When Wii Fit doesn't work... try a copycat? (EA Fitness)

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Wed May 27, 2009 12:46 am

I've had Wii Fit since launch day and have used it on and off. I never felt like I was getting a particularly worthwhile workout from it (I can't offer any scientific evidence either way on that one, just an observation) and so while I was able to stick with it as a sort of neato scale, I couldn't really keep myself on any sort of exercise routine.

Fast forward a year or so. I'm desperately in need of something to get my ass into shape, and I saw EA's new Wii fitness game called... um, Fitness. I decided to pick it up. I'm going to start playing it tonight or tomorrow when I get home from work and see if the touted "30 day jumpstart" can help me any.

Anyone else get this? It's gotten some pretty positive user reviews (Amazon has a boatload of reviews for it and most are 5 stars with a lot of 4), but I haven't seen any normal critical reviews for it. I figured if I even get a moderate amount of use out of it I'll get my $60 worth.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Wed May 27, 2009 1:00 am

I personally think all these Wii fitness games are a fiasco and running or walking a mile, doing some sit-ups, and lifting some weights is 1000% percent more effective.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Wed May 27, 2009 1:05 am

I'm afraid that I have to agree. Just because you feel a bit sweaty does not mean that you are really working off those calories. Your best bet is to form a home plan for daily workout, that means really getting your heart rate up and working your muscles. If you have a problem with motivation you might consider getting a membership to a health center.

I think you have to make the most of small victories while working out. Maybe it is doing that extra sit up or lifting a pound more than last time.

Also I recently lost 10 pounds just not eating after 6 pm. I think sleeping on a snack is a bad idea.

OR you could work with me and load bricks into trucks all day long.

Khan · Post by **Khan** » Wed May 27, 2009 1:30 am

get yourself a gym membership and start training with a friend, you'll see limited results using the wii fit and similar things....besides training 2 up is always harder and having somone there pushing the pace with you is a great way to better yourself.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed May 27, 2009 1:46 am

Yes. I will have to laugh at you just like I did my wife when she thought she might get a good workout from Wii Fit. Go outside -- 1000% better.

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Wed May 27, 2009 1:54 am

quote="UnscathedFlyingObject"]I personally think all these Wii fitness games are a fiasco and running or walking a mile, doing some sit-ups, and lifting some weights is 1000% percent more effective.[/quote]

Coincidentally, or not, this is exactly what I do, and it seems to work. But I don't have a Wii.

EDIT: I feel compelled to give some specific advice here because I see so many people screwing around and quitting, even though I am not an expert.

1. Decide specifically what you are going to do and STICK TO IT. It may help to write it down. I write down my weight lifting info but not my running, but do whatever you need to.

2. You must do aerobic exercise for 30 MINUTES at least 3 DAYS A WEEK. 28 minutes at a bare minimum. Some sources will say 22 minutes or something but that's controversial. The most evidence points to 30. Aerobic exercise is exercise which primarily works your heart and lungs. The classic examples are running and walking. It should be continual and sustained. Running is better than walking. Try walking as fast as you can stand to do for 30 minutes. Once you start getting better you can try running slowly for short periods in the middle of your walk. Cycling is also good. Make sure you put your gear low enough that you are always pedaling continually, for 30 minutes (DO NOT go into a high gear and coast, or coast on the downhills, that's not aerobic). Swimming might count but you have to keep continually moving for 30 minutes. Personally I have a hard time doing a front crawl for very long so I combine it with backstroke. Mostly I run though. I am up to running 37 minutes at a stretch so far. You can use stairclimbing machines or ellipticals if you like, but you must set it easy enough that you can keep going for 30 minutes. Only doing 15 minutes because you used too much resistance is pretty worthless.

3. If you are out of shape and overweight, you need to get a good aerobic routine going before you worry about weight training. In the longer run though, a good weight training routine will increase your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which will help you decrease fat. Find some good exercises in a book, don't just do random stuff. Try to set up a routine that works all the major muscle groups. I use a routine from Getting Stronger by Bill Pearl. Some bodybuilders I know kind of make fun of that book and say it's too old. I say the human body hasn't really changed in 25 years. Anyway, this is getting ahead of you.

