Buy Walking VideosMy Fitness Coach from Ubisoft for Nintendo Wii
Anyone who has been reading Starling Fitness for any length of time knows how much I love exergaming. I love it when video games incorporate exercise. Four years ago, the idea of an active video game was pretty much relegated to Dance Dance Revolution and Yourself! Fitness. While DDR has flourished and is available at any game store in the country, Yourself Fitness kind of fell off the map. I’m so happy to see that Yourself Fitness has found a new life with Ubisoft:
Ubisoft announced that it will publish My Fitness Coach™ exclusively for the Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo. Based on the original idea from ResponDesign’s Yourself! Fitness and Fitness! Lifestyle, My Fitness Coach will allow players to create, engage in and track their own fitness program. A virtual trainer, Maya, will guide players through more than 400 unique exercises, give valuable fitness advice and even provide a pep talk for extra motivation.
It looks like they have brought all the best of Yourself Fitness to the Nintendo Wii with My Fitness Coach. They still use exercises that work with a stability ball, step bench, and hand weights. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it uses the Wii Fit Balance board:
You can choose various places to workout. This is the Alpine Retreat. Keep on the lookout for the mountain biker riding by!
This looks like she’s exercising on a roof. It looks like a new venue to me.
You can set your commitment here. I haven’t played Yourself Fitness in so long that Maya is really going to give me a lecture!
It looks like you can track your progress as well.
I really loved exercising with Yourself Fitness, so I’m tempted to buy My Fitness Coach, even though it doesn’t look all that different from the original. If you missed this game the first time around, you are in luck!
Here are some entries describing the game in detail:
- Starling Fitness » Yourself! Fitness for the Xbox
- Starling Fitness » Silver Status on Yourself! Fitness
- Starling Fitness » Yourself! Fitness for Playstation 2
- Starling Fitness » Gold Status on Yourself! Fitness
- Starling Fitness » Workout 35 on Yourself! Fitness
- Starling Fitness » A Poem Dedicated to Yourself! Fitness
It has been a long time since I played with Yourself! Fitness, but seeing this makes me want to play again. I need to break out the old Xbox!
Update 12-13-08: I found a video that gives you a good idea of what the workouts are like:
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December 7th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
This looks really interesting. I’m a big fan of Wii Fit (I run http://www.WiiFitForum.org) but I know it has a lot of flaws, especially the relatively small number of exercises, and the fact that it isn’t a very efficient use of your exercise time. With 400 exercises I will definitely have to check this out to give me some variation.
I only have hand weights, is it worth investing in the other gear for this game? I assume it adapts to whatever equipment you have?
Paul
December 7th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Paul,
A step bench and stability ball are both pretty inexpensive additions and it makes your workouts more varied if you have the equipment.
Professional Aerobic Step at Amazon.com
And here is a stability ball for cheap:
Valeo Body Ball
The extra equipment really helps alleviate boredom with this game, so it’s worth the investment. If you already have them hanging around the house, then all the better.
Laura
December 7th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Paul The equipment that could be used in the last version of the game was cheap. I maybe wrong but couldn’t the wii fit be used as step? It looks like an electronic step to me. I don’t have a wii fit.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Hi, thanks for the suggestions :o)
Unfortunately the Wii Fit board is not very tall, only about two inches high, so you barely notice that you are stepping onto it (which makes the step aerobics routines a bit feeble).
I think I’ll get a step, and I have free weights. I don’t think I have room for one of those big balls in my flat though.
Paul
December 13th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Just wondering if the fitness coach allows continuous exercise? Wii Fit frustrates me when i have to wait for the bank to fill up, my results to post and then exit and choose another exercise (all the while im cooling down). I want a real hard workout —continuous.
December 13th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Randee,
That is a VERY good question! You choose your equipment, the workout time and what kind of exercises you want to include (strength training, aerobic, etc.) and then it creates a continuous workout going from one exercise to another.
I just added a video that shows what the workouts are like.
Laura
December 13th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Lower steps are actully better, two inches fine. If a step is too high they can damage your ankles. I once thought I could use a step stool for a step boy was I hurting.
