Shaping up with Kinect in 14 days - Day 1

Aside from all of the fun reasons why I got a Kinect, one of the things I was really interested in was using it as an exercise device. With 2 little kids and a hectic job, I’m finding it harder and harder to get to the gym.

Lucky for me, I was chosen a few months ago to participate in an internal beta program to test out a Kinect device, along with most of the games that were available at launch. Of all the games, the one I really enjoyed the most was Your Shape – Fitness Evolved. Basically it’s an exercise game featuring workouts by Men’s Health and Women’s Health and it’s good. Very good.

So good in fact, that I thought I’d blog about it over the next 15 days and track my progress online – both to share my experiences and hold myself accountable to you, so as to ensure I don’t slack off and stop working out.

A bit about me….

I’m 35 years old, 5`7” with a stocky build. Up until my early 20s I used to exercise a fair bit and lived an active lifestyle, often swimming and running in Sydney, Australia where I grew up. In my early 20s I decided to do some backpacking and made my way across Asia and eventually to England, where I spent the next 10 years working, drinking and putting on weight – going from a svelte 60kg (132lbs) to 85kg (187lbs). In 2006 I moved to Redmond, WA, where apart from working at Microsoft, I’ve become a father to two daughters and basically eaten nothing but fried food and takeout. My weight has therefore ballooned to an all time high of 90kg (198lbs).

Why 14 days?

Well, I wanted to blog about my progress on a daily basis and I knew I couldn’t do it forever, so I decided to cap it at 14 days and see how I went. If all goes well and progress is being made (and people are interested ), then I’ll consider continuing. Besides, I also thought that I should at least start to see some results in 14 days…

My commitment…

I will do exactly one hour of exercise each night, with nothing more than my Kinect and Your Shape – Fitness Evolved to guide me. At the end of each session, I will blog about the details and share my latest stats. Hopefully, at the end of 14 days you’ll be impressed enough to go out and buy yourself an Xbox + Kinect and a copy of the game!

Day 1…

I started by setting up my profile to allow me to track progress, both within the game and online. Once complete, I decided to choose the ‘Personal Training’, which is exactly what you’d expect – my very own personal trainer taking me through a series of exercises designed to make me feel better overall – the option I chose, although you can choose from a variety of plans designed to suit your individual goals.

After the hour, I ended up completing the first set of sessions, burning 119 calories in the process. That may not sound like a lot, but remember, this is the first day I’ve gone through these exercises and I was still learning to do them properly, thereby probably not doing them as effectively as I should have done. Still, if the muscles in my body are any indication, I certainly must have done something right – they’re VERY sore right now. I think I discovered new muscles that I didn’t know existed!

(btw – I look a little weirder than normal in these shots as I was taking photos with my camera )

Summary…

Calories Burned: 119.
Muscles Sore: Every single one of them!

Stay tuned for tomorrow night’s post! I need to get some sleep now!

Jason