Hey Everyone - EA SPORTS Active More Workouts hits shelves today, Nov. 20th. I can't wait for you to check it out!
What differentiates More Workouts from the original product you ask? Well, here are a few details:

- contains an all new 6 Week challenge and you can choose the days on which you want to workout
- over 35 new exercises and activities
- warm up and cool down features
- abs! Great ab exercises to incorporate into your workout
- set on a tropical island
- comes with the software and a nutrition book from Bob Greene
- you can import your profile from Personal Trainer into More Workouts should you choose to do so
- it remains balance board compatible but again, you dont need the board in order to use either of the Active fitness products
- you can now use the balance board (if you have it) to weight yourself
- can still workout with a friend or family member
- more preset workouts and still able to customize your workouts!

Enjoy - can't wait for you to get started!

I am really looking forward to the tropical island setting. Probably the closest I'll get to a tropical island this year

My wife picked up a copy from Target today, Costco did not have them on the floor and no one knew anything about them when they opened this morning.

Now I only need an excuse to leave work early and explore around with it. I will report back here later with my first experience with it.

I tried to pick up a copy of More Workouts at Costco (in Canada) too but they didn't have any out on the floor so I ended up going to Best Buy. They didn't have any on the floor there either but they had a lot of copies in the back.

Took it home and of course had to try it out. Here are my first impressions:

1. Easy to import my profile from the original. There is a new workout wardrobe (tops/bottoms, glasses, hat, etc..). I found it kinda funny that when you picked your body type, there were only 4 to choose from and even the "biggest" body type wasn't very big.

2. When you click on "View my Stats" under the profile section, if you arrow back, one page has all of your old workouts from Personal Trainer (Yay for finally getting to see the total number of calories burned, time exercising and # of workouts done) and if you arrow forward there's another for More Workouts.

3. For my first workout, I just tried a preset workout "Island Cardio Blast" on Hard. Yep, this was definitely hard.

4. The warm up is good, although I can imagine myself skipping some of them when I'm doing my 5am morning workouts (you are able to press 2 to skip to the next warm up exercise). You do not use the the Wii remote for any of these exercises.

5. I had zero problems...the program recognized all my movements so far. It doesn't seem to give you as much trouble when you make a mistake. The error is recognized on the screen but the trainer doesn't make you feel bad. At least I haven't gotten that so far.

6. I really liked the paddle surfing and water skiing b/c I found it worked me really hard but I was also distracted as to how hard I was actually working b/c there were lots of changes during the exercise. During the water skiing, you start with a squat, turn the wii remote to get yourself towards the gate, stand up at the gate, then squat again, turn the remote to get yourself to the other gate, stand up, then do squat jumps just like the inline skating over a ramp. With all that to think of, you don't really realize how hard you are working, until the end...and then your heart rate is way up.

7. I was also nicely distracted during the Island Outrun and Follow the Leader so it didn't just feel like I was running round and round the track like the last one. During Island Outrun, you are trying to outrun other runners (I used to do this on the track too but they weren't very hard to outrun). It's a good version of Fartlek training where you speed up and slow down your running pace. Follow the Leader is nice just b/c your trainer actually runs with you.

8. The boxing workout is WAY better. I just did the target practice (no sparring yet). It's way more fluid than before and for now...less predictable. It took me a couple of tries to figure out the timing but the next time I was set.

9. I worked up a big sweat by the end of the workout. Burned 172 cals. The stretching at the end is good. Even though I know better, I often didn't stretch after my 30 day challenge workouts. I could tell my hamstrings were getting really tight after all those lunges/squats. The stretches I got were all done sitting or lying on the ground (hamstrings, back, butt, chest). Just the same as the warmup, all the stretches were done without the remote.

10. The journal has a few added questions such as nutritional content, amount of time relaxing, workout enjoyability, etc.

I've only tried this one workout so I'm sure there will be more to write about as I work my way through the program. For the person wanting step aerobics, it's finally available. I haven't tried out the Ab exercises yet.

I can't wait to hear other people's reviews!

Thanks for the run down. I'm waiting for my copy to come from Amazon and it sounds like it will be well worth the wait and money. I'm ready for some new challenges.

