EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp 60 Day Challenge: Day 39, Workout 24

60 Day Challenge Day 39, Workout #24
Candlestick Park, San Francisco, Trainer: Frank Gore
Time: 36:23
Calories Burned: 261.3
Avg. Heart Rate: 120 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 165 bpm

As of this morning, Phase 2 is complete! I am a little intimidated by what Phase 3 is going to throw at me, but I'm feeling good about stick with the program so well at this point. Life has been quite busy lately, so I haven't been able to blog every single workout, but I've been keeping up. Here's a look at my calories burned chart over the last 30 days:

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EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp 60 Day Challenge: Day 34, Workout 21

60 Day Challenge Day 34, Workout #21
Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Trainer: Aaron Rodger
Time: 31:41
Calories Burned: 218.3
Avg. Heart Rate: 117 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 173 bpm

To my anonymous commenter yesterday who warned me about workout #21 - Yep, you were right. If I never do another jump squat in my life, I would probably die a happy man. Take a look at last night's workout chart:

Click to enlarge

They're a little bit hard to see, but the tiny little icons across the bottom of the chart represent the different exercises. The little jump squat guy shows up on the chart FIVE TIMES. The first set was just 15. Okay, that's fine. But then the very next exercise was a set of 20! So basically 35 jump squats in a row with about 15 seconds in the middle for "recovery." I think the heart rate graph shows the full story there.

EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp 60 Day Challenge: Day 33, Workout #20

60 Day Challenge Day 33, Workout #20
Soldier Field, Chicago, Trainer: Devin Hester
Time: 35:16
Calories Burned: 247.9
Avg. Heart Rate: 131 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 176 bpm

Yesterday I did my first makeup workout. I missed my workout on Monday (see my previous post) but I was able to power through it last night. Surprisingly, the game didn't even really make me feel guilty about it. My legs were actually still feeling pretty sore when I started the workout, but I figured I'd just power through it. Lots of foot fires, stride jumps, and squat jumps last night to keep my heart rate up. Check out my heart rate/calorie chart below:

Uh oh.. Missed one..

I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. I did workouts 18 and 19 last Friday and Saturday, but workout 20 was supposed to be yesterday - it didn't happen. Workouts 18 and 19 were pretty tough, and then I went on a strenuous hike on Sunday. I fully intended to continue my workouts yesterday, but my legs were just way too sore. The mere thought of prone knee drives made me cringe. Today is a scheduled day off, so I will make up yesterday's workout this evening and everything should be back on track. I'd feel worse about missing the day if I wasn't going to make it up immediately, or if it wasn't due to being sore from another physical activity. Honestly, my legs are still pretty sore this morning but I'm just going to work through it tonight and see how it goes

Below is my historical calorie burn chart, note the most recent three days have no calories burned :(.

Click to Enlarge

Still, the last two workouts were over 230 calories. This program is definitely not letting up on me at all.

EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp: Day 29, Workout 17

60 Day Challenge Day 29, Workout #17
Ralph Wilson Stadium, Buffalo, Trainer: CJ Spiller
Time: 30:08
Calories Burned: 198.0
Avg. Heart Rate: 122 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 161 bpm

Workout 17 was last night and it was probably the most difficult workout I've had yet. I don't know what it was, but I was just feeling fatigued right off the bat. The workout focused on the lower body with a lot of squat jumps, bag hops, and prone knee drives. For whatever reason, I just really didn't want to keep going when I got to the first set of prone knee drives. I started to feel a little bit sick and had to pause for about five seconds during the first set of prone knee drives. By the second and third sets of jump squats, I was barely getting my feet off the ground. I think I hit a wall last night. Here's my workout summary chart:

What else do you do to keep healthy?

While the focus of this blog is really on using the Wii to get exercise, I thought I'd try to write a post about some of the other aspects of being healthy. I'm definitely not an expert, so I'm not here to give advice, just to share my experience and invite you to share your own. Any comments, tips, criticisms, etc. are encouraged.

Based on my own observations, it seems like the number one response to "How do I lose weight/get in better shape?" is "Diet and exercise." Well, this blog is covering the exercise portion well, but what about diet? Honestly, that is probably the harder part of it for me. I'm 26, I've always eaten whatever I want, and never saw any negative consequences until the last few years. I'm not 17 anymore. I can't go out and devour a large pizza by myself and not gain an ounce. As a typical guy though, I'm constantly bombarded by advertising and the general young American guy culture encouraging me to eat "guy food" (i.e. eat this, its 5 pounds of steak covered in bacon, cheese, and deep fried). Mmmm. That sounds pretty good.

