Who doesn't love sweating in their living rooms? (My Fitness Coach (Wii))

Member Name: low_rider

Product:	My Fitness Coach (Wii)
Date:	12/07/09 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Like an exercise dvd but more interactive, great for home exercise

Disadvantages: Wii remote not used, nor is balance board - just an exercise dvd for the Wii!

One of the arguments that convinced my lovely wife-to-be that we absolutely should have a Wii was the health advantages; the wii remote takes game playing to the next level by incorporating bodily movements into play. It has been shown that playing on the Wii for half an hour is as good as walking for half an hour - far better than sitting on your arse playing Xbox 360.

My Fitness Coach is one of the many 'games' on the Wii which have realised that people have bought the Wii for more than just cheap gaming thrills. It is not a game, as such - it is a full on fitness exercise program, like those exercise videos C list celebrities always release whenever they have lost a few pounds thanks to hard work (i.e., surgery), and want to make a quick buck.

Unlike the Wii Fit game, this does not use a Balance Board, or any other form of special equipment. I believe that there is a new fitness game out, which comes complete with a thigh strap which holds the Nun Chuck remote, whilst you hold the Wii remote so the game can monitor your form and positioning, but this does not do that, as you simply follow the exercises that Maya, the lovely yet slightly frog-eyed American pixelised fitness coach of the game, guides you through.

This is probably the largest flaw of the game. The Wii remote is an amazing thing, but this game does not take advantage. Once you have started your exercise program, you put down the remote and simply follow the exercises being performed on screen. As you are not being monitored in any way the game has no idea how well you are performing the moves, and so feedback is automated, the same you would get from a fitness dvd. Maya periodically shouts "good job!", "you're doing it!", "way to go!"; even though she has no idea how well you are performing the moves or even if you are performing them at all, as you could well be sitting down with a cuppa enjoying the sight of someone else doing exercise, even if she is a computer character.

So, onto game play itself - the game is simple enough to use. When you first use it, you have to create a profile. The game has space for four profiles - enough for a family - as well as the option of a "guest pass", which I have not used but I believe allows you to do an exercise program without creating a profile. However, it is recommended that you create a profile, as you provide biometric details (height, weight, measurements of chest, waist, hips, legs and biceps), as well as taking part in a "fitness test" to see how fit you are, which involves giving a resting heart rate measurement (one of the hardest things in the game to do, as finding a pulse with your fingers is far harder than many people realise!), as well as an active heart rate, which means taking your pulse again after two minutes of "jumping jacks" (or star jumps as we civilised English call them). Two minutes is a long time - I go to the gym three times a week, and I found it difficult, and I am still young. I imagine that if you are older and less fit, you would really struggle. You also do upper and lower body strength tests, which involves seeing how many press-ups and sit-ups you can do. I cannot stress enough that you should be honest with these. I know the temptation of adding an extra ten onto your score but you will be impressing nobody (remember, Maya is a fictional character so you ain't gonna score by giving her two tickets to the gun show), and the more honest you are the more personally tailored your work-out programs will be.

If you own any home fitness equipment, such as an exercise ball, free weights or a step bench, you can tell Maya and she will use these in the work out. I don't own any, and it isn't an issue, so don't think you need to run out and buy a load of stuff.

You can then choose a primary focus for your work-out programs. Mine is core strength (abs etc.), but you can choose cardio, flexibility, upper or lower body etc. You then make a commitment of how many days you will work out per week and how long for. I do two 30 minute sessions a week, fitted in around my gym sessions. Once you have finished with your profile, away you go!

Once you are ready to start, you choose a focus for the day's exercise program (it can either be your primary focus, or the focus Maya recommends based on your profile, or or a focus you just fancy doing), then the music you would like to have playing, and finally the space you want to do your exercise in. Initially only three types of music and three exercise arenas are available, but more are unlocked as you progress. It isn't that much of an issue, though - all the music sounds the same anyway, and I'm too busy watching Maya to make sure that my form is correct to worry about a pixelated back drop.

Once your work out begins, you put down the remote and simply follow the exercises on screen. A word of warning - you do need a bit of space around you, as there are some exercises which require you to move back and forth. Also, if you have an exercise mat, have it on the floor nearby, as it will come in handy for floor exercises. If not, I would suggest laying a towel on the floor. Your workout is divided into sections; the three most important being the warm-up (to get the heart rate going), the main exercise, and the cool down (mostly stretching). STRETCH BEFORE YOU START YOUR PROGRAM! Otherwise you risk doing yourself an injury.

Periodically during the exercise Maya will ask how you found the last five/ten/one minutes of exercise, so that if you found it too easy or too hard you can tell her, and she will adjust the difficulty setting accordingly, which is a useful interactive touch. Also, a brilliant feature is that each work out is different. There are loads of exercises you can do and Maya picks different ones each time (and you unlock more as you progress), so, unlike with a fitness dvd, you won't find yourself doing the same thing time after time. At the end of your work out, you are provided with a break down of your progress, including a rough (and I think highly inaccurate) calorie count.

However, the game does have some flaws, the most notable being the one I have already mentioned, in that the wii remote is left on the side, not used during your work out. There are some smaller issues, too, which seem to me to stem from bad design. For example, when Maya asks you how hard you found the last segment, the three options - No Sweat, Working Hard, and Couldn't Keep Up, are arranged in a top-down list. When you have been working hard, your hands shake a bit, and that isn't a good thing with the Wii remote, so you might find the pointer slips down from the option you wanted to select onto a different option. This could have been easily fixed by arranging the options in a side-by-side list. Secondly, Maya asks how you have been finding the exercises at really erratic intervals - sometimes she waits 10 minutes (what are you meant to do if you found the first 8 minutes too easy and the last 2 too hard?), sometimes you only do one exercise before she asks you again (what's the point?). That just seems like sloppy design to me. Thirdly, Maya spends too much time with her pep talk, when it would actually be far more useful for her to talk you through the exercise, as well as explaining what it is useful for. It can be quite hard following what she is doing on screen sometimes, and it would be far better is she talked you through it rather than just chanting "good job!" at me, when I'm standing there scratching my head trying to work out how she seems to have managed to make her legs bend in completely the wrong direction. Lastly, some of the exercises are based on Pilates. Pilates relies heavily on breathing techniques to get the most out of your exercises, and this isn't really explained, which is a shame.

However, for £9.99, you can't really go wrong with this. If you want a more game-like experience then get the Wii Fit, because this is not a game, it is simply an aerobics class. However, the ability to create a profile, the large number of exercises available and the interaction of telling Maya how difficult you are finding it makes this a far better investment than Yet Another Rip-Off Exercise DVD by Davina McCall. It does have some flaws, but the benefits far outweigh them, so this is an excellent budget choice for someone who wants to start or implement an exercise regime in the comfort of their own home. I do mine in my underwear.

Summary: Great budget fitness regime, but not a game.