Wii My Fitness Coach

On the Wii, My Fitness Coach assists sedentary gamers in rising from the couch or lounge chair for some exercise. The game is not meant to be your entire exercise regimen, but it can be used as a good start for a healthy lifestyle.

The Wii's My Fitness Coach is actually a port of Yourself! Fitness that was released on the PlayStation 2 and for the PC. In 2008, Ubisoft ported the game to the Wii and did a remake for the PC and renamed it PC Fitness. A sequel is planned for the next generation consoles and the PC called Y!F Lifestyle.

You are coached by a virtual instructor named Maya, voiced by Yumi Lee. The first thing you do is get assessed by performing some tests so that the game can determine what exercises you need to begin. Perform lunges, crunches, jumping jacks and more. Then, it's time to set a goal. Increase your flexibility or lose some weight, the goal is up to you. Your profile is saved to a hard drive or memory card. The regimen can be modified at any time by yourself or even Maya. Maya will often ask questions as you exercise to see if things are getting easier or if something is too hard and she will adjust the exercise accordingly or remove it altogether. Maya takes you to different locations to exercise and you can listen to a variety of music. The style of music is preset by you at the beginning of the game and, as you progress through the exercise, you can unlock other styles and songs.

Wii My Fitness Coach claims there are around 500 workouts and exercises that you can choose from. Many of the exercises have a few different routines or repetitions, which is where the developer is getting such a high number.

The game does offer you a total body workout. You can target a specific part of your body like your abs or upper body. If you want to work on strength training, cardio, or simply just lose some weight, Maya will tailor a workout just for those reasons. You can also add the use of weights, resistance bands, or a heart monitor to the work out. You can tell Maya that you'd like to use them. Even though the game is on the Wii, My Fitness Coach does not utilize the Wii Balance Board.

It's not all physical. There is a location called Meditation Garden where you will learn proper stretching and yoga techniques so muscles won't stiffen whether you are working with the game or not.

Don't just jump into Wii My Fitness Coach and expect results or understand how everything is supposed to go. Heed a couple pieces of advice:

• Make sure you have enough room to exercise with My Fitness Coach. It may appear that you need a small space, but some of the exercises require a little bit of extra room, especially the step routines. Move furniture around if you need to and position lamps and other free-standing pieces out of the way for the aerobic exercises. Your swinging arm could knock that precious plant stand over.
• For the first few run-throughs of the game, keep the tutorial feature on. Some of the exercises may be unfamiliar and some quick instruction will help you do it right the first time. Obviously, for things like push-ups, you won't need to see how it's done, but a lot of the yoga positions are hard for first-timers.

If you like My Fitness Coach, then check out some of the other fitness games you can get:

• EA Sports Active. Comes with resistance bands.
• Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009.
• Dance Dance Revolution. Basically a step game, but with the fast pace action and intense dance music, you are sure to get in a little shape.
• Wii Fit. Uses the revolutionary Balance Board.

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