4. I couldn't make it without my MP3 player.

Right now I am running 37 minutes 3 days a week, and doing 8 weight-lifting exercises on 3 days, which take me about 1.5 hours. I take Sunday off.

`Throwdown · Post by **`Throwdown** » Wed May 27, 2009 1:56 am

The point of Wii fit, and all these fitness games is to create a alternative to typical workout techniques. Make it a bit more fun, a bit more rewarding. Whether they work or not, I don't know...

UnscathedFlyingObject · Wed May 27, 2009 2:03 am

"I don't think Wii Fit's purpose is to make you fit..."
— Shigeru Miyamoto

I wouldn't dare challenge the creator itself

. Wii Fit is goodamned glorified bathroom scale.

BryanM · Post by **BryanM** » Wed May 27, 2009 2:30 am

Do this.

Get this.

Buy a few boxes of frozen beef patties every month - not the super cheap ones, those ones taste like despair.

If you're super fat, you can even do unweighted parallel squats.

A fun fact is aerobics helps make you fat.

`Throwdown · Post by **`Throwdown** » Wed May 27, 2009 2:55 am

UnscathedFlyingObject wrote:"I don't think Wii Fit's purpose is to make you fit..."
— Shigeru Miyamoto

I wouldn't dare challenge the creator itself . Wii Fit is goodamned glorified bathroom scale.

Reggie Fils-Aime needs to market a fitness game that helps shrink a fat ass head.

doctorx0079 · Post by **doctorx0079** » Wed May 27, 2009 3:09 am

BryanM wrote:Do this.

Get this.

Buy a few boxes of frozen beef patties every month - not the super cheap ones, those ones taste like despair.

If you're super fat, you can even do unweighted parallel squats.

A fun fact is aerobics helps make you fat.

BULLSHIT

That is batshit insane.

See my previous post.

This is a good example of the crazy crap being pushed by self-styled "gurus" these days with little research to back it up. I'm very skeptical.

ZacharyB · Post by **ZacharyB** » Wed May 27, 2009 3:58 am

It helps to spend money. We tend to want to justify our expenditures, so when you drop a load of cash on something, you tend to feel committed to your purchase. In this way, spending $XX.XX a month on a health club would obligate yourself to fulfill the promise of that purchase.

Another important thing to remember is that you aren't going to see results until a month passes. Just last that month, then get inspired to work another month. Then another... etc.

If you want, think of it like leveling up or something... That would be a cool motivator for the market. EXP = Calories burned? Might work what with the grinding sensation that WoW is.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed May 27, 2009 4:09 am

Ever since I moved to S. Cali, keeping the weight off hasn't been a problem.

Pixel_Outlaw · Post by **Pixel_Outlaw** » Wed May 27, 2009 4:15 am

This one will actually make you hurt a bit. Done first, done right.

Try to keep that crazy thing on the floor while using it.

No balancing no standing on one leg. You run, you run like your little 8 bit life depended on it. Then the slick mat slips to the left a bit and you miss a button. Your ankle bits it wrong and snaps. You loose balance and one of the sharp corners on the nes gouges out your left eye. You arise a broken man, but a man nonetheless.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Wed May 27, 2009 4:28 am

Just don't cheat and use your hands or drum sticks.

BryanM · Post by **BryanM** » Wed May 27, 2009 4:45 am

doctorx0079 wrote:BULLSHIT

...

I'm very skeptical.

Mayhap, mayhap.

In all seriousness, aerobics has pretty much zero affect on bodyweight, up or down. The stuff you were talking about does increase average life expectancy by a few years, but it's only applicable to people who are complete potatoes.

This affect is caused by maintaining bone density and heart strength, which otherwise atrophies away as the years move by. Mowing your lawn will only get you so far, after Xty weeks, to go beyond that you need progressive loading.

.... and how can you weight train and run ~100 minutes a week? By the end of the squats and the deadlift, your muscles and liver are drained of glucose. On your rest day, they're trying to refuel and are expending hundreds of calories on construction work. It's gotta be hurting your strength and speeeeed gains.

Also: I recommend Paul Engemann's "Poosh it to the Limit" for the MP3.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Wed May 27, 2009 4:54 am

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Wed May 27, 2009 4:58 am

I had a gym membership for a while a few years ago and I never went. It was a total waste of money. With the limited amount of time I have, I need exercising to be convenient. If it's not, I won't do it - health benefits or no. Hence maybe this will be a worthwhile purchase.

