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Eye Toy Kinetic PS2 Review |
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Written by Don Lee
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Friday, 06 October 2006 |
 At the beginning of every new year, millions of people flock to their
local gym to sign up in an attempt to commit to their New Year’s
Resolution of exercising more. Unfortunately, most of those people who
signed up at the beginning of January stop going by February.
Month after month passes and you’re still being charged that monthly fee while you’re sitting at home saying “I’ll go tomorrow” day after day.
No one is questioning whether exercise is good for you and your body but it’s tough dragging yourself into the gym after a long day at work, right? Well, Sony Computer Entertainment and Nike Motionworks have developed a way you can get your exercise in without paying for gym memberships and that you can (and will want to) do in the comfort of your own home. No, it’s not just another exercise video. This is the Eye Toy Kinetic personal fitness trainer.
Let’s Get Physical
The Eye Toy Kinetic package comes with almost everything you need. All you need to supply is a PlayStation 2 game console. Okay, once you have pried your children off of it and have moved it back into the living room, you will need to connect the Eye Toy camera to the PlayStation 2 via the USB port. Once it is connected, you will need to adjust the camera to focus on your exercising area.
Once you have the camera adjusted, you will be shown a menu where the exercising is broken down into four categories. They are the cardio zone, combat zone, toning zone and the mind and body zone. While you can choose to do a single category, all four combined is designed to give you a complete fitness package. Don’t overexert yourself from the start. Do some warm-ups and stretching to loosen your body muscles and to lessen the amount of soreness you will experience afterwards. One reason why people give up so soon on exercising is because they feel that the soreness will never go away and it’s a part of routine. Yes, you will encounter the soreness from the beginning but once your body gets used to the routine of working out, you won’t notice it anymore.
The cardio zone has you pumped up through high-energy workout routines. By utilizing motion through various dances and aerobic motion, you help increase your heart stamina. The toning zone is designed to help target specific muscle groups such as your stomach and those pesky love handles. The combat zone teaches exercise through disciplined arts such as karate, Tae Kwon Do and kickboxing. The mind and body zone teaches you the proper technique of focused breathing, flexibility and the use of Tai Chi and yoga to create a relaxed body environment.
Once you’ve chosen your program, you can then choose to either use the Routine Builder or set up the Personal Training Mode. In Routine Builder, you need to create a profile first. Once you have completed that, then you given the opportunity to choose the exercises you would like to be a part of your routine and you can save this information for future reference. There are pre-set routines already available to you in case you don’t want to specify your workout.
You can also choose Personal Trainer Mode where you become part of a 12-week training schedule. This mode is more disciplined and requires more dedication that the Routine Builder. To begin, you will need to enter your physical information such as height, age and weight as this information will be used to gauge your performance. Then choose either Matt or Anna as your personal trainer. Answer a few questions (be honest here) so that Kinetic can display the proper program suited for you. You can modify this information if you choose.
Once you have chosen a personal training routine, you can then begin to warm up with your trainer. Each exercise is introduced with a fact file, which tells you what this exercise will focus on. You can bypass this info if you would like but it’s a good reminder of why you’re going through all this in the first place. As you work your way through the routine, you will notice that the exercises are timed so try to work out for as long as you can go without getting hurt. Once you complete your exercises, you will be shown your activity results. This is a good way to keep track of your goals and accomplishments as you work through the 12-week plan.
When you have a personal trainer (or even one in a video game) getting on your case about your workout habits, then you know that you’ve been slacking off and need to get refocused. If miss a few routines in Kinetic, you will be given the option of starting over or continuing from the last time you used Kinetic. It’s like having an actual personal trainer not only keeping track of you and your progress.
The Final Word
I found the Eye Toy Kinetic package to be an exhausting but fun program. The training that you will receive and perform through the Eye Toy would be similar to that in a gym. I would suggest that you use Eye Toy Kinetic on a hard wood floor or a location that isn’t carpeted. Personally I found that a thick or shaggy carpet to be too enticing to just take a break. Plus, you don’t want to be sweating all over your carpet. Just because you work out in the house doesn’t mean you want your home to smell like the gym. You should also check out those workout mats that you can find in your local sporting goods stores. Those mats will provide a nice, safe workout area that you can quickly stow away in your closet.
I’m not going to say that this product is going to help you shed hundreds of pounds or that it is some kind of miracle device but it should at least give you that much needed exercise that you have been looking for. After spending a week using Eye Toy Kinetic, I did find myself gaining a little more flexibility through the combat program than I had just by going to the gym a couple of times a week. I found that to be very useful to me since I usually only workout using the free weights and machines at the gym. I’m generally don’t spend much time on the cardio and toning as I should at the gym but this program did help change my routine.
The package comes complete with all of the items you need to get started. The Eye Toy is very easy to install and if you’ve got a large screen television, then the Eye Toy Kinetic will look even more vibrant and lifelike. Unfortunately, I only had a 27-inch television set to test on but I was still able to follow along with the instruction and work up a pretty good sweat. If you’re not sure you want to be financially committed to a local gym, then you should give the Eye Toy Kinetic a shot. It will help get you in shape and keep you in shape without having to step foot outside your home.
You can click HERE to purchase the Eye Toy Kinetic.
About EyeToy Kinetic
You can learn more about EyeToy and its products by visiting the product’s official website located at http://www.eyetoy.com/
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