Working It Out – EA SPORTS Active Personal Trainer

EA SPORTS Active Personal Trainer

Exercise At Your Pace

Fun For All The Family

All You Need To Keep Fit At Home

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Check the video at the end of this article ↓

When it comes to technology I’m a lost cause and outside of my reliable old PC and mobile phone, I tend not to dip my toes too deeply into the well of 21^st century wizardry that populates the lucrative high-tech market.

However, when I heard there was a piece of software which could help me in my endless quest to stay slim without the need to visit the gym every day I overcame my technophobia and took a closer look.

The recently released Active Personal Trainer from EA SPORTS promises to bring the gym home to those who simply don’t have the time to take themselves to the gym.

With a degree of scepticism I hooked up my son’s Wii and popped the disc in the tray. After a few seconds I was prompted with the game screen and asked to customise my character. This process can be as simple or as detailed as you wish but the more information you enter when it comes to essential statistics such as height and weight, the more you will be able to benefit from the programme once it begins.

With all your personal information entered, you are then given the choice of two personal trainers to select – a man and a woman – and then you choose your work out routine. I took the 30 day training option.

You are then set a series of tasks which you are required to follow over the course of a 20 minute period (this is the maximum recommended time anyone should spend using the programme) and they target both the upper and lower body as well as cardio vascular work.

Your on-screen character then mimics your movements thanks to the specially designed leg strap that holds the Wii’s Nunchuck controller, together with the resistance band.

On-screen you get real time feedback on your workout with details of calories burned as well as a progress monitor of how far you are into your programme.

Finally, for those who don’t like to get fit alone, Active Personal Trainer supports 2-player interaction so you can lose weight and get fit with a partner or friend.

I have to acknowledge what the rest of the world out there probably already knows and that is that computer games have come a long way in the last 30 years. As my on-screen avatar paced her way around the track, fuelled by my frantic on the spot jogging, the early days of Pong seemed “dark ages” away.

I suppose the bottom line is does it work? After 2 weeks of daily usage my answer has to be an emphatic “yes”! Computer games have long been blamed for many of the ills in modern society – from violent teenagers to rising obesity – but if this product teaches us anything it is that you can utilise technology to improve your wellbeing and have fun at the same time.

That was clearly the aim of the designers here and another reason why I think women in particular (usually so poorly supported by the games industry in general) should think seriously about investing in this kind of product.

Anything with a power supply and a micro chip inevitably causes me problems but I found set up and use simple and whilst Nintendo should continue to be praised for the Wii itself, recognition needs to go to EA for harnessing the best aspects of the console to such a positive end.

Without doubt this is a wonderful title and one which any Wii owning, keep-fit enthusiast should consider. Equally, for anyone looking to introduce a fitness regime into their lives but who isn’t ready to take that daunting step up into the gym, it provides the perfect opportunity to get into a routine in the comfort of your own home and at the same time, build your confidence.

Poppy Watt

Priced at a competitive £44.99 but with many stockists such as Amazon offering it for a “calorie-busting” £34.96, this is well worth getting your lycra pants out for!

For more information check the EA SPORTS Active website: www.easportsactive.co.uk