So how have I been doing with my diet since the start of my workout program? Well, better than I used to, but its still not good. I was using a calorie counting app on my phone for a couple of weeks just to get an idea of where I was at. Generally, it made me aware of what were good choices and what weren't. I cut the burger place down the street out of my weekly lunch rotation an discovered a gyro place that is a much better alternative. No more Chipotle burritos either. How about a light sushi lunch instead? No problem.

Troubleshooting EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp for Wii

Okay, I've been using this program for about a month now and have experienced some frustration, which appears to be shared by others, during certain specific exercises. This entry will show my experiences with how I've dealt with them and will be updated whenever I have a new tip/trick to share. Hopefully this will be helpful to some people that have had the same frustrations that I have. If you have any particular troubles or solutions, please leave a comment and I'll see what I can do to address it.

Alright, check out the guide below:

EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp Day 27, Workout 16

60 Day Challenge Day 27, Workout #17
Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Trainer: Tom Brady
Time: 33:18
Calories Burned: 207.4
Avg. Heart Rate: 108 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 150 bpm

Sorry blog world if I've been neglecting you. Its been three workouts since my last post. Life's been super busy the last week, but the good news is I haven't missed a workout. Check out my calories burned chart to see how I've been doing:

Historical Calories Burned (click to enlarge)

I've been consistently burning 200+ calories for the last several workouts. Today was focused on the lower body, so my average heart rate wasn't as high as its been during the full body workouts, but that doesn't mean it wasn't exhausting. Lots of squat jumps, lunges, and bag hops to really give my legs a challenge. Had two sets of alternating leg raises and two sets of reverse crunches today too - those are ab killers.

Okay, so its been about four weeks now since I started the 60 Day Challenge. How am I feeling?

EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp Report: Day 22, Phase 2 begins

60 Day Challenge Day 22, Workout #13
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Trainer: Kevin Kolb
Time: 30:00
Calories Burned: 217.3
Avg. Heart Rate: 123 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 172 bpm

I did workout #13 last night, which was the first workout of Phase 2! Let me tell you, about 1/3 of the way through the workout, I was wondering how I was ever complaining about the intensity of the last few workouts. Things were pretty relentless last night with squat jumps, prone knee drives, and leg raises. The leg raises were sets of 20! I thought the sets of 16 from last week were brutal...

Here's my workout graph from last night:

Workout 14 chart (click to enlarge)

More impressions after the jump...

EA Sports NFL Training Camp: Report 7, Day 21

60 Day Challenge Day 21, Workout #12
M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, Trainer: Roy Lewis
Time: 32:19
Calories Burned: 200.8
Avg. Heart Rate: 111 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 160 bpm

First of all, what a great game yesterday! I didn't really have anything invested in the outcome, but I've become quite the Aaron Rodgers fan, and it was great to see the Pack hang on despite so many critical dropped passes.

Okay, today's workout was alright, but I do have one major complaint. The DB Challenge (defensive back) just feels broken. There is a section where you are standing in the middle of four cones and you are supposed to lunge towards the cone it tells you (front right, back left, etc.) and it just doesn't want to work most of the time. I try moving the sensors around and realigning my body into strange Twister-esque contortions and it just seems almost random what it accepts as being the correct movement. Then there is a section where it throws balls and announces which direction you need to move in order to catch them (its either left, right, or up high). I catch every ball to the right and miss every one that is up high or left. What is odd about this is that in the WR Challenge (wide receiver), there is this exact same drill and I catch everything.

Its frustrating, because while I do really enjoy this game/exercise program, every once in awhile there is a glitch that I feel really impacts the quality of my workout. My heart rate came way down for the few minutes of the DB Challenge where I was struggling to get the program to record my movements. I think I'll just skip this one the next time it comes around.

So the big news after the workout was over... Phase 1 is complete! Excellent, I'm 1/3 of the way through the 60 day challenge! On to Phase 2 starting tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the increased challenge.

EA Sports NFL Training Camp: Report 6, Day 19

60 Day Challenge Day 17, Workout #11
FedEx Field, Washington, Trainer: Donovan McNabb
Time: 30:19
Calories Burned: 202.4
Avg. Heart Rate: 121 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 161 bpm

Another tough workout today, this time focused on the upper body. Still, there were a lot of jump squats and stride jumps to keep my heart rate up. I had some trouble with the tricep kickbacks today. The game didn't seem to register me holding my arms up and would tell me to hold still. After holding still for about five seconds, I couldn't hold still anymore, so I kind of had to cheat to get the game to record the exercise. I still did actually do the exercise, but it didn't register all that well and I had to repeat the motions a lot of times to get through it - kind of frustrating. Alternating leg raises were tough today - had to do two sets of 16. These leg raise exercises seem to be doing a lot for my core though. My abs are going to be sore tomorrow. I can already tell.

