My Fitness Coach: Get In Shape

Right...... I like to eat to live, I will never change that -burgers, chocolate, crisps, beer etc.. If its got fat in it - I like it. I am 35 year old male and got fed up looking a fatty - have tried loads of diets and nothing worked. Mainly cause I love me food too much. My wife loves fitness stuff so I bought this for her about 8 weeks ago and she loved it. Its never the same so its not like one of these DVD celebrity look at me from coronation street getting fit in my spare time crap....I decided I would give it a go. I entered all my info in with the help of the Mrs ( waist/chest/thighs/weight etc ) and I chose 4 days a week 30 minutes a day ! I will be honest here - first session I did I thought I was gonna have a cardiac arrest - I was so unfit I nearly fell over - really felt sick. Next morning it hurt to move and I work in a manual job. I kept to it despite the pain and after the week I weighed myself - 3lb off. Giving me hope I did another week - not only had I lost more… more »

Right...... I like to eat to live, I will never change that -burgers, chocolate, crisps, beer etc.. If its got fat in it - I like it. I am 35 year old male and got fed up looking a fatty - have tried loads of diets and nothing worked. Mainly cause I love me food too much. My wife loves fitness stuff so I bought this for her about 8 weeks ago and she loved it. Its never the same so its not like one of these DVD celebrity look at me from coronation street getting fit in my spare time crap....I decided I would give it a go. I entered all my info in with the help of the Mrs ( waist/chest/thighs/weight etc ) and I chose 4 days a week 30 minutes a day ! I will be honest here - first session I did I thought I was gonna have a cardiac arrest - I was so unfit I nearly fell over - really felt sick. Next morning it hurt to move and I work in a manual job. I kept to it despite the pain and after the week I weighed myself - 3lb off. Giving me hope I did another week - not only had I lost more weight but my chest/waist had gone down too. Even at Easter when I ate a large Thorntons egg followed by 5 cadbury eggs ( yes I am a greedy git ) I still lost. I have now reduced my fat intake and have shifted over a stone in weight. Some routines still are uncomfortable even now but each week it boosts my commitment to getting fitter. I just use hand weights every time and keep regular to the program the AI chooses for me. If I can do this guys - you can. Trust me - yes the first time you do feel a complete fembot jumping round the living room like a fairy but you will soon change your mind when the scales and tape tell you otherwise. The program analysis checks you every 10 training days and keeps record of your progress. It keeps asking you how your finding it so you can up or decrease the difficulty level. I still eat occasional junk food now ( I had kebab meat and chips 3 hours ago ) but in far more moderation than I used to ( 3-5 biscuits instead of the pack !!!! ) I feel better when I go out for a beer and have bought new shirts as my others were hanging too much like I had borrowed them off me brother ! If you are similar to me and like your food - give this a go. You have to put effort in to it but after a few weeks you will be glad you did. The thought of it sometimes is harder than doing it - Am glad I did. I am no Mr Motivator or whatever he calls himself ( annoying bloke off Tv with multi coloured camp gear on who don't shut up ) but am getting fitter by the week. Hope this helps. Phil

This is no game, but is a fab way to get fit using the Wii from the comfort of your own home. If you're like me and don't like visiting a gym, or don't feel like going out to an aerobics class once you've got home from a long day at work, then this is a great alternative.

It is effectively an exercise class in your living room; each session is unique, pulled together from 500 different exercises, at a level to suit your abilities (you interact to say how hard you're finding the routine and Maya will reduce or increase the intensity next time)

You can also choose your daily focus depending on how you're feeling, eg upper body, cardio, core body, lower body, yoga etc.

The one downfall is that there seems to be a lack of explanation in the instructions about unlocking new rooms and music, as seen by the various questions raised on blogs etc. I fell foul of this and did numerous workouts without getting any unlocks. It seems that in order to obtain a workout credit that… more »

This is no game, but is a fab way to get fit using the Wii from the comfort of your own home. If you're like me and don't like visiting a gym, or don't feel like going out to an aerobics class once you've got home from a long day at work, then this is a great alternative.

