EA Sports Active - a personal trainer in your living room

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great full body workout with cardio and toning, excellent tutorials

Cons: Nothing major

The Bottom Line: 
EA Sports Active provides me with an excellent and fun full body workout.

Author's Review
I have been workout using EA Sports Active for about six months. This "interactive fitness program" can be played with two people. It requires the use of the Wii remote and nunchuk and is balance board compatible. Included with the game disc is a leg strap and resistance band.

Like other Wii fitness games, you will start out by creating a profile and an avatar. Once your profile is created you can choose a pre-made workout, make a custom workout, or do the 30 Day Challenge. In all workouts you can choose from an easy, medium or hard setting.

EA Sports Active

30-Day Challenge
I first started out doing the 30-Day Challenge on the medium setting. I found that 30-Day Challenge workouts ranged from 18 minutes long to almost 30 minutes. The challenge is set to work out two consecutive days, then have one day of rest. If you miss a couple days in between, that's OK. But if you miss too days many you will not be able to complete the challenge. Exercises will slowly but progressively increase in challenge and difficulty through throughout the thirty days.

Pre-made workouts
Pre-made workouts range from 18 minutes to 60 minutes in length. There is a huge selection, and you will know in advance how long the workout is, the difficulty, and the focus, such as upper body, lower body, cardio or sports.  Included in the pre-made workouts are all of the workouts found in the 30-Day Challenge. I like this because if you cannot commit to the 30-Day Challenge schedule, you can still follow the program at your own pace.

Exercising with EA Sports Active
Workouts contain a great combination of exercises. You will get a full body workout with both cardio and muscle toning in one workout. I find that most workouts will begin with a warm up of walking and running around a track. Exercises move at a nice pace and the mixture of exercises will keep you from getting bored. You will find some standard moves such as lunges, bicep curls and shoulder presses that will stretch your body and get the muscles moving and toned. These all take place in an outdoor setting. I have been using the medium setting, and most exercises are between 10 and 18 reps. Combined with the exercises are sports exercise like boxing, volleyball, tennis and even inline skating. All will get your whole body moving and your heart rate up.

The first time you do an exercise is it prefaced with a tutorial. The tutorials are excellent and by far the best tutorials I have seen in any Wii fitness game so far. They are demonstrated in a video by a real person, not an avatar. You will watch and listen as the correct performance of the exercise is explained in detail. You will always have an option to view the tutorial before you start any exercise. If at any time during an exercise you need help, press the - (minus) button and you will be brought to the video tutorial. If you choose not to watch a tutorial, simply press A to continue to the workout.

In sports exercises such as tennis you will see your own avatar performing the sport. It will respond as you swing your racket, bump the volleyball, swing your baseball bat and run on the track. During your strength training exercises you will see your avatar as if looking in a mirror. In the lower right corner is a box with your trainer. Follow along with the trainer to perform your exercises. Your trainer will perform the movements for you to mirror, and she will count out the moves and tell you what to do such as "raise your arm, lower your arm". There is also a visual cue around the trainer box. The box will light up as moves should be performed. You will hear a chime as well.

Across the top of the screen, you will always see how many calories you have burned, how many reps you have performed vs. how many left, and how far into the workout you have progressed. During your exercises you may get visual feedback. For instance, if you are squatting too low or if you are moving at too fast of a pace, you may get a warning message.
 
Post workout
After your workouts you will see your total calories burned. I usually will burn an average of 100 calories. You can view a journal which tracks your exercise progress, as well as trophies that you will earn when you accomplish various achievements.

Leg Strap and Resistance Band
The leg strap goes around the thigh and is used to hold the nunchuk during some exercises. It is held around the leg with Velcro. With the use of the leg strap, the nunchuk can track leg movements.  I have read complaints about the leg strap slipping. I have only experienced the strap slipping a couple times. For the most part it has not been a problem for me. Keeping the strap too high or too low around the thigh can also cause incorrect tracking or non-responsiveness. Make sure the strap is in the correct position on your leg. I have read of people that have sewn a pocket in the front of their workout clothes specifically to hold the nunchuk.

It is recommended to only use the leg strap on top of clothing, not directly on your leg.  I did use it directly on my leg once while I wore shorts, and I won't be doing that again.  By the end of my workout, my leg and the strap were both sweaty and just plain disgusting.

The resistance band is used during some upper body exercises. Resistance bands are used during exercises to help strengthen the muscles. I feel like the included band is kind of thin. I had been given a band with more resistance, so I have been using that band instead. I don't have concerns about the included band breaking, but I like using the other band because I get an increased level of resistance. In EA Sports Active, the center of the band is placed under the feet, and an end goes into each hand. It is used in many of the upper body exercises such as the bicep curls.  I really enjoy using the resistance bands in my workouts.  I still feel like I am strengthening and toning my muscles, yet I don't have to deal with weights.
 
Balance Board
EA Sports Active is balance board compatible. I have done my workouts with and without the board.  In the end I have chosen not to use my board at all. Not all exercises require the board, and I have found that I can get just as effective of a workout without using it.  This makes EA Sports Active a great option for someone that does not have a balance board.

Controls and Responsiveness
The remote and nunchuk are used to track movements during workouts. Aside from pressing A to continue, quit, etc you will not have to push any buttons during a workout. I have seen complaints about responsiveness. I think this occurs in a couple situations. One is if the leg strap is not in the correct spot on the thigh. A second situation is if you are not following the exercise at the correct pace. If you go faster or slower than your trainer, your avatar may not respond or you may get a warning message.

There are a couple exercises that I find I need to play around with the wire attaching the remote and nunchuk to prevent the wire from swinging around too much.

Two player mode
You can choose to play a pre-made workout with two people. Your two player workout takes place on a split screen and you perform your exercises independently.  I have done this to play some of the sports games with my daughter, but have not done and actual workout in two player mode.

Graphics and Audio
The graphics are not terribly advanced, but totally adequate for a workout game.  The video tutorials are incredibly clear and nicely done with close ups on the proper way to hold the remotes and how to stand and place feet.

Instructional audio is always spoken clearly and is easy to hear and understand.

My experience with EA Sports Active
I absolutely love working out with EA Sports Active. It provides me with such a complete, full body workout. I get a good cardio workout. I can feel my muscles working through the use of the resistance bands and I always end up in a sweat even after a 20 minute workout. I have seen the results with my more toned and strengthened muscles. I also love a routine where no floor work is involved. I hate push ups and sit ups. You will find no such floor exercises at all. I enjoy the variety of exercises where I can strengthen muscles then move on to participating in sports.  I highly recommend a workout with EA Sports Active.

My other favorite Wii workouts:
My cardio workouts: Gold's Gym Cardio Workout
My low impact exercise: Walk It Out