December 31st, 2008 at 9:20 am
Does anyone know how to update progress on My Fitness Coach for wii? Will Maya eventually ask me to weigh myself and report to her? I haven’t seen a way to update the graphs yet.
Thanks for any help. Dana
December 31st, 2008 at 10:56 am
Dana,
With Yourself! Fitness, Maya had me redo the evaluation every month or so. You’ll have to wait to update your stats until then.
I remember seeing the update on the schedule and dreading it, but I don’t remember how often it happened.
When you find out, please come back here and tell us how you did!
Laura
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Yourself! Fitness had you perform an evaluation (the same routine you did when you started your program: Jumping jacks, squats, pushups, and curls) every 10 workouts. If you worked out every day, then you would get updates to your charts (and the eval routine, ugh) every week-anna-half. If you only worked out a couple of times a week, then it might be a month between each eval. Personally, I’d prefer to see them spaced out on a timer, such as once a month, than based on the number of workouts. I was doing half hour routines 5 days a week, since the system allowed you to rotate the area you focused on, but the weekly evals killed me.
I’m curious what the differences are between this version and the old XBox one. I loved Yourself! Fitness, but would have appreciated a few changes. My biggest gripe was an inability to eliminate specific exercised from the pool my routines were built from. There were one or two things I simply couldn’t do, either due to physical or environmental restraints. The “Roll like a Ball” style of motions, for example, seemed painful and unhelpful, while “Hustle up and back” simply required more room than I had available in my workout space. I would have loved to have seen an option to exclude those specific exercises from the routine.
January 15th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Hi. I found your site by doing a search for “My Fitness Coach” and I added you to my newsreader.
I love “My Fitness Coach”. I have been working out off and on for roughly ten years.
Just last year I finished a fitness/nutrition course through PennFoster.
I got a Wii Fit for Christmas and saw great possibilities with the format.
“My Fitness Coach” was exactly what I thought it should be.
I understand the frustratiob with the eval coming too frequent. I also discovered that if you log all your out of game activities, each one counts as a workout. Meaning that you could end up with an eval evert four days.
I have learned that it keeps your last entries and you can skip through the eval. Then just actually perform the eval once a month or however frequent you prefer. For comparisons you may wish to log in a journal your results as well.
I think the best quality of the game is the wide variety of exercises. There’s a lot of things that I simply wouldn’t think of doing. Plus it is great for those that get in a rut working out the same musclea everytimel neglecting others. My inner thigh showed me that.
Btw- great blog!
January 15th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I have to apologize for the sloppy writing. I’m trying to master the ‘qwerty’ keyboard on my phone. Cheers!
January 16th, 2009 at 8:13 am
I read this blog before ever purchasing the My Fitness Coach. I was a strong advocate for Wii Fit initially, but after reading the blog, I figured I would try Fitness Coach. Needless to say, I am pleasantly surprised by what I am seeing.
I purchased the Fitness coach a week ago and have already seen a 6lb decrease in my weight. Being a former colligate offensive lineman, I have been looking for something that would be allow me to lose some weight but not build a huge amount of muscle mass (since I no longer play ball, it is not needed). I have tried all sorts of different videos, but didn’t find any that really appealed to me. With My Fitness Coach, I became “hooked” after the first workout.
The one of the issues that I have with it is that I don’t have a lot of room to workout, and there is very little, if any, slack time between exercises so it throughs me off a little when I have to get my equipment. Also, the graphics do leave a little to be desired. I know we are not using this as a “game” and the graphics should not matter, but being a programmer by occupation, I am disappointed with it.
Overall though, it will give you an awesome workout, but it takes dedication and “commitment” to stick with it and reap the benefits!!! For you guys out there questioning if it is good for men…again, I am a former offensive lineman and I love it!!!
January 25th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I am on 13th workout and Love My Fitness Coach. I have read on other posts that there is a Progress chart you can check to look at your progress. I can’t find how to access it. Do I have to finish so many evals before it pops up?
