EA Sports Active: More Workouts - Nintendo Wii

Everybody is different. That needs to be clear. There is not one workout for everyone. Things I have tried in the past would probably produce excellent results for other people (1 year of treadmill 45 minutes 5 times a day, Wii Fit for 6 months everyday, and then a strict diet for 4 months) but not for me, those all did nothing. Yet with EA Sports Active and now EA Sports Active: More Workouts I've lost 23lbs and a total of 8 inches total around waist hips and thighs since May. It works great... for me. No, it's not perfect. The first one had major issues, but thankfully the lot of them were resolved with this new "expansion" (I use quotes because it's actually not an expansion, you can import data but that's about it, definitely not an expansion by definition). There's some lag issues that can get frustrating at times, the motion recognition is shakey (only having a band on the right leg severely affects a few exercises like lunges), and the motivation is, frankly, annoying. But look, gyms are expensive and public, videos are repetitive and boring, trainers are even more expensive and demanding. Getting fit isn't pain free. I'll gladly deal with a few gaming glitches than deal with the other things especially since they're not that bad in this installment. The lag and controller issues are annoying, yes, but they are greatly improved from the first game. Trainer feedback can get old, but again, from the first game they're less aggressive about yelling at you for doing something wrong, they give you a second or two to balance before getting snippy (I mute the trainer anyway, can't stand it). The time between each exercise is dramatically decreased for a faster workout. The core workouts are A-freakin-mazing. Wonderful, love them. So easy on the back and yet so very effective. I absolutely love a lot of the new exercises they added, and some of the sports activities you do are actually a lot better than the first game as far as working out. The useless baseball, basketball, volleyball are replaced with a much more effective squash, water ski, paddle boat, and obstacle course. Yes they're less popular sports, but a better workout. The boring track is replaced with waterfront scenery which I found silly at first, but quickly realized how less draining it was. Things I don't like? Some of the exercises are a bit "much" like push-ups and lunges with high knee jumps. They're incredibly difficult based on the scale of the rest of the workout. In one workout you can do about 40 bicep curls, which isn't much spaced out. But 32 push-ups in the same workout? Show me someone who can get an effective burn with 40 bicep curls and are able to do 32 push-ups. Also the lunge to high knee jumps is incredibly tasking on balance and leg strength. I can do 60 regular lunges but can only do about 3 of those before I hurt myself. Hard to imagine someone doing 48 of those still able to get a burn doing 40 regular lunges, again, in the same workout. But, there is a lot more to this than just these statements, I'm just babbling a bit more than I intended already. Finally, the stretches. They're a very very welcome addition, I'm having less muscle aches and strains (and still feel like I'm getting a better workout from the first game) but there's only four warm-ups and four cool-downs. Ever. EVER. They don't ever change at all, not even in order. I have so very much more to say in greater detail but it's not wise to keep going on as long as I did already. Bottom line, it does incredibly amazingly well for it's capabilities and it's hard for me to imagine someone not getting an effective work out using this system. You may not lose 23lbs and 8 inches, but I'll eat my hat if you do the 6 week challenge and never broke into a heavy sweat. Hey, I'd be amazed if you don't feel anything after the first day of your 6 week challenge on hard. It's intense, and it's awesome. I can't recommend it enough. Good luck!