Below is a graph showing my historical calorie burns since I started the challenge:

Friday - Day off!

Not quite how I'm spending my day off. I still have to work :(

I'm really glad today is a day off from the NFL Training Camp 60 day challenge. My abs are really sore this morning from those leg lifts yesterday. While I do feel good about getting up at 6am and starting my day with a workout a few days a week, it sure is nice to be able to sleep in on the off days and not have to worry about getting the workout in.

Because its really mostly my abs (and my legs a little bit) that are sore, I may try to squeeze in a quick Gold's Gym Cardio workout this evening before dinner. Maybe a few upper body dumbbell exercises too. Nothing too strenuous though, since it technically is a rest day.

I keep reading about the horrible winter weather that is striking the Northeast and the Midwest. Its been pretty mild here in the Pacific Northwest, but I'd sure be glad to have an indoor at-home workout program if there was a blizzard outside. I have no idea how I'd get to a gym or go for a run with two feet of snow on the ground.

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EA Sports NFL Training Camp: Report 5, Day 17

60 Day Challenge Day 17, Workout #10
Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, Trainer: Troy Polamalu
Time: 28:23
Calories Burned: 184.0
Avg. Heart Rate: 112 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 166 bpm

Got up nice and early this morning for the second of my back to back workouts. The game automatically picks a stadium for you to work out in, but you can override its selection if you want. So far I've just been going with what the game picks, but man, I hate the Steelers. I worked out in the steel city anyway with Troy Polamalu today. I think he's funny in those shampoo commercials.

On to the workout! It was a challenge again today. Not quite as brutal as yesterday's workout, but decidedly more difficult than the workouts of the first two weeks. Foot fires and bag hops were plentiful today, and the duration of the foot fires seems to have doubled, while the bag hops went from sets of 5 to sets of 10. The game also introduced an exercise called leg raises, where you sit on the ground, lean back, propping yourself up on your elbows, extend your legs straight out in front of you, then lift your legs up to about a 50 or 60 degree angle. Then you bring your legs back down, but leave your feet hovering a few inches off the ground. Repeat. 16 times. This is the first time in awhile that I had to take a pause in the middle of an exercise. I made it through 8 and had to stop for about 10 seconds because my abs were killing me. This happened during both sets of leg raises. By the last few reps of each set, I was putting my feet on the ground, which you're not supposed to do.

Below is the graph of my heart rate/calories burned today:

EA Sports NFL Training Camp: Report 4, Day 16

60 Day Challenge Day 16, Workout #9
Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, Trainer: Chad Ochocinco
Time: 26:53
Calories Burned: 204.0
Avg. Heart Rate: 123 bpm

Finished my workout about an hour ago and it was INTENSE. Below is a graph showing my average and maximum heart rates for each workout so far:

Heart rate graph (click to enlarge)

You can see that my average and maximum were down a bit the last couple of workouts before today. Well, today they upped the number of reps for some of the exercises. I was doing sets of 10 squat jumps in the past - today they were sets of 15. Stride jumps used to be sets of 20 - today they were 30. There was one stretch of three exercises where I really thought the game was trying to kill me: 1 set of 10 squat jumps, 1 set of 15 squat jumps, then 1 set of 30 stride jumps. My heart rate peaked during the stride jumps at 175. Pretty impressive considering I've rarely been above 150 in the past workouts.

Gold's Gym Cardio Workout: Initial Impressions

I did my NFL Training Camp workout early in the morning yesterday and I had some time in the evening so I thought I'd give the Gold's Gym Cardio Workout (GGCW) a try. Its been out for a couple of years now, so the price is pretty low - I got it for around $20. It has received good reviews and I like the cardio boxing theme, so I thought I'd get it to try out a bit and get into it more after I finish my 60 day NFL challenge.

Fast forward 24 hours from my first GGCW session...

My back is SORE! I can feel some soreness in my biceps as well and I know its from GGCW, not the NFL workout, which was lower-body focused. I only just went through the basics in GGCW, where it shows you how to throw a jab, cross, hook, and uppercut as well as goes over some simple footwork and dodging. I probably spent about 30 minutes total getting through the training sessions. I didn't want to overdo it since I'd already done a workout in the morning. Still, even just doing the basics, I broke a light sweat and its clear now that I used some muscles I don't normally use.

I'm not going to write up a full review here just yet since I don't have enough experience, but so far I'm intrigued. From what I can tell, the bulk of this game is "cardio boxing," which involves throwing punches and doing various footwork in sequence and in conjunction with music. The interface actually looks similar to games like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, where the moves you are supposed to do scroll across the screen and you need to synchronize your actions with them to get points. Seems fun, I may try it again on Friday which is my next off day from the NFL workout. I'm a little too sore to fire it up again tonight.