I’ve been a fan of interactive workouts for quite some time. I have an elliptical machine and stationary bike, both of which will hold my tablet or phone. I play YouTube videos of people running and biking in exotic places to keep myself motivated. Treadmill TV is one of my favorite channels.
The Ring Fit was $69.00 at our local Walmart. If you have ever used a resistance ring in Pilates class, you will instantly recognize the Ring Fit hardware. You attach a Joycon to the ring and insert the other one into the included leg strap.
As the ring is stretched, pulled, rotated, raised and lowered, the changes in its shape and location are detected by the motion sensors. The same is true for the leg strap. The pitch, position, and angle of the controller strapped to your thigh is translated into movement. The design is pure genius, but it isn’t the hardware that makes the Ring Fit special.
The Adventure Ring Fit game is fantastic. The fitness aspect is dynamically tuned for each player. Calibration includes a strength test, accounts for age, and asks for workout preferences all of which are used to calculate difficulty. You can also manually select a difficulty level in the game’s menu.
Once calibration is complete you select a character, choose its eye color then you’re off on an adventure. The ring is used as a weapon, or a shield with the game requiring specific exercise moves to accomplish various in-game tasks. You jog in place or high step to move your character through the world and over obstacles.
Boss battles are workouts that will have you doing squats, ab crunches, chair lifts, arm crunches, knee lifts, and more. The ring provides resistance and the haptic vibration marks the beginning and end of moves. The leg sensor detects if you are squatting low enough, holding a position long enough, or generally using the correct motion.
As you progress through the game you collect tokens and XP points that unlock new exercises and customization options for your character. I won’t spoil the game, except to say that it is fun. My entire family has been playing it everyday. My wife got up early to play this morning and she usually doesn’t like indoor exercise. We seem to be engaging in a friendly competition, trying to reach new levels and unlocks first.
On the first day, I set the difficulty to intense and played through the first boss fight. It took twenty minutes during which my heart reached one-hundred and thirty five beats per minute. I broke out in a pretty good sweat by the end. My muscles were feeling it the day after but it didn’t stop me from playing again.
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