Do it right, do it hard

The title of this post is the mantra of my new workout coach. I can't say that I appreciate the mantra, but I can appreciate that Nintendo has tried to make her, Maya, as real as possible.

That's right, my new workout coach isn't real, she's part of a Wii "game". About a year ago Neil and I purchased the Wii Fit package to encourage our desires to lose weight and get fit. It's fun and challenging at times, but it's not enough of a workout for me. It's too clunky by making you choose each exercise, and although it makes me sweat, I don't feel like it's doing enough. So recently I purchased My Fitness Coach for the Wii... I finally started the program yesterday... I'm soar today. I think this is good although painful.

I promised my Mom and sister-in-law a review once I finally used it, so here goes: I give it 4 stars for now. This "game" is envigorating and asks regularly if the workout is actually challenging, too much or not enough so that it can adjust future workouts. You can set a schedule and choose different types of workouts depending on what you want to work on. It also incorporates equipment like a workout ball or weights if you have them, and more importantly leaves them out if you don't. I have nothing more than a yoga matt so I don't know how well Maya works the equipment into a workout. I've tried a 15 minute flexibility workout and a 30 minute core workout so far, which have both been good... but the music sucks. I seem to need more space than I have for bouncing around in the warmup, but that's because I have awkardly shaped rooms. It's not gentle exercise, which is what I prefer in a workout. The yoga workout might be a little more gentle though.

Unlike the Wii Fit this game doesn't take statistics (like weight) with every use, so I'll have to wait a little before I know what improvements it's helped me make. I think this is a good thing because weight fluctuates a lot within a day, which means daily readings can be a somewhat inaccurate picture. My Fitness coach also takes more statistics, such as bicep, chest, waist, hip and thigh measurements. Watch this space because I'll get back to you about the improvements.

If you're interested, I found a couple of these reviews helpful when I was deciding about my purchase:
IGN
Journey Fitness Online
viewpoints
metacritic
And don't forget the reviews at Amazon which are pretty useful too.