It is effectively an exercise class in your living room; each session is unique, pulled together from 500 different exercises, at a level to suit your abilities (you interact to say how hard you're finding the routine and Maya will reduce or increase the intensity next time)

You can also choose your daily focus depending on how you're feeling, eg upper body, cardio, core body, lower body, yoga etc.

The one downfall is that there seems to be a lack of explanation in the instructions about unlocking new rooms and music, as seen by the various questions raised on blogs etc. I fell foul of this and did numerous workouts without getting any unlocks. It seems that in order to obtain a workout credit that actually counts towards unlocking, you have to do a workout on the exact day that you've pre-set in your calendar and for the preset time for that day. If you can't make a commitment on fixed days (as I can't) for the same day / length each week, then I've found a "cheat" - instead of setting your calendar in advance, then after loading your profile & before selecting your workout, ensure you set your calendar for that day for the length of time you're planning to exercise, and remove any commitment for any other days. If you do this each time you exercise (it only takes an extra minute) you will never 'miss' a workout, and you'll get unlocks quicker.

Some other reviews complain that the exercises are a bit repetitive, but then so are aerobics classes / videos. Wii Fitness Coach gets you to do reps of say 10 then rest for 10 seconds then do another set of 10 reps which seems reasonable to me.

Overall, the best Wii 'game' I've got. I also have Wii Cardio Fitness Coach, which is mainly Boxing, so I use that for upper body workouts and Wii Fitness Coach for Core / lower / cardio etc. The yoga doesn't rock my boat, and Maya's a bit quiet during the Yoga routines which doesn't help when you don't know what you're doing, but still good!

PRO's:
Doesn't keep stopping for you to select new exercises like Wii Fit.
Chose your daily focus for exercise (eg upper body, core body etc)
Set your time eg 15, 30, 45, 60 mins (every little helps!)
Every workout is different so never gets boring.
Intensity is set to a level you can (in theory) cope with!

CON's
There is only intermittent interaction (wii remote is not used so Maya can't tell if you're keeping up, or on the sofa with a huge bar of chocolate)
She doesn't give you much time to get any equipment ready so you have to have it out ready to use and move to it quickly, but you can see ahead to know what exercise is next.

Conclusion:
The pro's far outweigh the con's and I'm really pleased I've got this (and Wii Fitness Coach Cardio). Stopped using Wii Fit as it is not in the same league.

I was getting a little demotivated with the Wii Fit and found it occasionally irritating (the repeating remarks by the trainer are just annoying) so I thought I'd try another fitness game so I had some variety.
Had heard some good stories about the MyFitnessTrainer program. It's not anything like Wii Fit - for a start, it doesn't use any feedback from the controller or wii board. I wish it did! But it's really more like a fitness video that you can customise. And I do mean customise - when you set up a profile it'll test your fitness. You enter goals and what time/schedule you want to commit. You enter what equipment you have (like handweights, HRM) and it'll incorporate them into the program. Then when you start a workout, you can pick environment, music, and what sort of workout (cardio, upper/lower muscle, yoga, etc) you want.
Then during the workout it'll often ask you feedback about the intensity level so you can increase or decrease. It's all pretty nifty really. If… more »

I was getting a little demotivated with the Wii Fit and found it occasionally irritating (the repeating remarks by the trainer are just annoying) so I thought I'd try another fitness game so I had some variety.
Had heard some good stories about the MyFitnessTrainer program. It's not anything like Wii Fit - for a start, it doesn't use any feedback from the controller or wii board. I wish it did! But it's really more like a fitness video that you can customise. And I do mean customise - when you set up a profile it'll test your fitness. You enter goals and what time/schedule you want to commit. You enter what equipment you have (like handweights, HRM) and it'll incorporate them into the program. Then when you start a workout, you can pick environment, music, and what sort of workout (cardio, upper/lower muscle, yoga, etc) you want.
Then during the workout it'll often ask you feedback about the intensity level so you can increase or decrease. It's all pretty nifty really. If it used controller feedback to image if you're actually doing the exercises it would be perfect! As it is it's a very nice programme, but it won't trick you into exercising like the wii fit can.