Worst thing that happens: I wasted $60. Not the first time I've done that.

BryanM · Post by **BryanM** » Wed May 27, 2009 5:02 am

Cthulhu wrote:I had a gym membership for a while a few years ago and I never went. It was a total waste of money. With the limited amount of time I have, I need exercising to be convenient. If it's not, I won't do it - health benefits or no. Hence maybe this will be a worthwhile purchase.

Worst thing that happens: I wasted $60. Not the first time I've done that.

No no nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Get a rack and a weightset. Stick it in the corner of your living room and do sets of squats when commercials on the American Idol come up.

It's only a few hundred dollars where's the fistshake emoticon :fistshake:

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed May 27, 2009 6:48 am

`Throwdown wrote:The point of Wii fit, and all these fitness games is to create a alternative to typical workout techniques. Make it a bit more fun, a bit more rewarding. Whether they work or not, I don't know...

The rewards of a workout are the changes to your health/body, and a real one is going to give you a better one than any game can.

In all seriousness, aerobics has pretty much zero affect on bodyweight, up or down. The stuff you were talking about does increase average life expectancy by a few years, but it's only applicable to people who are complete potatoes.

Not going to read that article, so tell me: does it say aerobics make you fat, or aerobic activity? Surely it's not retarded enough to suggest the latter. In my experience, the people that dis any type of aerobic activity (running, swimming, jogging, cycling) are the meatheads in the gym that can bench twice their weight, but could not do a pull up to save their life, and would probably kill over after running a mile.

.... and how can you weight train and run ~100 minutes a week? By the end of the squats and the deadlift, your muscles and liver are drained of glucose. On your rest day, they're trying to refuel and are expending hundreds of calories on construction work. It's gotta be hurting your strength and speeeeed gains.

Easily. You decide whether you want to gain muscle or lose weight for X months and hone your workout. Last summer I was running 8-10k on my running days (6 days a month) and swimming about 1.5k (6 days a month).

If you haven't figured it out:
M/W/F: Weights
T/T/S: Cardio (run/swim alternate)
Sunday: Rest, like God did.

I got pretty skinny, and decided I needed to bulk up. I started eating way more calories, and started lifting more. My "warm up" on weight days went from 20 minutes to 10. My running days eventually dropped to a paltry 4k, while the simming didn't go down too far... about 1.2k. As I put on muscle (and fat, of course), I cut calories, slowly got back to doing 20+ minutes of light cardio before lifting, then heavy weight and low rep on the weight days. Jogging is back up to 10k, and swimming to 1.8k. The only problem I've had is weening myself from the calories. I've not lost any muscle despite the fact I've not raised the weights or reps in 2 months. If anything, I gained some, and I would say my cardio workout is pretty extensive. Even if you're trying to build muscle, your muscles don't have to ache like fuck the next day. A nice little "soreness" is good enough. And jogging isn't really straining on the muscles. If it is, do low-impact cardio like cycling or swimming.

In a couple of weeks I'm going to change the routine to:
Run twice a week (10k)
Swim twice a week (1.8 - 2k)
Weights twice a week.

I'll post the results, but my guess is I'm not going to lose any muscle. Maintaining is easy. Of course, everyone's body is different, so you need to find your own groove. Don't take someone's word for it, try it yourself. Although if they say running will make you fat, you should definitely laugh at them, and maybe even slap them in the face w/ your cock a few times.

I had a gym membership for a while a few years ago and I never went.

Nobody can help you if you can't do that. Sorry to say it, but if you bought a membership and never went, you're probably not going to hit the weights at home, either. You have to put it into your schedule, and you have to sacrifice. It's the one schedule I've stuck to for the last 18 months or so. I'm not in the best shape possible or anything, but I make up any days I miss, I'm sure to go despite the weather, and if necessary, it comes out of my [gulp] gaming time.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Wed May 27, 2009 7:31 pm

muay thai.....all you will ever need to stay in peak physical shape.....

