We now officially belong to the crowd who happily make a fool out of themselves in front of the TV. No, I am not talking about P90X or any other home workout program, I am talking about the new Xbox Kinect.
While Henning still hasn’t tried it out at all (and I am not even sure if he ever will), I have been addicted from the moment we got it. Even though there are not that many games out yet, there is a nice range to chose from already.
On top of the game that comes with the bundle, we also bought Your shape: Fitness Evolved and Dance Central. While the Fitness programs in general seem to still be a bit crude, the technology is there and it’s easy to see how much it will advance in the future. Right now I seriously wish P90X would be available for Kinect. In Your Shape: Fitness Evolved your trainer (or in this case of course the device) will correct your posture and make sure you work the full range of motion. I always wished I had my own personal trainer for the P90X routine who would correct any bad posture immediately. I guess this will happen rather sooner then later.
The game that I found the most fun so far is Dance Central, however. As a matter of fact I am using it daily for additional cardio. Mind you, I am not a great dancer at all. I wouldn’t say I am bad, more like average but the game is seriously fun and on top of getting my heart rate up it also teaches some flexibility and for me it’s a great coordination exercise too. Something I’ve been struggling with since my diagnosis.
The game has a break down mode for every song/routine and teaches you every move separately. You can even slow the respective moves down to learn them before you try your luck at performing the whole routine. Unfortunately I am not very patient and hardly stay with one song for long. I rather switch through songs and try a few steps here and there. One of these days I try to learn one of the routines properly, I promise. But it’s actually a lot of fun to make a fool out of yourself (which is VERY easy with the obligatory “Freestyle” part in the middle of the routine, easily recognized by the crazy random jumping around and flaying with my arms part).
For some comical relief to go with this post I uploaded a youtube video of some impressions of my dancing session from yesterday. It’s not a hard routine over all but it’s the hard mode of that particular song. Note the desperate Freestyle part and end pose (I didn’t make that up!).
The only downsides are that you DO need quite a bit of space simply for the Kinect to properly track your motions and if you plan on mounting the device on your flatscreen you won’t find a solution for now. At least here in Greece the mounting devices are not being sold yet.
I am really looking forward as to what kind of uses developers are going to come up with. The Kinect itself definitely already has a set place in my workout routine. Fun and get you moving the same time, hell yeah, sign me up!
As I said before, now what about that P90X on Kinect? Pretty please with sugar on top?
Kyena, Congrats on handling MS. I’m glad you demonstrated the program. I think some of those moves would be difficult for someone as uncoordinated as me to perform. Does this have a strength component or is it for cardio development? Thanks for sharing.
you look great! i just got the kinect with dance central. it’s so much fun! it’s great cardio, and some of the hip hop songs really get to the inner and outer thighs (i was a bit sore the next day). i also just got started with “your shape,” but after playing around for about half an hour, i felt like it wasn’t very challenging and a bit slow-paced. it would be great if you could give a review for that game! 🙂