Customer Reviews

My Fitness Coach

5 star:		(362)
4 star:		(158)
3 star:		(48)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Bought my copy today at another store (sorry amazon, couldn't wait for you). Maya, the trainer gives you a fitness test including jumping jacks, push-ups, lunges, and crunches, and then recommends a custom program for you. For me, she recommended a long term goal of cardio and today's focus was upper body. My 30 min workout was approx 15 min of cardio, 10 min of upper body strength training, and a few minutes each of abs and stretches. You follow along, more like a dvd than a video game. At the end of each segment she asks how hard it was for you, and the game uses your answer to adjust your next workout.
I started with 3 locations, and 5 more to unlock. Lots of music choices. Workout choices are yoga, cardio, upper body, lower body, abs, and flexibility. Workouts will incorporate whatever equipment you have: hr monitor, ball, hand weights, and step. No balance board option.
Much better workout than wii fit, and way more fun than a dvd or live class.

For those of you who are gun shy after getting burned by the Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum, there is no reason to wait. JMFU was garbage. This is the real thing. It does not use a balance board. Some people seem to have a problem with that but it's not like they claimed to have balance board support and failed to deliver. The description in Amazon of what it does is completely accurate. Also, if it had balance board support it would be nearly twice the price.

I received it yesterday and have done 2 workouts on it.

Things I like (There is no way that I will hit all the good features):
1. There was a very thorough fitness test when you first set up a profile. I wish Wii Fit had something this comprehensive.
2. Maya, the coach, is a pleasure to work out with. She has a pleasing voice. She asks how you felt during a segment of the workout. The choices are No Sweat, I Was Working Hard, and I Couldn't Keep Up. If you choose the first or the third answer, Maya promises to adjust that segment the next time she presents it during a workout.
3. I like being able to change the environment that Maya leads the workout from and I like that the view of Maya changes during the workout.
4. You can incorporate other equipment into the workout. I happened to have an unused step, some weights and a stability ball stored in the basement. Neither of the workouts I did so far used the stability ball.
5. I still use the advanced step program on the Wii Fit but it is the same every time and the step is so low. With this I am able to use a real step and adjust it to the height I want to get the best workout.
6. The routines scroll across the bottom so I can see how much is left of the current routine and which routine is coming up next.
7. The tutorial feature was a necessity for me. When Maya started a routine that wasn't clear to me I selected the tutorial. Maya explained how to do it. It repeats until I select Resume. Then Maya restarts the routine.
8. A workout DVD repeats the same workout every time. This game is dynamic. I need that kind of variety.

Things I didn't like:
1. I don't have a large space to work out in. I needed to have the step in a place where there was sufficient space to do the step routines but I also needed enough space to perform the non-step aerobic routines. I banged into a couch a few times. I think I'll be able to work this out after a few workouts.
2. This is probably related to my lack of space but I think I would prefer that it stick to the equipment for a longer time. It used the step, then it didn't, then it did again, and so on. On the other hand, not doing that may interfere with the randomness of the workouts and that would be a bad thing.

I had 2 good workouts and definitely recommend this game as long as you have read the description and understand what you are getting.

These are my first impressions of My Fitness Coach and I will probably be adding some comments as the days go on. This game provides a way for you to set up your own workout and weight loss routine. It starts with a fitness test and you have options for choosing the length of time you want to exercise, how many days per week and what you want to accomplish. You can use it for weight loss, core strength or flexibility. You can also customize it for use with hand weights, an exercise ball or step bench if you have them. Just trying it for a couple days of workouts it provides a good cardio workout and lots of good flexibility moves. I'd have to say it's more strenuous than most of the Wii Fit exercises, many of which are more concentrated on balance than on cardio. But the one thing I wish they would have included is use of the Wii balance board. This seems like such a natural for this game and would have given feedback on your actual moves. As it is, this seems more like an exercise DVD in some ways than a Wii fitness game.

Still, it does have many features that are interactive and that set it apart from an exercise DVD that I enjoy. You can choose from among 8 different places or environments to exercise, whatever suits your mood on a particular day. And there's a good selection of music that you can choose to exercise to. To me that's a big thing. Nothing is worse than having to exercise to music that you find annoying. Everyone should be able to find something they like here. And you can keep track of your progress.

Maya, your trainer gives you lots of encouragement and pushes you to achieve your goals. I think being able to set your own goals and making a commitment to exercise and eat well is a very good way to lose weight or gain flexibility and core strength. This game helps you to make that commitment and it gives you a way to measure your progress. There are also a lot of different exercises, something for everyone and for every fitness goal.

