Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 Review
I was pretty excited to get the Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 Wii Game because I owe a good 12lbs of my weight loss to her.
And I suppose my ability to do real push-ups.
So last night, I finally ripped open the packaging and gave her a whirl (heh).
The game itself is staged in a boot camp like setting – dark and ominous. You enter your age, height, and then you use the Wii-Fit board to check your weight. You also get to choose what you want to wear, although they only gave me a couple of extremely boring choices. I assume once you get good, you get to "unlock" more outfits.
Once all your data is entered, you choose five different "programs" to complete, each being two minutes long. I had no idea what any of them involved, but you could tell based on the picture (log rolling, kayak, etc.) what they probably involved.
You can set the length of each as well as the difficulty before you start, although that's not completely obvious. I had to click around to figure that part out. And when I did that, it erased my program choices.
The first thing I did was log rolling and jumping, which involved standing and squatting in a rapid fashion while pumping my arms up and down with the Wii remote and nunchucks attached.
I think I got bored after about 20 seconds, but forced myself to continue until my two minutes were up. But that meant that not only did I have to endure the lame exercises but also the BAD MUSIC. Seriously, it was like weird country music (with lyrics and twang) that had me wishing for the stuff she has on the 30 Day Shred.
The next challenge was a balance exercise (I think on logs again), which required me to teeter back and forth on a log with my arms outstretched.
SNORE.
Every once and awhile, Jillian Michaels yells out something to you like "You can do it" which did nothing but make me wonder why the hell I was still rocking back and forth on a log.
Like the Wii Fit, it seems as though this game is for people who have absolutely NO motivation to exercise or have never exercised ever. As someone who's been pretty active now for the last two plus months, I found it to be pretty lame and really ineffective. At least the Wii Fit is a little goofy and offers more interesting variety; I'd much rather hula hoop than row a kayak on any given day.
I'd say skip the Jillian Michaels Wii Game and head straight for the 30 Day Shred. You'll get about 1000 times better results in about the same amount of time. And you get to stare longingly at Anita and Natalie's abs.
Coming up later today, the Shredheads t-shirts!
My daughter got this for me on Valentine’s Day. I asked her to return it 2 days later.
I thought it was only my family who was having issues getting the character to move right, then I found out everyone seems to have the same problem.
I was very disappointed. I then got My Fitness Coach and love it. Less of a game, more of a dvd but the workouts are still customizable and make you work.
BTW- been lurking for awhile now. Love your blog(s). I’m starting the “Couch to 5k” training on Monday.
Pray for my knees to hold out. lol
I’ve heard great things about My Fitness Coach. Will keep my fingers crossed for your knees! (and mine too)
I’m so glad you posted a review on this because I was debating if I should get it or not. I originally started on the Wii Fit and easily got bored. I wanted more out of it. After hearing so many good reviews on the 30 day shred, I decided to take the plunge and start. I’m so glad I did. Today marks day 3. I came across your blog while searching for blogs with real stories. You have become such an inspiration. Thank you.
Darn it. I was SO hoping that this would be a fun game. But… thank you for letting us know to pass, because I was going to buy it as soon as we got our Wii fixed (yes, that is how much we love our Wii — the lens has actually worn out!) But, I know to spend the money elsewhere now.
Yeah, looked at it, read the reviews, and skipped it. I heard way too many people say it was a boring game that didn’t give much of a workout. I’m still enjoying My Fitness Coach, though, and Aaron reserved EA Sports Active for me for Mother’s Day. I wish Jillian would have actually played the game before she put her name on it.
I just got that Wii game for Mother’s Day. I’m so glad I’m not the only one that think it SUCKS. I’m on Day 11 of the Shred and think I’ll stick to that.
I took mine back to the store. I couldn’t even get mine to work with my Fit Board, and it was SUCH a yawn.
Definitely skip.
Yay! I am the biggest fan of this workout. I’m also dying to know how you’ll feel tomorrow, because if you don’t sob little tears of pain every time you sit down, I am going to feel like a major wimp. I may have, um, needed like 3 days of recovery after the first time I did it.
Yep. This game sucks. Thanks for the reminder.