If you’re anything like me, favorite workouts come and go in phases.
High school was pretty much dominated by the elliptical. Freshman year of college I was obsessed with kickboxing. Sophomore year was mostly yoga. Junior year, aerobics classes (yes like, step class.. don’t knock it ’til you try it). Senior year was P90X. And post-college is when my running kick really started.
This past year, aside from continuing to run, I found a new love for circuit training. What I like most is the quick bursts of action, moving from one thing to the next before you can get bored. It’s fast and sweaty and definitely kicks your butt.
So when I first heard about Nike+ Kinect Training last month, I was all ears.
Let me give you a the rundown:
Once you’re signed-in to the game, the Kinect sensors find you and project an outline of you onto the screen. The Nike+ trainers then give you an intro, Alex and Marie. They’re famous athletes, or something like that, but I wouldn’t know because I don’t really follow sports, so.. I apologize for my ignorance here.
They tell you that this program is designed to address your goals and will have you working your butt off but having fun at the same time. Then you get the option to choose which trainer you want. I chose Marie, because Alex (the male) looked like a beast and I didn’t know if he would be screaming at me military-style during my workouts, so I went the safe route with the female.
You then input your anthropometrics (a.k.a. height, weight, etc) and complete a fit test. This test is to measure your cardiovascular abilities, and also range of motion. Simple exercises such as squats and shoulder circles, and also some high-intensity drills like high-knees and dodgeball (yes!).
Once you get your fit score as a benchmark, you then choose your program…
- Get Strong: tailored more toward building muscle and strength
- Get Toned: a combination of muscle building and cardio for optimal results
- Get Lean: meant to burn the most calories and focus on cardio
I chose Get Toned, because I do want to focus on strength training but I also want a bit of cardio to build endurance for running. Get Strong was my second choice, and you do have the option of switching plans, so I may try it out for a week.
Basically, the program you choose determines the outline of your workouts for the next 4 weeks. At the end of 4 weeks, they assess your fitness again and measure it against your benchmark to see your progress. The program also tracks each of your workouts to see where your strengths and weaknesses lie, which shapes your upcoming workouts.
Then you set your preferences for which days you’ll be working out. For me, this is Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, but you can chose a little or as many days as you prefer.
After the fit test and my workout today, I definitely approve of the Nike+ Kinect Training.
I mean when the sweat soaks through every part of your shirt around your sports bra, I think it’s a decent workout, no? Sorry if this grosses you out but I was pretty damn proud of that sweat! Andrew was like “Are you posting this on your blog? Maybe you shouldn’t…”
What I liked about the workouts the most are that they are familiar exercises, such as burpees, deadlifts, lunges and squats involved, but there are also fun blasts of cardio that they throw in. My favorite is called “Split Decision”, which is a series of virtual glass walls coming at you, but they all have cut-outs that you have to jump to so not to shatter the wall.
Another positive is that you can make a short or long workout. You complete rounds of the workouts, and after round 1 (which is about 20 minutes), you have the option of completing round 2, and then round 3 if you want. Each round is similar, but they incorporate some varied workouts to keep it interesting.
All-in-all, I am very satisfied with it. I’m excited to see how I like it as I continue to progress through my program of choice!
What’s your current favorite workout?