February 18th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Hello all, Thanks very much for such a nice discussion. I’m planning to buy Wii FIT but it is still very expensive and I think I need to buy Board as well. Now, came across this game called My Fitness Coach. I’m novice to this can I ask two questions: 1. Can we compare Wii Fit and My Fitness Coach or both have different format and platform 2. Do we need any other controllers to play/workout for the game My Fitness Coach as I know that we need Wii FIT Board to paly/workout in Wii Fit Game
Thanks for your ans V P
February 21st, 2009 at 6:51 am
Hey Viral. You don’t need anything extra to play My Fitness Coach. I would say that My Fitness Coach is probably a but better because there’s no disruption in the workout. It runs smooth for the full duration with just regular breaks for rest.
March 5th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I think that the Wii Fit is a good starter for anyone who has extremely bad balance (like I did before I got it) but I am dissapointed that I can’t do anything more than the step, boxing, hula hoop and running as aerobics. Doing those exercises constantly and repetitively has been hurting my knees; running for ten minutes followed by half an hour of the free-step will always end in trouble for someone who has knee problems!
It seems like the My Fitness Coach game has a huge variety of exercises that are more aerobic-based than the Wii Fit. My only concern with the Fitness Coach is if I will have enough room to do the workouts. With the Wii Fit, I can work out in a very small amount of space. About how much space would you need for the best workouts? I have about a 4 foot by 7 foot area that I can clear to work with, but from the videos of the game it seems like I would need a lot more room than that.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Caity,
I measured the space I use for working out with My Fitness Coach. It’s 6 foot by 6 foot. When I looked at what 4 foot by 7 foot looks like and you’ll have plenty of room to do all that Mia asks of you. If you have a step, you’ll get more workout options, but it will take up space. Fortunately, you don’t need any of the extra equipment to get a good workout.
Best, Laura
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 am
I have had My Fitness Coach for a week and love it, the only problem I have is that in europe we use metric measure and it has not got the option to change to metric. One does need a reasonable amount of space to work out in, but by pushing a chair against the wall it seems that I have enough space to workout in.
Regards, Cathy
March 31st, 2009 at 10:06 am
I purchased My Fitness Coach last week and have been very impressed so far. I’ve been using the Wii Fit since last August, but was getting tired of the constant starting and stopping and clicking and picking up the remote and putting it down, etc. I love the option to do just a 15 minute workout since I have a three year old and it is easy to tell her that I am going to be busy for a little bit, but 30 minutes is too long for her at this point. I paid $30 for the game at a local game store. I like being able to log workouts I do outside of the game, for example, when I run on the treadmill at our fitness center.
I have only two complaints. One is that you can’t permanently remove any exercise from the line up. The second complaint I have is that it can be hard to tell when to switch sides when you are performing an exercise where you are not looking at the TV. There is no sound or prompt to tell you to switch. And this is not a complaint, but this game is really more appropriate for folks who have a basic level knowledge of aerobics, Pilates, and yoga. If you don’t have any background, it could be challenging to learn so many new things all at once. On the other hand, if you are a reasonably experienced exerciser, I think it is a huge benefit that you don’t have to have a tutorial on each exercise first.
Count me (and my sore obliques) as a satisfied customer!
March 31st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Susan,
One benefit of My Fitness Coach is the option to learn how to do the move. ALL of the moves were confusing to me when I started playing, but when I used the tutorial to explain the move, I was able to do much better.
Now, I don’t have to use the tutorial, but I was so grateful it was there at first since I’m an aerobics n00b.
Laura
March 19th, 2010 at 1:54 am
I have both wii fit and my fitness coach. I use My Fitness Coach to loose weight properly, and chart progress, and use the wii fit for fun while being healthy. My only criticism of my fitness coach is that at the point where Maya asks you how you found that, no sweat, working hard or couldn’t keep up – the three tabs are so close together that I have pushed the wrong one a couple of times (while being out of breath!) making my next work out even harder or too easy. It doesn’t really matter as next time I can adjust it back again but it would have been so easy to have the tabs seperated a bit more. Also when doing a stretch where you are looking down (away from Maya) it would help if she said when to change. Fab work-outs and am loosing inches as well as pounds! Wii fit I tend to do afterwards as a cooldown and bit of fun – ski jumping and sliding penguin to catch fish 😀