Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Qmotions has been on my radar for a couple of years now, but I’ve never written anything about them. When I looked at their website, the products just looked like easily breakable gadgets that wouldn’t really work. Especially the Xboard. I think the problem is the picture that they used for it on their website.

This photo, in particular, made me think that it wasn’t worth 90 bucks. There was no way that I was going to spend ninety dollars on a piece of snowboard shaped plastic connected to a controller.

Of course, that was before I tried it at their booth.

I am avid fan of SSX3. It’s a snowboarding game that I play on my Xbox. I did ONE run with the Xboard and suddenly a game that I was so good at that I was pretty much sick of it became brand new to me. I finished the run in twice the time it would have taken me with the hand controller, which should have been discouraging. Instead, it was invigorating. Suddenly, I felt like I was really snowboarding down that hill!

Add to it that you can now find the Xboard on Amazon.com for about 60 bucks, suddenly, I was SOLD!

• Qmotions Xboard for PlayStation 2

I got my Xboard in the mail two days ago. I had to buy SSX3 for the Playstation 2 because they didn’t have a controller that worked with Xbox. I was able to find the game used for about $7, so I didn’t feel too bad about buying it again. Additionally, it was kind of nice starting my character from scratch instead of trying to beat my old hand controller scores.

The verdict: Playing SSX3 with the Xboard is HELLA fun, but it isn’t aerobic exercise. It’s more of a core workout, because you balance on the board and try to move by moving the board. The highest my heart rate has ever gotten on the board is 114 bpm, which is in the medium intensity range, but not high intensity.

The muscles that will kill you the next day (in order of pain intensity): calf muscles, shin muscles, the arch of your foot and your abs. Mostly just your calves, though.

Qmotions makes golf simulators, baseball simulators and something called Fun Fitness, which connects to your exercise bike and works with racing games. They are also coming out with a new product that straps to your ankle. You can play while riding your bike, walking on the treadmill or even just running in place. They were demonstrating it at CES, but it’s not available yet. For now, I’m happy with my Xboard!