RiiFlex: Another Wii Accessory to Help With Excer-Gaming

I found out about these when I was checking my post on EA's forums about my problem with Active. They are scheduled to make their debut at this year's E3, which is the Mecca of electronic entertainment. There's a 2lbs. version and a 4lbs. version available for pre-order at Riiflex.com.

I'm going to wait for a product review before I consider it. Especially since IGN made fun of both this product and Active in their original video/fake advertisement for EA Huge.

EA SPORTS Active's 30 Day Challenge - I Was So Fucking Close!!

Today would have been the halfway mark of the 30 Day Challenge, the bulk of the software's main draw. I was on the last third of the today's routine, feeling really good about things. While in the middle of a shoulder press, the resistance band snapped. TWICE. I was left with nothing but the nylon handles and two pieces of rubber.

Seeing as how I bought a three-pack for the first replacement, I decided that maybe I am getting stronger and it is time to graduate to the next level. Upon testing the mid-range band, I found out that these pilates bands are not designed to be stretched in the way Active wants me to. I was barely able to do a bicep curl, but doing a shoulder press would result in this brand new band snapping as well.

As such, Active is, essentially, unplayable right now. I could just go through all the routines and turn off the upper body exercises, but that would feel like cheating in a fitness program. It's that whole "pushing yourself" thing that's been my ulterior motive through these last several days. Increase my self-confidence in physical appearance, and the rest will hopefully follow suit.

As such, I'm rather depressed right now. So much so, I may take a three-hour walk after my shift with Skip.

EA SPORTS Active's 30 Day Challenge - Day 9: Back to Basic

Day 9 was suppose to be Back to Basic routine, but it served as more of an introduction to the most difficult and painful exercise I've ever seen in Active: Squat Hold. I found out from my sister that when she injured her knee, her physical theorpist had her doing this same execrise. She said I was doing it wrong, but no matter how much I tried to correct myself, holding that position for 45 seconds is so difficult.

I did find myself immediately popping in Punch-Out!! after the workout. I also have this strange want to seek out a fighting game that offers a Create a Fighter option that is as strong as Spore. Meanwhile, my porn runs have dropped like a rock since I started this 30 Day Challenge. I wonder if that means something.

EA SPORTS Active's 30 Day Challenge - Day 8 (AKA Lather, Rinse, Repeat)

Today’s routine was a lot of the same. It had me doing side lunges, curls, and lifts one after the other. In between each set of those three exercises, I would be sent to the tennis court or inline skating. Both of which I am no good at, causing me to finally hear some negative feedback from the personal trainer that bordered in insulting me. Seriously, one of the lines is “Did you even show up or is that your identical twin falling over themselves? Hit the showers!” Not very encouraging. At least Wii Fit is a little bit nicer about pointing out you’re not doing something correctly.

The projected workout routines have gotten longer, but the calories burned goals have not increased any. It’s kind of contradicting what I was reading about how this challenge works.

All I know is that today’s rating is the lowest I’ve gotten due to my lazy day yesterday. Sitting around for six hours reading internet buzz and listening to iTunes downloads is apparently very damaging to my overall health score.

Scale says I’m stuck between 155 and 156 for the last two days. Still not happy about that.

EA SPORTS Active's 30 Day Challenge - Day 7

I intended to take the day off and be lazy, but every bit of slothful actions I did just made me feel very guilty about doing them. Then again, I’m Catholic by association so having guilt is a given. By lunch when I had fast food with my mom and sister, the guilt was so high that I decided to go ahead and bump the Day 7 workout up a day.

Active didn’t mind. It gave me the obligatory warning about how resting is important to developing muscle strength and cardio endurance, but after that prompt disappeared, I was allowed to do the Day 7 workout.

It was a balanced workout featuring an equal amount of lower and upper body exercises with some minor cardio. Introduced into the mix was volleyball, which was a welcome change after failing at the non-Balance-Board version of the tennis drills. Seriously, I hate tennis. I can only imagine how bad I’ll be when they introduce the baseball drills into the workout.

The thing that I took away from today’s workout was how strangely compact the setting is. I was expecting a different location for the volleyball drills, but noticed the court is next to the track during the running portion of the workout. In fact, with the exception of the inline skating drills, everything is near the track. You can see the gazebo where the boxing and cardio dancing drills next to the tennis court next to the volleyball court. On the other side of the gazebo are the platforms you do the upper and lower body exercises on, which are next to a basketball court. Across from that is the baseball diamond. The whole setting is very utopian, and I swear one of the NPCs looks like Oprah. I guess the visuals are not very stimulating any more and just serve as instructional now. As a result, I am starting to take note on little details that I failed to notice the first several times through.

EA SPORTS Active's 30 Day Challenge - Day 6

Today's routine was fairly light. Running, combination bicep curls and upright rows, some boxing drills, and an introduction to basketball using the Balance Board. Seems weird how I just breezed through that workout and still managed to burn 10 calories more than the projected results.

Another strange bit that happened this morning is that my weight dropped to 154. Dropping anywhere between 2 to 3 lbs. over the course of 24 hours is said to be normal, but keeping it off is where the challenge is. I'm using Wii Fit to keep track of my weight with a goal set to be around 150 lbs. by the end of the 30 Day Challenge. I'm actually aiming to be at about 135, but I'm not expecting to get that lean.