I thought EA active more workouts included the workout list from the original game. Is that right or worng? If right, how do you transfer the list from the original game. Thanks for your help.

it looked like all new exercises to me. You can import your profile from active.
The boxing is great as are some of the new sports drills. Havent tried any of the new exercises yet got home too late last night.
kathyc

Well I couldn't wait last night to start into my brand new copy of EA Sports Active More Workouts. I think this is going to be a real winner!!

After I turned it on and did the Wii system update (it took a good 3 minutes) it stepped me right into transfering my old profile from EA Sports Personal Trainer. It lets you tweek or select a new on-screen image of yourself with new clothing choices. I don't care a whole lot about this type of thing, but seeing as there was not old-man-with-beer-belly profiles my on-line image is really stylin'!.

It lets you look at the data you had in Personal Trainer and this version has a great weekly summary that shows your stats as far as calories burned and workouts performed. It will also keep track of your weight weekly and you can use the Balance Board to do it!

I found the tropical theme to be enjoyable and diverse and it helps to distract you from realizing that you are working out at home in your living room. I decided to pick a preset workout and it was titled something like "Island Tour". I picked it on "easy" since it was still 25 minutes and I knew it would be longer with all the videos I would be watching for the first time through on the new exercises.

The warmup and cooldown stations do not use the Wii remote for feedback so it is basically like doing a home DVD workout section where you just follow along. I think it is a great addition and I obviously needed the stretches since I could feel them pretty good. The cooldown stretches were all on the ground and with my TV mounted a little high on the wall I was below the best angle for viewing. I will have to remember to tilt it down for the floor work.

The workout I picked did not do any ab work or step aerobics, I am looking forward to trying both of those out this week. In fact, this workout never even used the bands. It was all balance board and leg strap. One thing I will say about More Workouts with the little exposure I have has so far, I really enjoyed the Balance Board and think that it added to the workouts I did. With Personal Trainer I always elected not to use the BB since I felt that I got a better workout without it.

I never had a move that was not detected by the game, let's hope that stays the normal for this game! In the instructional videos they really emphasize the proper positioning of the Numchuck in the legstrap. I think this will really help the new people to get the game to respond properly.

The running exercises run you around the island, along the beach, over boardwalks and piers, through trails and roads. They also had you either running along with your trainer or trying to pass other runners along the way. I found this enjoyable and much better than endless laps around the track in Personal Trainer. There is an obstacle course that has you stoping at stations and completing routines like lunges and jumps before it lets you go on. It was interesting and really got me sweating.

They have a paddle board game where you are going steering through gates to get to the finish line and a water ski game that also has you performing jumps and steering through gates. You hardly realize that you are working out until you are sweating realize that you are actually doing lunges and jumps and squats. I think this is where More Workout excells where Personal Trainer was lacking, they are making the workouts fun and a game vs going through calisthenics in your living room.

This looks GREAT and I am actually looking forward to my workout this afternoon, and isn't that the point for all this anyways!! I really worked up a sweat and I am a little sore this morning!!

cem_ea_id.ltorica wrote:I thought EA active more workouts included the workout list from the original game. Is that right or worng? If right, how do you transfer the list from the original game. Thanks for your help.

Nope! All new workout list. It looks like all the old moves are performed (lunges, squats, curls, presses, etc) but in a different setting and routine. You can go back to Personal Trainer and do a workout and then transfer your workout stats (time, calories) into More Workouts to track them. It looks like a better tracking prgram in More Workouts.

I don't think we are going to miss the old workouts and will just stay in More Workout. We will see...

@Kranders: We basically had the same first impressions of the game! It's fun and dynamic which distracts you from feeling how hard you are actually working out.

My Lats and shoulders are sore today from the boxing and paddling. This is a good sign.

Last night I picked a preset workout called "Upper Body Shaping", it promised some abs work and upper body work using the band. I put it on the "easy" setting so I could go through all the videos for the new workouts and still be in time for dinner.

