EA Sports NFL Training Camp: Review & Report 1

As a pretty serious NFL fan, I was definitely intrigued when I heard about EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp for the Wii. I have worked out with EA Sports Active 2 before, and while I felt like it provided a good workout, it was BOOORING. It just felt really generic, it had no personality and nothing really kept me coming back to it. I have now had NFL Training Camp for a week and a half and I haven't missed a workout in the 60 challenge. I actually found myself wanting to do a workout yesterday even though it was a designated rest day per the program.



Here's what comes in the box



Lets start out with some of the basics about NFL Training Camp. It retails for around $100 (though I have seen it on sale for much less) [EDIT: Just noticed the regular price seems to have dropped to $60. Nice!], includes the game, manual, arm sensor w/heart rate monitor, leg sensor, and a resistance band. The game features a collection of different exercises, many of which are NFL themed. They range from yoga-type stretches/poses to resistance band exercises to obstacle courses and several football skills workouts that simulate things like throwing passes, tackling dummies, kicking field goals, and making interceptions. Its a good variety, and you can either choose from workouts that have been created from these exercises by stipulating the intensity, time, and type of workout you'd like, or you can create a custom workout by simply selecting which exercises you would like to perform. There is also the 60 day challenge, which is really what I will be writing the most about to begin with.

The 60 day challenge first requires you to determine a workout schedule - you pick four days of the week you'd like to work out and the other three days are to be rest days. If you need to adjust your workout days, there is an option to do so, but it does not take effect until the following week. I began the challenge last Tuesday (1/18/11) and have so far completed six workouts as of this morning. I haven't missed any of my scheduled workouts yet. Here are my initial impressions of the game:

• I love the NFL theme. You can choose from any NFL stadium to do your workout in and you'll be able to pick from one of five players on every NFL team to be your personal trainer (i.e. a graphical representation of that player guides you through the workouts). As you workout, you earn points, which you can redeem to buy jerseys, shoes, and other things for your charater, as well as unlock collectable icons. Its a little bit cheesy, but it can give you something to work towards if you get into it.
• The workouts are hard! I had put the setting on "hard" mode since I felt like I wasn't terribly out of shape. I have been sore the day after every single workout - particularly my legs. All of those lunges really take a toll!
• The workouts seems pretty balanced in terms of what parts of the body they work out, but the upper body exercises seem to vary the most in their effectiveness. This is mainly because it can be difficult to adjust the tension with the included resistance band. Certain tricep exercises are very difficult even with as little tension as possible, whereas the hammer curls are quite easy and I feel like I may be pushing the band to its limits if I up the tension too much. I may try to substitute free weights for the resistance bands at some point.
• The sensors work really well most of the time... but when they don't, its super frustrating. Most workouts feature about 25 exercises and I have probably had trouble with one exercise per workout on average. Sometimes you do just what you should be doing and the game just will not register the movement properly. Sometimes it even berates you for "just standing there." Usually I can find a way to move that allows the game to register it, but that can make the exercise awkward, or other times it just doesn't work and I have to skip the exercise. Like I said, its about one in 25 exercises, so not a huge deal, but kind of frustrating when you're in the middle of a workout.
• The heart rate monitor is really cool. It shows your heart rate in the corner of the screen throughout the workout so you know how hard you've been working.

So far the workouts have each been around 30 minutes and I've slowly started burning more calories (started out buring around 140 per workout, burned 190 this morning). For reference, I'm 6' and weight 185 lbs. The workouts generally start with three or four stretching exercise. From there, you get a pretty rapid fire mix of exercises, both cario and strength. Most do not last for more than a minute or two, and there is enough cardio worked in there that your heart rate really doesn't drop must throughout. For example, you may do "foot fires" (rapidly jamming your feet up and down for about 15 seconds) followed by jump squats (lower into a squat, jump up, land back in a squat, repeat), then to crunches, and back to foot fires. There is usually one football skills related exercise in each workout. Today it was the defensive back challenge, where I get into the squat position and then move to intercept passes. On Tuesday it was the linebacker challenge, which was an obstacle course which involves running ladders and pushing a tackle sled. It keeps track of your best times/highest scores for these challenges, which is fun and motivating. You often repeat the same exercises two or three times over the course of the workout, but they keep it mixed up and you don't often do the same exercises in back to back workouts. The last three or four exercises are cool down type stretches. You'll defintely be welcoming these if you're playing on hard mode.

Overall I've been having a good time with this program, and the resulting soreness leads me to believe I'm getting a decent workout as well. At this point, I definitely recommend it to someone looking for something a little more engaging than EA Sports Active 2 and a lot more structured than Wii Fit. I plan to update after every workout or two from this point on. I'll give some details of the workout and more overall impressions about the game and my own fitness level.