Post by **undamned** » Wed May 27, 2009 7:44 pm

People need more reasons to go outside. Going outside makes you thinner.
-ud

The n00b · Post by **The n00b** » Wed May 27, 2009 9:40 pm

I've been keeping fit by playing an hour a day of ufc 2009. Before that it was streetfighter 4.

BryanM · Post by **BryanM** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:00 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:In my experience, the people that dis any type of aerobic activity (running, swimming, jogging, cycling) are the meatheads in the gym that can bench twice their weight, but could not do a pull up to save their life, and would probably kill over after running a mile.

Boooooooooooo.

What's pretty depressing is that the average weight loss in Tremblay's study; in the cardio group, was 100 grams of weight after 15 weeks. The aerobic group had less loss than that, for twice the work over 20 weeks. That's a good chunk of a year's worth of devout effort. Drinking less soda would have a massively better return. A return on not doing something, instead of doing something.

The meatheads in the gym probably don't squat in general, which by definition usually means they're pussies. The benchpress is nice, but there's like another 70% of your body that isn't attached to your pectoral girdle.

Though they're not entirely to blame, it's just the religion of ferns exchanged for the religion of the man boob. Most gyms usually only have one squat rack, and no platform to do the deadlift, lack chalk, and lack fractional plates. And the gyms that do have this stuff, tend to go quickly out of business.

Meatheads who aren't pussies generally train elsewhere away from the madness, like this one:

Or assholes like this guy who rip off the unpopular kids:

I've not lost any muscle despite the fact I've not raised the weights or reps in 2 months.

How's it going so far? I'm only an intermediate stage novice, and really wish I had some washers for fractional plates right now. Right now I'm at:

Squat 205 x 5
Benchpress 165 x 4
Press 110 x 5
Deadlift 265 x 5

So, I'm still massively feeble, but the workout-to-workout gains are still there, though god it'd be much easier to throw a pound on the bar than having to progress with reps; the volume of x 6 squats is fucking brutal.

Mortificator · Post by **Mortificator** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:16 pm

jonny5 wrote:muay thai.....all you will ever need to stay in peak physical shape.....

It makes sense to get in shape so you can do physical hobbies, not the other way around.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:38 pm

Mortificator wrote:
jonny5 wrote:muay thai.....all you will ever need to stay in peak physical shape.....
It makes sense to get in shape so you can do physical hobbies, not the other way around.

you misunderstand.....training in muay thai will get you in great shape VERY fast.....the cardio and conditioning is very intense

do a youtube search for muay thai training and you will get it

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Thu May 28, 2009 1:07 am

I'm probably more dedicated to strength training as of now I was slenderer at one point I've shifted more to muscle gain. I still run a lot and I try to do many workouts that don't involve equipment. I don't want to be ridiculously freakish like those 3 percent body fat guys. I'd like to have some fat for energy. Cardio has definitely gotten harder after getting much more massive. I was very inactive when I was little so it took years to get my Cardio or muscle structure to even show improvement.

The main reason I focus on muscle building is because pure cardio in the past really hasn't made me look much better. Body building has. I really want my chest to be more defined and I want to lose some stomach fat. I've got scrawny runners legs super toned arms and a massive upper back and shoulders. Still so much room for improvement.

I'd recommend for anyone to get started running if they can. It's soo much more effective then any other type of cardio workout. I'd do a little bit of the stair master for your mid-section that's about it.

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Thu May 28, 2009 1:42 am

jonny5 wrote:muay thai.....all you will ever need to stay in peak physical shape.....

Incoming Tiger Uppercuts.

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Thu May 28, 2009 2:42 am

Specineff wrote:DDR?

People often scoff at this, but it's actually a pretty good cardio workout once you start playing songs that keep a steady pace throughout (high BPM songs 7 foot and higher). I haven't played the game regularly in years, but I remember being totally winded after a few credits. But you don't even realize how much you're exerting yourself during songs because you're so caught up in trying to keep up with the steps.

As far as strength training goes, I wouldn't expect any video game to help with that until they come out with the WiiSoloFlex or something.

CStarFlare · Post by **CStarFlare** » Thu May 28, 2009 3:51 am

I never really though DDR did much for me, from a health perspective.

For those of you with experience with both, how is Wii Fit's yoga section? I took a yoga class at my college a few years back and really liked it, but never really knew how to go about practicing at home.