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To those who play(ed) Ring Fit Adventure -- did it have an effect on your body and health?
As the title says. I am interested in hearing about your experiences with that game. Why did you pick it up? Did it meet your expectations? Did it have positive (or negative?) effects on your body and health? Did it change anything in your life?
I tried it during the pandemic like a lot of other folks. I think it’s great for people who do not exercise at all. It would absolutely help those folks.
If you’re moderately active, it will be a fun compliment to your normal activity. The ring was surprisingly sturdy.
I will say, because I was very worried about making too much noise for my downstairs neighbors with all the running in place the game had you do, I saw a option available to change it to squats. Seemed like a great option! Bruh… no. Destroyed my thighs. So. Many. Squats. And very quickly!
I had to change it back and just be very cautious with the running in place. My thighs couldn’t take it.
I've been using the squats mode and it's really tiring indeed. I can only make it through a single 7 minute level before I have to do the cooldown and quit.
Similarly there's a mechanic on some stages where you have to squeeze the ring really fast. Normally I'm finding the ring's resistance fine, not a big deal at all. But when you have to repeat it as fast as possible, then it's surprisingly hard.
Not a great example but we got it at christmas during the pandemic, played it once and it was great fun. But storing the ring and then getting it out again and connecting the controllers is just a bit annoying. Now that the pandemic is over I just go to the gym.
FWIW it is genuinely pretty good cardio so if you want to burn some calories this is a fun way to do it.
My SO got it for Christmas a few years ago so we tried it out. I personally didn't love it, but if you can keep to a schedule I'm sure its worth doing. It most likely had more to do with me than the game. I usually run ~10 miles a week, but otherwise hate exercise.
I was suprised to find that some of the excersices were a little strenuous, but some others are BS, like the yoga poses. Not that yoga is BS at all, but the game has you moving between different work outs quickly, and throwing in tree pose for 15 seconds, isn't giving you any of the benifits of an actual yoga session. I remember doing ~20 minute sessions in the game, which it told me burned 200 calories, but I don't know if I beleive the numbers it gives you.
I also remember the little helper character that tells you what to do, being REAL annoying at the start of the game. He doesn't stfu, but there might be a setting to stop the talking, I never checked.
IMO I'd rather just go for a quick run, but if you don't want to do that or go to a gym, its better than nothing.
I got it for Christmas 2020 and liked it, but it mostly sat there unused until about 4 months ago. I'm a lazy, over weight gamer that struggles sticking to any work out routing. Amusingly, I also work for a fitness company.
So I have started using it again to be active and really like it. It is the best video game fitness I have tried and I have tried most of them. I think it can be a good entry and has good tools to help you keep coming back.
That said, it is probably best used as a complementary tool to a workout routine.
The only fitness game I played / trained with (and regularly at that!) was EA Sports Active 2. :) It was pretty good and used similar hardware concepts, except it didn't have the ring, only some bands which you put on your arm and leg.
What else have you tried?
Yeah I have probably played Wii Fitness and the EA Sports Active games the most. Never really held my attention/kept me motivated.
I played a bunch of the Kinect games as well. A Zumba game, a UFC one, the Nike+ Kinect game and another one I cannot remember the name of.
Ring Fit is definitely the best, but I think it is also the most gamified of any of them and I am a sucker for RPG mechanics.
If you want to do calisthenics and you're not motivated to make a routine, and and you want some entertainment, then it's pretty good. It's fun to do with someone else and race through the nodes as well, but that goes for whatever goals you set for yourself. There are metrics iirc, so that can be rewarding.
I picked it up late 2020 because I needed a excersize routine. I've done several different ones in the past decade, but nothing ever sticks. I'm motivated enough to hit end goals, but afterwards I'm done. I also don't care to go to a gym on the regular.
With RFA, I wanted to complete all of the adventure mode levels. I knew that would take long enough that it would definitely become part of my routine. And I was right!
I had worked out intensely before, but had not recently, so RFA has been good for my body. I kept upping the difficulty once I felt I could hit all the reps in good form for all the excersizes in a session. I played the game a few times a week for an hour at a time. After beating the regular adventure mode, I added a day where I did some strength training with free weights. The game didn't help much with biceps or forearms.