That said, the Journal today did something rather funny. It assumed that because I haven't reported eating fast food that I've been cooking my own meals at home. In reality, I have been going to fast food resturants but I've been ordering off their healthy menu. That's one of the interesting things about where I work. You can go to the burger joint down the block and still find something that will please the health nuts. For the Journal to assume that I've been cooking my own meals when I haven't even logged in cooking in the Other Activities Survey is rather strange.

Tomorrow is a break day, and I intend to keep to it. My arms are now what's hurting since getting a new resistance band. It's also the first day off I've had from work since getting Active, so it should be interesting to see if my behavior has changed any. Why do I say that? Because normally I just sit around and surf the internet on my days off. When I'm not walking to the bank to deposit my check, that is.

EA SPORTS Active's 30 Day Challenge - Day 5

You want to know the strange thing about today’s workout? I almost forgot I did it. I was all set up and ready to go this afternoon only to find that I had a little red check mark next to today saying I completed the workout.

I’m not saying that Day 5 is easy, as I still have the program set to a medium intensity and I have a new resistance band. I’m just saying that it is starting to become routine and habit forming.

What I do remember is the odd looping that today’s workout had. Basically, it started with some running, transitioned to squats and lunges, had me do a combination exercise involving bicep curls and shoulder presses, and then had me hit some boxing targets. After the boxing exercise, the program went through the previous exercises in reverse order. The only thing that broke it up was a run of inline skating, which still is taking a toll on my knees.

Wii Fit says I dropped back to 157, though it still feels rather odd that I was ever close to that weight at all given how much I’ve been eating and what I’ve been eating. Thankfully, I’ve been avoiding MacDonald’s for at least a month now, but that doesn’t mean I’m in the clear from fatty foods. The only thing that’s making this change in my diet so damn difficult is my love/dependency on soda. One every so often is okay, but I really want to have at least one a day, and I know that’s a bad thing.

God, I miss soda...

The Resistance Band Goes SNAP!

How unfortunate. I was expecting this to happen, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon.

In an effort to increase the intensity of the strength training exercises, I decided to shorten the space between the two grips instead of opting to fold the band over itself. The result was the band snapping. Well, tearing, technically.

Not knowing what to do, I called GameStop to see if they sold replacements. The person I talked to said that EA only sells a kit for multi-player options which includes an additional leg strap and resistance band. I was planning on buying this, but that would ultimately mean I would still be down a band. The person I talked to was very knowledgeable about the product, and suggested I go to Wal-Mart and pick up some pilates band. They are essentially the same thing, and they are cheaper.

So I did. The $10 set comes with three different colored bands, each representing a different level of intensity. Immediately, I noticed that the "easy" band was thicker than the band that came with the game. It was also significantly wider, which made tying it to the grips that much more difficult. I tested it with a shoulder press, which is the farthest the band should stretch on any given workout session for the game. And I got a stronger resistance than I did with the pink band that came with the game!!

Incidentally, these bands are the same ones that my sister used when she was in ballet with her warm up stretches. She said she used to use the green one, as the orange one was not strong enough for her. And I'll be using the orange band for tomorrow's workout. This should be very interesting.

EA SPORTS Active's 30 Day Challenge - Journal Discovery

I didn't score high enough today on the break day to get a Gold Medal rating without exercise. But I got something I didn't expect from the program. Suggestions based on data I gave.

The game said I've been consistantly unable to reach the ideal of liquid intake. So, it suggested that if I don't like water, I should drink tea or broth or even skim milk. I didn't expect to see suggestions based on data. Randomly generated compliments or suggested based on the data I entered five minutes ago, yes, but not something that appears to be built from the previous days.

Another surprise is I'm not sore, but I'm also kind of energetic. Not to the point where it feels like I've been alert for hours, but enough energy where I almost did my normal/long route of walking Skippy. I'm taking that as a good sign.

Wii Fit says weight is the same, staying just a few ounces over 158. I still feel fat, though.

EA SPORTS Active's 30 Day Challenge - Day 4

Before I go into my Active experience, I would just like to point out that it’s been over a month since I started this whole “exercise gaming” regiment with Wii Fit. Upon looking at my BMI and Weight line graph on the Wii Fit Channel, I was slapped in the face by reality. Since I started, I only lost and kept off one whole pound. It’s kind of depressing to me. So I talked to the two athletes I know from work, and only one was able to help me out. It became clear that I had to up my intensity. Burn more calories, breathe harder, and if I don’t feel different as a result of the workout, I’m not doing it properly. And if I had the time, work out until you can’t move.

Hence why I held off doing the Day 4 exercise until later in the day today. Not only did I change the intensity from low to medium, but I also added some other workouts to extend what I was doing. Outside of walking the dog, that is.

But the whole “work out until you can’t move” angle was a stupid thing to go by for today. The routine featured Jump Lunges and Jump Squats, both of which took a toll on my knees. Apparently, both my sister and I inherited my dad’s bad knee. Did my body feel different after that routine? Yes, and it hurt more than when I first started and I felt like my thighs were going to explode. Could I move afterwards? Just barely, but only enough to get me to the nearest chair so I can take all the pressure off of my knees. Looking ahead, I’m not out of the woods yet. These Jump Lunges and Jump Squats will become a regular part of the routine now that I upped the intensity.

All is not bad news, however. Much to my surprise, I got an instant Gold Medal rating today before doing the workout for the challenge. How? Because I improved on both my eating habits and outside activities. Whatever I did yesterday was enough to warrant a rating of 86% by themselves! With another break day coming up tomorrow, you can bet that I’ll be trying to repeat that accomplishment again when I record today’s activities in the Journal tomorrow.