Register | Forums | Log in
SCENE

GAINESVILLE GAMING

Diary of Yourself!Fitness


Published: Thursday, December 9, 2004 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 at 8:43 p.m.

With Thanksgiving turkey two week's past and Christmas pies right around the corner, people are watching their waistlines while shopping for the holidays. To trim that waist, why not mix leisure with a great workout?


If you need to work off a few holiday pounds, try video games. Dance Dance Revolution (PlayStation2) already has helped many get in shape with its aerobic dance pads. Now, there's a new game, or interactive workout, called Yourself!Fitness.

Yourself!Fitness uses the video game format to promote a healthy lifestyle. The game - if it could be called that - includes interactive workouts, stress-reducing yoga meditation and workout sessions and an interactive menu plan.

Yourself!Fitness matches you with Maya, a digital personal trainer, who personalizes workout sessions, encourages proper form and offers fitness advice. Maya guides you toward overall fitness through a diet plan and workouts that incorporate equipment you have available.

Being typical sedentary lifestyle gamers, we tried Yourself!Fitness to test its effectiveness.

  • Day 1: The profile

    The game begins with a user profile of various tests and questions to help Maya determine our personalized fitness plan. The profile itself was a light workout with two minutes of jumping jacks, push-ups and crunches. After determining our level of activity through questions and heart rates, Maya decided our particular workout plan needed to focus on cardiovascular training.

  • Day 2: The first workout

    Didn't happen. Life got in the way, as it often does with a new fitness program.

  • Day 3: The first real workout

    We decided to do two 15-minute workouts targeting different zones: a core body strength workout and an upper body strength workout. Maya chose cardio for our workout style, but she selected upper-body strength for our first workout. We selected 15 minutes instead of 30 so we could do two.

    We picked '80s music for the first workout and hip-hop for the second, and both were terrible, even for a workout video - the music wasn't recognizable or upbeat. The first workout was a bit slow; we "told" Maya this, and she said she'd make it harder next time. It also was simple to follow and had adequate stretching. The second workout was upper body, but we only stretched lower body, which seemed very odd.

  • Day 4: Stretching

    Today we told Maya we had weights, and we completed another upper body workout with the weights. Maya - and we feel bad blaming a digital person who had no choice in the matter - again didn't have us properly stretch. We chose to stretch on our own today to avoid strain.

  • Day 5: Meditation

    We tried a meditation session that looped through seven yoga poses for 10 minutes and then altered slightly for the remaining 12. If repetition is relaxing, then this is great. We found it a bit frustrating though. Maya didn't verbalize the yoga positions, so we constantly had to look up to see what she was doing. She did verbalize the positions the first time through, so maybe we should have picked them up faster.

    Overall, if you're looking to get in shape this winter, this might be a good alternative to a workout video. We definitely found it fun and interesting. It even got us to workout!

    Yourself!Fitness is already available on the XBox and PC, and it will be available on the PlayStation 2 in January. It's the first in a planned series of games that are good for you - so gamers can avoid the pitfalls of a sedentary lifestyle. Plus, Yourself!Fitness is just one example of a slew of new games targeting women.

  • Select Start, Gainesville's video game cover band , will play Saturday, Dec. 18, at the Otaku Convention in Miami. See www.otakucon.com for details.

  • Female Friday runs at Gamers Asylum, where girls play free all day; on Saturday, there's a Counter Strike tournament starting at 8 p.m.

  • For Live Action Role-Playing (LARP), check out Gainesville's Mind's Eye Group every Friday night on the ground floor of Matherly Hall at the University of Florida. See http://domains.owbn.org/gnvmid/ for more information:

  • Every Saturday at noon, Mega Comics hosts a Magic Card tournament.

  • WYSIWYG Gaming is hosting a Defense of the Ancients tournament at 6 p.m. on Saturday; the venue also is offering free gaming from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17.

    Laurie Taylor and Cathlena Anna Martin can be reached at laurie.taylor@gmail.com.

    • All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.

      Recent Related Articles

    • Primer to the foods and symbolism of Rosh Hashana
      For those unfamiliar with Jewish traditions, sifting through the symbolism can be confusing. So here's a primer on mainstays of the meal.
    • Hillel, Chabad events start Wednesday night
      Lubavitch-Chabad Jewish Student and Community Center and Hillel at the University of Florida will be holding a variety of events starting Wednesday in honor of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
    • Fall is shopping season
      Got calendar confusion? The date says it's officially summer, but vacations are over, kids are back in school and, yes, that is Halloween candy at the store. The fashion world can set you straight: It's the fall shopping season.