medley de toutes ces activités, vos abdos seront gainés sans vous en rendre compte !!! Je fais du sport de manière régulière, et j'avoue avoir enfin trouvé mon "coach" à domicile. Je tiens d'ailleurs à remercier les internautes pour leurs commentaires qui m'ont permis de choisir ce jeu. Par contre, la bande n'est absolument pas trop élastique : il suffit de la nouer plus haut (et donc la rendre plus courte et plus résistante !) ; le bandeau de jambe tient parfaitement bien, même avec des petites cuisses : il suffit de la serrer suffisamment !Ah oui, petit truc : je mets des lests aux poignets afin de rendre le travail encore plus intense. Je peux vous garantir qu'après trois semaines d'utilisation régulière, mon dos, mes bras et mes épaules se sont affinés et dessinés !!! Idem pour les fessiers :-) !Petit plus : on peut l'utiliser avec la balance board (non indispensable toutefois) pour multiplier les types d'activités. On peut également faire une séance avec "un ami" : travail, compétition et rigolade assurés !!!!!C'est la première fois que je fais un commentaire sur Internet... Mais vous aurez compris pourquoi ;-) !

The package only contained the disk, but was supposed to also contain a leg strap (for the nunchuck) and exercise band. Without the leg strap, it couldn’t be used properly.

je le voulais , je l'ai eu ... et je ne suis pas déçue !J'enfile mon bermuda de sudation et fais connaissance avec ma nouvelle prof , sympa elle m'explique tout pour que je fasse les bons mouvements ! ce qu'elle ne dit pas c'est que ça fait mal...mais 'parait que c'est pour mon bien...je commence par enregistrer mon profil ,ça ,ça va ! puis je me décide pour le programme 30 jours , en avant ... quelques 25 minutes plus tard je suis en nage , mes cuisses me brûlent mais je suis ravie ... vivement demain !je conseille ce jeu aux mamans qui comme moi veulent faire du sport tout en restant à la maison ...