Ea Sports Active: More Workouts is just that- it's more workouts. It does not include the exercises from its predecessor, but the new exercises that they added are pretty good. The new exercises that they added to keep it fun are pretty inventive and are done well. While I do not much care for the new resistance band exercises; I like the original titles ones better, the other exercises that are new to this title are an improvement. I personally will continue to use both titles, as I feel that they work well off of each other, and that if you have them both you would benefit from continuing with the first installment. They did not fix what seemed to be the biggest complaint from most reviewers- the sensitivity of the leg strap, it continues to not read many of the exercises very well. I gave up on the leg strap because no matter how tight I had it it would still slip off. So what I do is skip any of the lunges because no matter what I tried it would mess up on those more times than not. With the other exercises I will continue to just hold the nunchuk where it would be if it was in the strap or just hold the controller in my left hand and the nunchuk in my right hand. I get less "feedback" from the game this way. I have both EA Sports Active titles, The Biggest Loser, My Fitness coach, Gold's Gym Cardio Workout, Wii Fit Plus, both Active Life Outdoor Challenge titles, and Your Shape is coming soon. While this is not my favorite title it is certainly a good one and I will continue to use it. If you find a work around for the leg strap and better resistance bands then it is much more enjoyable. I ended up purchasing the Gaiam Pilates BodyBand Workout Kit with DVD and Thera-Band Accessories - Assist Attachment Device , and it definitely upped the intensity of my workouts. I have used them nearly everyday since May 2009, and they hold up very well. I purchased these titles to help with my physical therapy, I have leg and back problems from some of my health problems, I cannot drive and am sensitive to the sun, so I do most of my exercises indoor. Some of the exercises I have to make a few modifications too but I have to do that to all of the titles that I mentioned. I think that may be why I get so annoyed with the leg strap. I personally prefer not to get so much feedback from the trainer because I can not follow along with every precise move, but overall this is a great addition and I can see it being beneficial from long term use and helping to make exercise not so monotonous.

I was frustrated by the slow pacing and lackluster cardio workouts with Wii Fit, so I bought this game for something a little more challenging. This game is close to being great, but a couple of key problems are ruining it for me. First the positive: the workouts are more intense and more varied than with Wii Fit-- I really do feel like it is a better workout. The pacing is also much better- I can get 20 minutes of exercise done in 25 minutes, rather than 20 minutes of exercise in 40 minutes (which is what it feels like with Wii Fit). I am also getting a lot out of the six week challenge-- that is very well designed. So, this game definitely addressed the areas where I was looking for something beyond what Wii Fit offered. However, when I am using this game there are three big problems: 1) The game does not provide good verbal instruction. If you only follow the verbal instructions, you will not properly do the exercises. For example, when doing figure 4 stretches in the cool down stage-- it tells you how to do the first half of the stretch, has you do 10 reps, then tells you how to do the second half of the stretch. If you follow only the verbal cues, you will have done nothing. Considering that this is an exercise where you are lying on your back, the verbal instructions are important. Also, on several exercises you get to the last rep, and then it tells you "Don't do ... or you might hurt your back!" That little piece of information would be much more useful at the beginning of the exercise, not the end. 2) The game does not provide good feedback. I feel like the game is merely keeping count of the number of reps that I have done-- it does not tell me if I am doing the exercise well or doing it poorly. Some other reviewers seem happy with the feedback, but it just does not work for me. This is especially because many of the exercises seem to track how you are pointing the Wii remote, not how you are doing the exercise. Squats, for example, depend on you pointing the Wii remote down when you are down in the squat and pointing the remote up when you stand; it seems to track your hand movement, not your leg movement-- even though this is a leg exercise. 3) The responsiveness to the controls is poor. There are several exercises, mostly upper body strength exercises (curls, tricep extensions, etc) where the game does not recognize many of my movements. I find this very frustrating, and when the game tries to correct me when I know that I did the movement it really breaks my concentration and pacing. This, more than anything else, is preventing me from giving this game a higher rating. No matter how many times I watch the instructional video and mimic the motions on the screen, I just cannot get the game to reliably recognize my movements. In the end, I feel like this is little more than a workout video. It does not have the feedback and responsiveness that would make it feel more like an exercise game. If I had not already gotten into a workout habit using Wii Fit, I would never have stuck with this game. I continue to use it, because in the end it does offer a better workout, but I rarely enjoy it the way that I enjoy playing Wii Fit. When I want a workout, I use this game; when I want fun exercise, I play Wii Fit.