The music is good and the graphics are fine, not exceptional, but not bad. The instruction and demonstration of the exercises is very good and easy to follow. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is that I thought it missed a good chance at more interactivity by not including the balance board.

Most reviewers have aleady highlighted the great features of this title. I just want to add something that I haven't seen anyone mention yet. I am on the cusp of 40 and am considered "obese" by the Wii Fit. Although I know that I weigh way too much, I was somewhat in denial, because I was quite fit "back in the day." Since I first began gaining weight, I have been one of those all or nothing exercise types. I would decide that I was going to start an exercise routine, and then I would go all out the first few days and burn myself out before a month was over. With My Fitness Coach, I've decided to start with the minimum amount of exercise time each day -- 15 minutes. At the end of the cardio section, Maya the Trainer asks how I'm feeling, and I find that I was working out at a good pace. When I can really answer "No sweat," to the question, "How was this workout?" then it will be time to bump up the duration. The workouts increase in 15 minute increments up to 75 minutes. So far, I've been having a great time with My Fitness Coach and, compared to a gym membership, you sure can't beat the price or the convenience!

I've been using My Fitness Coach for a few days. Besides this one, I also own Wii Fit and other 'get-you-off-the-coach' Wii games. Wii Fit turned less and less challenging as my body got used to the exercises, so I was looking around for another workout 'game'. Then here came My Fitness Coach.

The level of challenge reminds me of PS2's Eyetoy Kinetic a few years back, and I'm quite happy about it. A mere 15-minute session is enough to get you sweating and your heart pumping. On the other hand, I can do multiple sessions of 'Advanced Steps' on Wii Fitness without breaking a sweat. My Fitness Coach tailors to your ability level, so it's always challenging.

The sequencing of each exercise session is what I love most in this game. Each session starts with about 3 minutes of warmup, then they get gradually more and more intense. Maya would slip in some rest sessions here and there, and the session usually ends with some strength training and stretching. This feature beats Wii Fit hands down.

However, as other users have pointed out, MFC is like a glorified exercise DVD because the interactive element is seriously lacking, especially when this is a Wii game! You would think after this many years, these workout game developers would have come up with some more advanced form of Eyetoy Kinetic which tracks your movement (better) in an exercise program.

All in all, if you are looking for a more serious fitness game and don't care whether it's going to utilize any Wii accessories you have, this is the game you should get.

I -love- My Fitness Coach, but I am giving it 4 stars because I really was hoping for some more interactiveness between me and the game. (Amazon.com doesn't let me change my rating after I've given it 5 stars by accident.)

I just did my first cardio and here are my first impressions. Right now, my plans are to use this for yoga and cardio as I prefer to do my own toning workouts.

I don't want to scare anyone away from this game, but if you are very out of shape or haven't worked out for awhile. Don't start with this game. Grab Sweatin' to the Oldies and do that for awhile. This will also familiarize you with modifications you can do because this game does a LOT of jumping, skipping, hopping, squats and lunges in the evaluation phase and the cardio workout.

If you have hip, knee, or shoulder problems you may want to rent this first and try coming up with modifications for exercises you may have physical problems with.

Quick thoughts:
No stopping and starting activities like DDR or some workout DVDs.
Lots of repetition in my first workout. Perhaps this changes as I unlock other parts of the game.
As stated above, LOTS of jumping, hopping, skipping.
The last 10 minutes of the aerobic workout contain light toning activites like squats and lunges. I would prefer this to be an option. I wanted a 45 minute cardio and only got 35.
Like a workout DVD, you do need a lot of room.
No way to tell the game you have any physical limitations.
I did get a LOT of cardio workout here. My heartrate stayed consistently in my target heart rate zone.

Will this by my only cardio routine? No, I'll still do DDR and other activities for variety.

I've read where some are angry this game doesn't include the balance board and are upset it seems more like a fitness DVD than a game.

This game really is more like a very interactive fitness DVD than a game, but in a good way, in my opinion. If you hate fitness DVDs, you will not like this game, but if you enjoy them and enjoy having a variety of them, you'll like this.

