Geeks Get Fit

Growing up with 4 brothers was like video game city and when I met my boyfriend he was, also, an addict (in fact while I write this he is sitting on the couch next to me playing Dead Space for XBOX 360.) He’s had just about every system and since we’ve been dating I’ve gotten to benefit, the casual gamer that I am. Mostly I spend my time doing the Zelda, Grand Theft Auto, Mario thing and when Nintendo came out with the Wii fit, I wasn’t particularly interested. We had the Wii, and loved it and Wii sports was awesome (especially the bowling) but I just couldn’t see a video game giving you a good workout.

I do not look like these people...yet.

Recently though, the EA sports active game has been popping up everywhere, with the release of the second game “More Workouts” it seemed the general consensus is that it is a pretty awesome workout and actually works! When I did a little more digging and realized I didn’t need the Wii balance board to participate I ordered it and all the accoutrements excited to test out another “fun” workout I could potentially stick to.

Day One (Thursday) was spent setting up my profile and taking all the fitness questionnaires but I was really interested in starting the 6 week challenge (the main feature of the game). I chose my day to day activity level as the least active since I have an office job…kinda. The workout took about 20 minutes and while I got a little sweat going I felt like it was partially from frustration of trying to get my avatar to respond and switching between all the different positions you have to hold the Wii-mote in for different workouts. I finished workout feeling that it might be a good supplement to working out but that on my “rest” days I would go to the gym to run or to yoga class, etc.

My living room is also not this clean...ever.

I’ll be honest though – Day Two kicked my butt! Only 16 minutes total workout time but between crunch and punches and crossover lunges I really felt like I was getting somewhere! I finally figured out the key to getting my avatars to respond accurately, I mastered pacing so that my “personal trainer”’ wasn’t constant scolding me and spent the rest of the day achy walking up and down stairs at work and in the subways. After the insistence of my friend Rich who yelled incessantly “Rest on your rest days!” I took yesterday and today off (I probably could have snuck a yoga class in today but spent my entire day doing about a months worth of backed up laundry…wait - do I get activity points for that? = D) and am a bit excited to wake up tomorrow and start my day off with my next session.

So stay tuned for periodic updates about the trials and tribulations of the 6 week challenge as I will be using the blog to keep myself on point! And if you wanna partake you can order your own “More Workouts” here: http://tinyurl.com/yaovxme