Another great entry into the workout gaming. I loved the first one, so, obviously, had to get this one. It's just as good if not better in some ways. The actual exercises don't seem as well rounded sometimes (there's a lot of jumping around), but the weightlifting exercises and the obstacle courses are nice, as well as the water sports like paddling. It's a bit like having Sports Resort and Active combined. That's a good thing. The boxing exercises are more a challenge and squash will make you really loathe squats and lunges, but the quality of the workouts is really high with this one as it also focuses on warming up and cooling down. The customization is still present, so you don't always have to do the preset workouts even though those are probably much more rounded. I like the six week challenge option in particular because you can do more than one workout in a day if you really like, and you can set up which days you would prefer to do the workouts on, unlike the first one where you were stuck in a particular model and couldn't really change it that much. The weekly stats are really helpful to in helping gauge how well or how badly you might be doing in the overall scheme of your health. I haven't paid a whole lot of a attention to it until it comes up every week, but it is nice to have on hand as it rates more than just the calories burned. Overall, I really like having this one as a change up to the old routine. It's not necessarily better, but it is solid and worthwhile since there are a good variety of different workouts to be had than the Active. Can't say I've really paid much attention to the book that came with the game purchase, but it does seem to be helpful if one is looking to really lose weight or maintain a healthy lifestyle. Really, havine More Workouts is a great way to not get bored with the old stuff and to still challenge yourself because the hard intensity is almost more intense than the last game. Still solid work from EA.

After finishing the 30 Day Challenge on the Wii Active: Personal Trainer, I decided to give "More Workouts" a shot, and I'm glad that I did. The warm up and cool down stations are a welcome addition, although it's annoying that the trainer insists that you watch him do the movements each time, as they are not that complicated that I need constant reminders. However, it is easy enough to throw in a few extra reps while the guy is needlessly showing me how to do the warm up or cool down yet again. However, just having a cool down that is more than "walk ten steps" is a vast improvement. The ab exercises, although few in number, are also a nice addition. The island location is a bit hokey at times but is pleasant to look at, and the island-themed sports are pretty engaging. Doing squats to get through the water skiing course is much more interesting than just doing dozens of squats while staring at the trainer; likewise for lunges with squash, and the ability to choose left or right handed is nice, even if moving the leg band isn't especially nice. The cardio boxing is much better than in the first version, and I have made a cardio workout on my own with a large portion of cardio boxing. There are of course the occasional issue where the game doesn't read your movement correctly, and it's unfortunate that the "1" button tells you what song is playing and you have to hit the button again to continue, as I seem to hit the "1" with annoying frequency while doing arm exercises with the resistance band. I also wish there were a way to swap in an exercise of a similar type for one you don't want to do, as there are some that are too hard on my knees, and the running ones make the downstairs neighbors mad; it would be nice to be able to do a different exercise in place of the one I don't want to do, rather than getting rid of the exercise entirely. With the addition of 1-lb gloves and a much stronger resistance band, I feel like I am getting a fairly decent workout, and the variety of workouts is keeping me engaged. I look forward to working my way through the 6-week challenge, and trying a few of the recipes in the included booklet.

Let me preface this with I have been a Sims player since its origional incarnation with Maxis. Since EA took over I've been sorely disapointed. The relevance here is I am by no means an EA fan. Origionally I wanted to get Wii Fit Plus, but did not have the 90$ for for the board and everything. My daughter and I enjoy playing the Sports game that came with the Wii. However, I bought the Wii for its exercise aspects and the Sports game wasn't cutting it for me. So, I looked around and decided to try EA Sports Active: More Workouts. The Wii board is optional, but I do reccomend getting the EA active accessory pack if you don't have the leg band. I have been pleasantly surprised. The controls are very well designed and easy to use. I really like that for the sports activities (i.e. water skiing) there is a video tutorial with a real person going through how to use the Wii-mote and engage in the activity. The second time through it gives you an option to review the tutorial or go right into the activity. Which is nice since you arn't stuck waiting for the tutorial to finish. Also, the next time you do the workout you can view the tutorial or skip it. If like me, you have physiological issues which make some activites difficult or impossible you can skip them without some kind of 'penalty'. You can create your own workout or select one of a wide variety of preset workouts to do. Now, I mentioned my daughter. She turns six in March. The video tutorial was super helpful for her. She was able to participate with minimual fustration at learning the Wii-mote and how to engage in the sports activities. She thuroughly enjoyed the island workout we did. Anybody with a younger child knows how difficult it can be keeping them actively engaged. The island workout combined exercise techniques and a variety of sports in a way that kept her interested for the entire 35 minutes we worked out. We both liked the journal and its various atributes. Specifically she liked watching the graph populate and was tickled to get a trophy. I liked the calander and its customizability. When we finished our initial workout my daughter looked at me and said 'Mommy, can we do another one?' I would definately reccomend this product to anyone looking for an exercise game for thier Wii, whether it be for themselves or as a family activity. As a matter of fact, I already have reccomended it, lol. I was telling my best friend about it and she asked me where I got it and to e-mail her the links!

