'EA Sports Active' 6 week challenge review

As an avid gamer, I also saw the benefit and bought the Wii Fit along with a few exercise games many, many years ago. It's been sitting unused for a while now, but when I decided I wanted to get in shape, I pulled it out, blew off the dust and gave it a shot. To me, this seemed the perfect way to start exercising after years of laziness. It could start me off somewhat easy, motivate me with achievements that my gamer self loves and get me accustomed to having an exercise schedule.

I used “EA Sports Active,” specifically the 6 week challenge, which I completed in a little less than a month.

Why did I complete it so early? Well, there are too many rest days. It requires 3 rest days be scheduled before it will let you start the challenge. Because it uses the same schedule each week (instead of working out a certain number of days then resting), this can end up being really strange and ultimately you'll end up being told to rest on days when you're ready to get to business. The game does not stop you from getting in extra days on rest days thankfully. So I ended up taking only one rest day each week.

Each workout is 25 – 30 minutes long.

Peripheral equipment:

Balance board – “EA Sports Active” is compatible with the Wii Fit balance board. It amps up the difficulty of some exercises, such as kick boxing. However, I do think it lessens the difficulty of others, such as rafting or paddling.

Resistance band – The game came with a resistance band, but it might as well be a rubber band for how thin and weak it is, even for someone who hasn't exercised in years. I highly recommend getting a better resistance band, such as the ones by Beach Body, or getting some small weights and getting used to holding them along with the Wiimote and nunchuk.

Weight loss/Aerobics:

I did not lose much weight while doing the 6 week challenge for “EA Sports Active.” My weight fluctuated within the range that one could expect for normal daily changes. I believe this was because there was simply not enough aerobic workouts sprinkled in with the rest of the exercises. Everyday focused very heavily on lots of squats and seemed to end with some ab work. While there were a few aerobic days that were quite intense, they were few and far between; definitely not enough to help with taking pounds off.

Around the 15th day you can see weight did begin to start coming off. I added 30 minutes of walking to my routine every other day to try and balance out the lack of aerobics. It was only a light walk around the block, but it was enough to start shedding some pounds finally.

It was very easy to get the game to register aerobic leg movement. If it had any issues then it just took adjusting the leg strap a bit lower or higher then you were set.

Strength exercises:

While I did not losing much weight, I did find my strength improving. I could lift more weight and do more reps by the end of the 6 week challenge. I used either 5 pound weights or Beach Body resistance bands when doing arm exercises.

It was quite annoying to get the game to register the arm movements for these exercises. Trying to hold something else – whether it was a weight or a resistance band didn't matter – while holding the Wiimote and nunchuk made you grip the controllers oddly. This resulted in the game thinking you weren't moving. A solid shake was required at the top and bottom of almost every motion to make it register you had moved.

Fun:

The exercises in “EA Sports Active” are varied, engaging and some are even downright video game like. This kept me active and paying attention even when I was dragging and exhausted. The program is also easily modified since you can turn off any exercises you find boring, painful or just don't have the room to do – I usually turned off anything that involved jumping because it just causes too much noise in my thin-walled house.

The boxing and step aerobics portions are my favorite; I'm a big fan of aerobic work to begin with, but these are really entertaining.

Verdict:

The 6 week challenge for “EA Sports Active” is okay if you just want a little something to do to maintain your current weight and strength, or if you are trying to ease yourself into getting started exercising for the first time. Beyond that, it was too frustrating to get the controllers to register arm movements to bother with regularly and the lack of much aerobic work in the challenge made it difficult to actually drop pounds.

What was definitely worth doing though is working out on your own and doing the aerobic exercises. If you enjoy step aerobics or boxing to get your heart rate up, these are fun and make sure you stay active and in rhythm for the full length of an exercise time. So skip the 6 week challenge if you get “EA Sports Active” and just work out on your own with some of the pre-planned workouts.