The warm-up and cool down routine was the same as the last workout but they changed the order of the stretches. I think we will see the exact same routine for every workout, I still think it is worth doing and I have my own routine for my legs that I do in addition.

This workout used the control and numchuk without the leg strap. I put on the strap but half way through removed it and found that it was never needed. They have some pushups in there and some of the strap work had you double up the strap and work one arm at a time, switching arms half way through. It let you get reconfigured for the next side and had you push "A" to continue. It seemed to be more in line with strengthening than Personal Trainer. I use the Gold's Gym bands and have to figure out which bands are best for which exercise. I pretty much have that figured out on the old game but it will take some time to figure out the best for this one. The Gold's Gym bands have 3 different strengths that you can combine for different levels of strength and range. They have several exercises that use both arms at the same time, like bicep curls and triceps extensions. For the both arm triceps extension they have you position the cord between the remote and the numchuk behind your back.

This workout had 2 abs exercises. They don't use the leg strap and each rep had a hand movement that went with it which is what the game detects. It would be easy to cheat it, but who would do that when the whole point is to get in shape? Both exercises had you laying on your back and raising up and using your hands with controller to either punch or touch the opposite knee. The crunch was hard for me to come up from laying down to getting my torso and shoulders up off the ground like a sit up. The tip to use your opposite arm's elbow to help leverage you up worked great for me and eventually I hope to not have to use my elbow as my abs strengthen.

My arms are sore in places they weren't in the original version so I know I am getting different areas, my abs are not sore today, but I only did two abs exercises.

I also had time to try out just a couple of minutes of step aerobics to try it out. I picked the fast program and I think what you get out of it depends on what you put in. It has a "intensity meter" on the side that shows you how much effort you are doing during the workout. I think elevating the balance board on a step should make the exercise much more challenging. I have a Reebok adjustable step that the balance board fits on and I just may give that a try next time. Stepping onto the thin BB only is not much effort but you can put more into it by raising your knees in an exaggeratedly high effort.

So this workout got you more into the mode of doing calisthenics in your living room as apposed to the island tour I took before...but it is a great workout. I wasn't sweating all that much but my arms are sore this morning. There are more shoulder workouts than in the original program. The way they combine the exercises in the challenge workouts will be interesting.

I think I will take today as a rest day getting ready for the 6 week challenge starting tomorrow!!

Wow these are great reviews! Good information. The game sounds amazing, can't wait to try it!

Thanks for the reviews. Amazon says my copy has shipped so I hope I will get it today or tmw. Now I'm really pumped to get started. I was getting bored with Personal Trainer and had switched to doing more things in Wii Fit Plus.

Great reviews! I am going to go set mine up now. Cant wait to see it and all that you have mentioned!

Walmart did not have the game Tuesday afternoon so I went to Game Stop. They had it and I came home and did what the others have already said.

Yesterday I did the 2nd workout and was a little disappointed, only 150 calories (!). Not like the usual 300-400 I was used to. So afterward I did the 30 minute Step Aerobic custom workout - I LOVE it. I burned 600 calories!

Today was my "rest" day but I did the 30 minute step aerobic workout again.

I LOVE the total calorie counter. Since it takes 3500 calories to lose 1 pound this will help me keep on track.

My goal is 25 pounds every 4 months. I've lost 29 since May 20. I ran into some motivation issues and have been stuck for a month or more. I'm hoping this will get my rear in gear and help me lose my next 25!

I will be honest: I am disappointed that the exercises are completely different and that none of the originals came over. I liked walking around the track. I really liked punching the bag free-style. I loved how my butt giggled and shaped up! I don't miss baseball or tennis or volleyball but I do miss the inline skating. The updated version of waterskiing is much more challenging and I'm sure I'll grow to like it (no pun intended).

I wish a small boxing bag was in this one - it burns so much off the triceps!

I like the total mile tracker but I wish it would count the step aerobics. I'm sure 30 minutes of the step workout must be between 1-2 miles each time (Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds is approximately a 15 minute mile and it's close to the same pace).

I wish it had online support where we could all send each other messages to our Wiis for motivational support, but we have this site, right?

I'm with the challenge starting tomorrow - let's BURN this FAT!