The pros:
No stopping and starting for new activities like with Wii Fit, DDR or Active Life. You workout for the entire time you set the workout to be (minus rests, of course).
You get to choose your music, your set, your workout focus, etc. For the focus, the game makes a recommendation, but if that's not what you want to do, you can decide for yourself.
The workouts are made up of very short segments of movements, for warmups and cardio it's 16 or 32 counts, for strength its 8-12 reps, depending on the move. If you don't like the move you're on, just give it a second, it'll change soon enough.
You get to use your own equipment, so I was able to pull out things like my step which I haven't used in a while.
The game asks a few times a workout how that segment was, if it was too hard or two easy, it will adjust the rest of the workout accordingly.
The fitness test was nice and I feel like the workouts and the activities in them are addressing what I need.
The workouts I've done so far have been different from each other and as I set them in different locations and played different music, it really felt like a brand new workout each time.
If you don't know how to do a move you can see a tutorial and then go back to the workout without losing any time.
It had a nice feel to it, not unpleasantly tough, not too easy or silly, just nice.

Cons:
I had to pause the game to take a quick phone call and when I resumed the game, the scroll on the bottom and what she was saying and doing no longer matched up. I tried going by the scroll and not her but it got really confusing. I finally just switched and went by her and got to the end, but that was a wierd glitch.
The 80s music doesn't sound like 80s music to me.
The fitness test has you take measurements, but considering how different say a thigh measurement is depending on where you measure, I wondered how useful the info could be without more specific instruction then just 'measure'. Also, I wish the fitness test portion let you tell it of limitations. There is no way to tell it, for example, if you can't do high impact moves. With it selecting from such a large group, being able to ask it to skip those would be nice.
In the magical world of the Wii, steps and weights magically appear and disappear when you need them. In the real world they must be moved into place or picked up. No time is given for this. For the weights workouts it's not that bad because there are rests between sets, but for cardio, the appearing, diappearing, reappearing step is really a pain. I like using it though, I just wish she'd have to get hers too so she'd take a second.
The graphics are OK, but she's got a slightly floaty quality. She's shaded OK, but it just doesn't look like her feet are quite touching the ground. I found myself distracted by it a few times, trying to figure out what was causing the effect.
If you like the 'game' aspect of Wii Fit, earning points, selecting different actities, etc. you may not care for this. It's just a very straightforward workout. Doesn't bother me, as I like now having this variety, but it may others.

If you have a drawer or box full of workout videos, MY FITNESS COACH is all of those wrapped up into a single CD. The beauty of the workouts in MY FITNESS COACH is that they're varied, and if you've used video/DVD's in the past, you know how you can memorize your workouts and they get boring. If you're don't like the music, you can change it with the click of your Wii remote.

You tell your trainer what you want to work, and your workout is designed around your needs.

I did one workout and it wanted me to do a plie exercise. I thought, "This is doing nothing for me." The next day, it was evident in my quadraceps that the muscles were being worked.

If you want to workout but are self-conscious about going to the gym, or just prefer to workout at home, this program is for you!

I've worked out for 30 minutes three days in a row so far and I'm feeling it in my legs and upper back/shoulders. This game has a continuous workout unlike the Wii Fit where you do one thing, then have to go to the menu to choose another. This is like having your own aerobics class in your living room and they even give you a few seconds to rest here and there. I have the Wii Fit and if I played this first, I would of never bought the Wii Fit. I still use my Wii Fit to do my body test after I work out on The Fitness Coach to keep track of my BMI and weight.

You get to pick what music you want to listen to and as you work out more, you open up new ones. You also pick and open up new areas to work out in. You log your resting heart rate and they ask you to do jumping jacks for 2 minutes to log in your heart rate again. Then they try to keep your heart rate up in the work outs. She'll also ask you 2-3 times during your workout how you're feeling to decide if she needs to make you work harder or less on the next workout.

This is worth the money!

I recently bought a Wii and a WiiFit and was very excited about using it to add to my exercise routine. I was frustrated that it's not possible to get a continuous and dynamic routine with the use of the WiiFit alone. I was also wary of buying Jillian Michaels program b/c it has received such poor reviews. I picked up My Fitness Coach today. I am very pleased with the program so far. After taking the 15 minutes to set up my profile I was quickly able to start my first workout routine. It started me on a routine that was fairly challenging. When you first start out there are choices of setting and music styles that are locked. This is strangely motivating for me to get to hear and see the other options.
I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised at this point. I am someone who typically works out a few times a week and I am happy that this appears to be something that will challenge me and be dynamic. There is also a status bar across the bottom that lets you know how much longer the exercise will be and what is coming up next. This cuts down on the amount of chatter.