Couch potatoes get up off your butts and work out, just warm up first on your own unfortunately
Your Shape™: Fitness Evolved has many different options to help you from becoming bored with just the basic gym routine, with things like Zen, Stack 'em Up, and Loop-A-Hoop. Although I thought that Zen would be a great for warming-up and cooling-down, I quickly learned that even Zen was a work out even at the lowest level. This is what really make me put this in the "Almost, but not quite" category. The Xbox 360® is great at popping up messages about "if you are feeling too tired, take a break" and thankfully during a normal routine they seem to be suppressed. I think it should pop-up a message about warming-up when the game starts, and also another message about cooling-down when you go to exit. Without warming-up correctly you reach the "feeling too tired" stage much earlier and can be forced to stop the training session before the end.
It may not ask as many "start-up" questions to design the absolutely perfect routine, but so far what it has designed for me is enough to push me yet not kill me. One needs to understand this is not truly a "hard core" fitness game, like EA's that may scold you for missing a schedule workout day, so you do have to be diligent on your own to get up and get that sensor going. With the other fun options though, and there are even many new free downloads that add in more types of workouts, it is not really that difficult to get it going. You could start off with "I think some Zen would be soothing" and next thing you know "Well, while I am already here, it wouldn't hurt to make progress in my fitness program."
Since this is a Kinect™ based game, it does have one drawback in my opinion. The fact that your attire is extremely important and yet the generic "Make sure you and your Kinect™ are setup correctly" (as well as many other "advertisements") state that clothing should be loose (even going as far as pointing out the sensor takes what you are wearing into account) . This is totally untrue, even more so for this style of game since the sensor is tracking you making sure the form is correct to achieve the maximum results. Unfortunately if you are wearing sweats which might be a tad baggy, the sensor incorrectly detects where your joint points are and thus it moves on before you have reached the correct position. As sad as it sounds, working out in tighter clothing (basically just undergarments) is the only way to truly get a great cardio workout. This Ubisoft™ fitness "game" for the new Microsoft® Xbox 360® Kinect™ genre comes loaded with tons of features, although like most Kinect™ intense movement "games" (others include Kinect™ Sports, EA Sports® active 2, and Dance Central™) is missing two key necessities... warm-up and cool-down routines.
Your Shape™: Fitness Evolved has many different options to help you from becoming bored with just the basic gym routine, with things like Zen, Stack 'em Up, and Loop-A-Hoop. Although I thought that Zen would be a great for warming-up and cooling-down, I quickly learned that even Zen was a work out even at the lowest level. This is what really make me put this in the "Almost, but not quite" category. The Xbox 360® is great at popping up messages about "if you are feeling too tired, take a break" and thankfully during a normal routine they seem to be suppressed. I think it should pop-up a message about warming-up when the game starts, and also another message about cooling-down when you go to exit. Without warming-up correctly you reach the "feeling too tired" stage much earlier and can be forced to stop the training session before the end.
It may not ask as many "start-up" questions to design the absolutely perfect routine, but so far what it has designed for me is enough to push me yet not kill me. One needs to understand this is not truly a "hard core" fitness game, like EA's that may scold you for missing a schedule workout day, so you do have to be diligent on your own to get up and get that sensor going. With the other fun options though, and there are even many new free downloads that add in more types of workouts, it is not really that difficult to get it going. You could start off with "I think some Zen would be soothing" and next thing you know "Well, while I am already here, it wouldn't hurt to make progress in my fitness program."
Since this is a Kinect™ based game, it does have one drawback in my opinion. The fact that your attire is extremely important and yet the generic "Make sure you and your Kinect™ are setup correctly" (as well as many other "advertisements") state that clothing should be loose (even going as far as pointing out the sensor takes what you are wearing into account) . This is totally untrue, even more so for this style of game since the sensor is tracking you making sure the form is correct to achieve the maximum results. Unfortunately if you are wearing sweats which might be a tad baggy, the sensor incorrectly detects where your joint points are and thus it moves on before you have reached the correct position. As sad as it sounds, working out in tighter clothing (basically just undergarments) is the really the best way to truly get a great cardio workout (until you get those biker shorts).