Once I beat the additional adventure mode levels, I found this certified trainer who crafted workout routines using RFA's custom playlist mode. They've actually been pretty good and challenging.
I've always been slim as an adult, so it's helped strengthen my body, tone a bit, and improve my cardio. Of course, it's a slow and inefficient process. All the progress I made in a couple years could have been done in a gym or a different routine (like Insanity Asylum) in a fraction of the time. But unlike anything else, this has actually become a part of my weekly routine. Plus it's a one time cost. This may change I'm the future, but I'm good with it for now
Thanks for the lengthy reply. I am not allowed to lift heavy weights due to retina degeneration which is one of the saddest things for me because I don't have many options of building muscle. I trained with light weights for a couple years using BodBot (an app) but I have not observed any real effects on my body. I've been thinking about bodyweight excersises, though when I ask an opthalmogisit about whether I'm allowed to do pull-ups, every doctor says they can't tell me it's safe, but they won't tell me that it is unsafe, either. They discourage it. And cardio doesn't do much for me, I want more muscle. I know that RFA is more of a cardio excersise but I heard it can be challenging, especially to untrained people and was hoping that maybe, maybe it would help me to make at least some small gains. And I'm just interested in the game part of it, it's a great motivator.
It can definitely be challenging. Because the only resistance is a pilates ring, you end up doing more reps. The game does cover all muscle groups. They categorize them into strength (upper body), legs, core, and yoga.
If you're a bit of a completionist like me, then the adventure mode will give you plenty to do haha. There's also rhythm modes and anything in adventure mode can be done independently outside of that. Although you might need to go through adventure mode to unlock some of the more advanced excersizes.
I've never really felt the runner's high from working out, so YMMV on whether you'll feel any effects. Some of the exercises are a bit easier to cheese or doesn't pick up because the leg tracking isn't as accurate if you're not in a running motion. But the important thing is trying to keep to a schedule, and I did consider it a very nice set of game mechanics that urges me to keep going for a good few weeks at a time when I pick it up - generally during winter months when I don't want to go outside as much. It doesn't shame you much for missing time (something I find really irritating about a lot of game-ified things), and it's good at adjusting the workout to how much you're ready to do while aiming for a happy medium between too little and too much.
Kept losing the leg strap, though... I just found it again, maybe I'll pick it back up.
I have a bit of a different POV, as for me exercise is something I've had a difficult relationship due my disability, cerebral palsy.
However, while at first I was afraid the Ring Fit wouldn't be good for me due to my disability (and some exercises I ignore cause I physically cannot do), I've found it is an excellent way for me to keep up some exercise and stretching in between the times when I get to have sessions at my physiotherapist.
I even brought my switch at the end of the last batch of sessions I had to show her and see what she thinks, and she was genuinely impressed by the game and gave me tips on how to modify some of the exercises for bigger benefit.
So all in all, as someone who is disabled and has a lukewarm relationship with exercise at best, I've found Ring Fit to be a great game, and while there are periods I use it less, I try to do at least one session a week, and I think it's been good to do it.
I had a friend who got me into it just before the pandemic, but they sold out. She had a heart attack in early '19 and used it to get into better shape.
It honestly helped me, but I didn't keep with it. It did her and her bf/husband (they got married after the scare)
As others have stated, if you can keep to it, it'll work wonders. If not... not really. It depends on you.
I use it on and off, and have done since the summer of 2020. I enjoy it and I do feel like it's a good workout, but I also know that for me, gamification 100% works on me. The idea of beating a level and/or the boss makes me feel really good.
It's OK, but like other people said, part of the issue with the "game" part is that the effectiveness of an exercise in combat is very different than the actual physical exertion necessary to do the exercise. There's just a massive difference between doing the tree yoga pose 10 times vs 50 squats (which is what you'll do on ONE squat exercise on the highest difficulty).
In terms of body difference, it'll depend on your body type. That being said, I think if you're looking for more toned or defined musculature resistance training with free weights will be much more effective, and probably less tiring, as you have to do many more reps of bodyweight (esp. since the game doesn't include things like push ups or pullups). A variable weight dumbbell will be more effective at home if you can't get to a gym with a barbell.