I had bought EA Sports Active: Personal Trainer back in July & loved it. However after using it about 4x per week I found that it wasn't challenging enough for me. So, when I was that EA Sports Active: More Workouts came out, I was thrilled. I found that these new workouts helped work muscles & other areas of my body that the old one didn't. It was a new challenge for me. I love how it imports my data from the Personal Trainer work-out as well. I have a couple other workout videos for the wii, but they don't compare to EA Active Sports, both Personal Trainer & More Workouts. I would highly recommend both of these workouts over any other workouts I've done for these reasons: 1) It's step by step instructions. It tells & shows you the proper way to do an exercise before throwing you into it. And if you need review you can are able to have a review. 2) It's very interactive. In fact, the most interactive one I've found. It gives you feed back on things like your form, your speed, how you can improve, but also it gives you a lot of positive feed back too. 3) It helps keep a running total of your calories burnt, as well as time worked out. 4) It lets you set your own goals. The More Workouts even lets you choose the days you want to workout, which is awesome. 5) It can be really intense if you choose to make it intense. 6) You can create your own workouts. 7) Some of the workouts are so fun, like the water-skiing or squash from the More Workouts or the baseball or dancing from the Personal Trainer, that I've created some workouts to be more like games than a workout. I could go on & on about how wonderful these workouts are. Just overall comment...It is totally worth your money to buy EA Sports Active.

I'm into my 7th workout of the 6 week challenge and have these thoughts: Pro: These are really good workouts. I think this is what people thought Wii Fit would be. I like the mix of cardio, full body and upper and lower body choices. At the end of them I am sweating and the next day I've been sore. The trainer and "show me how" videos make it easy to learn the moves You can choose to skip exercises at the beginning of the workout and it calculates your calories based on your choices. You can follow the 6-week challenge or create your own workout. Con: The resistance band offers very little resistance even at very short lengths. I tried holding my own free weights and the wii remote in the same hand but it slipped around and I felt like I would crack the wii-mote when I squeezed it against the dumbbell bar. To make up for it, I do a set with my own weights and then repeat the set with the band just so I get the credit and the calorie count on my graphs. The leg thing is uncomfortable. Attach it tightly to stay on, it feels like a tourniquet and if you attach it loosely, it sometimes slides off during jogging. To remedy this, I wear shorts with deep pockets and stick the nun-chuck in the pocket. It works well for the weight routines and running but not so well for water-skiing and lunging. For those I still have to use the Velcro leg thing. My big complaint: the Wii remote and nunchuck seem out of sync with some of the exercises. When I try to do crunches with punches, the trainer says "too fast, too slow, try again," over and over, even if I am just laying there. I end up doing the crunches on my own and then faking out the software with hand gestures. Its also frustrating when I want to get into a good routine of doing 15 crunches and I have to either wait, try again, hold it, start over or watch the videos to satisfy the trainer... it takes 5 minutes to do a set of wii crunches that take only 30 seconds in the gym. The controls are sometimes inconsistently unresponsive so if I swat the ball 10 times in a row in squash, the 11th time my arm won't move for 3 seconds and then it'll swing to catch up. And with water-skiing, I'll successfully squat 5 times in a row and the 6th time I miss the flag even though I am moving the exact same way as before. It's not very fun. The exercises are the same basic ones you can do on your own: lunges and crunches and bicep curls with weights. No hula hooping, skiing or snowball fights (like the wii). True, there is water skiing but that is basically squatting down and up and there is squash but that consists of mainly swinging your arms, lunging and swattingat the ball on a drab court by yourself. Would be fun if it were more like Wii tennis with a crowd, good scenery and partners. For the longer workouts, you end up repeating the last 5 exercises you just did. Gets a little old. The trainer is annoying sometimes. When he says "niiiiice!" I kinda want to smack him. I like Wii Fit's mellow, unobtrusive trainer. So despite the long list of cons, I am still happy with the software. I feel like I am making much more progress toning up than with the wii fit and that was the whole point of buying the software.

Good for exercices.

great