I’m a long time Wii Fit Plus user. When I don’t feel like heading over to the gym I can just pop it in and get a decent light workout in. I decided to give EA Sports Active 2 a try after seeing it in action at E3 last year.  I was a little skeptical of the arm and leg bands, but the idea of not having to use the Wii balance board was enticing. I’m actually don’t really notice the bands once they are on.  Sports Active 2 does have the option to use the balance board, but I specifically chose not to use it because I’ve found the board to be very inaccurate and frustrating to use.   The setup for Sports Active 2 is pretty simple.  You tell it your weight, or use the balance board to take it, and then pick how intense of a workout series you want to do.  I chose the 90 day moderate workout series.I then picked which 4 days of the week I wanted to be my regular workouts and which 3 are for resting.

The daily workouts are about 30 minutes long and each one focuses on activities relating to a specific sport. There is your general warm up activities, then a solid 20 minutes of intense exercises and finally wrapping things up with a few minutes of cool down.  The middle set of activities are where you do activities related to a sport.  I like this setup as each day is a different set of items in the workout regiment. So while there is a routine pattern to the workouts the individual pieces change each day. Sure, they seem to find a way to tie in squats and lunges into almost each sport, but sometimes it will be to block goals in soccer and others it will be tied to running.  The variety keeps things fresh and interesting.  By then end of the workout I’m definitely sweating and have had a much more intense workout than anything in Wii Fit. I can’t imagine how hard the activities for the even harder workout series would be.

Ive been using EA Sports Active 2 for a couple months now and one thing I’ve come to really enjoy is how the game tracks my stats online as well.  It lets me see quickly how I’m improving without having to dig around inside the game to find that info.  Like most at home workouts, EA Sports Active 2 is only as helpful as you make it.  If you’re disciplined and do each activity without cheating it can be a useful fitness tool.  For me I’m liking it a lot more than Wii Fit Plus.  The games in that have a place and my son likes doing them but for a more active and sports focused workout EA Sports Active 2 is the way to go.