Obviously cancer treatment is full of adverse side effects. For starters, my largest tumor was in my lung cavity which made it such that my lungs could not fully inflate. Then one of the chemotherapy medicines I was on was Bleomycin which can cause lung damage and unfortunately for me did cause lung damage. Then I got a lovely lung infection, possibly Valley Fever but the test results could not pin it down for sure, that caused pneumonia. And once I was done with all that, I went on to radiation where they could not angle the radiation beams to avoid my lung because of the position of the tumor. By the end of the ordeal, my lung capacity had been reduced to about 50% of what it previously was. The doctor’s answer to my reduced lung capacity issue was that I needed to exercise regularly.

On top of my lung issues, I’ve spent most of 2010 living an almost sedentary lifestyle with just a little bit of walking from the parking lot to my appointments and enough Wii Fit to keep my muscles from atrophying. One of the major side effects of radiation is fatigue which can last for weeks after the treatment is complete (my doctor thinks my fatigue will finally pass this month). The doctor’s answer to increasing my energy level was again that I needed to exercise regularly.

I liked the Wii Fit, but I wanted something with more structure and more intense cardio options so I decided to give EA Sports Active More Workouts a try. If you didn’t own the original EA Sports Active, you will need to get the accessory pack to be able to play More Workouts and if you do own the Wii Fit Balance Board, you can use it with EA Sports Active More Workouts but it isn’t necessary to play the game.

I just completed the 6 Week Challenge on low intensity. The 6 Week Challenge has you complete a specific series of 24 workouts (4 workouts per week for 6 weeks, it encourages rest days with no more than 2 days of working out in a row). You don’t have to complete it in 6 weeks, but you get a special trophy if you do. There are options for low, moderate, or high intensity and you can change your intensity at anytime during the challenge.

The first two days were grueling, my thighs were so sore I practically had to drag myself up and down the stairs by the handrail, but once I got a few days in it started to feel good. About halfway through the challenge, it started to incorporate a few moderate intensity activities to keep things from being too easy.

I love the structured aspect of the workouts. Unlike Wii Fit, which has you selecting random activities in no particular order, EA Sports Active More Workouts provides you with almost 100 preset workouts focusing on various areas of the body, of different lengths, and at different intensities. The only thing I felt like the preset workouts were missing was a strictly cardio boxing workout. And unlike Wii Fit, you can program and save as many custom workouts as you like and they can include any and all of the activities in the game.

My plan now is to start the 6 Week Challenge on moderate intensity (with the option of switching back to low if it gets too hard) and not push myself to complete it in 6 weeks or less so I can also mix in some of the other fun looking preset workouts like Step Aerobics Class, Island Cardio Blast, and Island Adventure.

Another aspect of the game I love are the trophies. There are 30 different trophies to strive for including things like completing the 6 Week Challenge, burning 1,000 or 10,000 calories, playing for 10 hours total, or getting a perfect score in a hard intensity activity like Squash or Water Skiing. The trophy system is much more robust than Wii Fit but still a far cry from the 700+ achievements to be had in World of Warcraft. To get all of the trophies, I’ll have to work myself up to the hard intensity activities so it definitely gives me something to strive for.

One area I thought the game was lacking in was it’s goals system. You can set goals for how many calories you want to burn, how many workouts you want to do, and how much time you want to spend working out over whatever period of days you set. But those goals don’t really do anything. I’d love to also be able to set a goal weight and then set it to 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week and have it generate the workouts I need to complete to reach my goal.

EA Sports Active 2 is coming in November 2010 and incorporates a heart rate monitor, special arm and leg bands so that you don’t ever get stuck on the nunchuck cord again, a new 9 Week Challenge, online tracking of your statistics and progress, and versions for the Xbox and Playstation in addition to the Wii. Unfortunately EA Sports Active 2 is more than double the price of EA Sports Active More Workouts and the accessory pack.

I’m very happy with EA Sports Active More Workouts and I definitely feel like using it is getting me back to my normal breathing and energetic self but because of my fascination with statistic tracking, I’ll probably upgrade to EA Sports Active 2 come November so I can get that heart rate monitor data and the online tracking.

Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links. Electronic Arts provided me with EA Sports Active More Workouts and the accessory pack for review at my request.

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