ProCPR Blog

EA expands interactive fitness product line with new EA SPORTS Active Heart Rate Monitor and new wireless control system as innovation comes to new suite of fitness products this fall.

Millions of people around the world have experienced the revolution in home fitness since last spring with EA SPORTS Active™, the number one rated fitness program for the Wii™**. Today, EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), announced that EA SPORTS Active 2.0* (working title) is now in development and will be available this fall on PlayStation®3, Wii™, iPhone® and iPod touch®. The new EA SPORTS Active 2.0* fitness program will deliver true fitness results by featuring an innovative wireless control system, powered by new leg and arm straps with motion sensors, a heart rate monitor to capture intensity, and a new online hub to track and share workout data. EA SPORTS Active 2.0* will make working out simple, effective and will go with you wherever you are.

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Looking to get a balance platform for your clinic?  You might find yourself paying about $18,000 for the medical device.  A study was recently published in the medical journal Gait & Posture showing that the $99 Wii Balance Board is “clinically comparable” to the medical devices.

When doctors disassembled the board, they found the accelerometers and strain gauges to be of “excellent” quality. “I was shocked given the price: it was an extremely impressive strain gauge set-up,” said lead researcher Ross Clark, in an interview with New Scientist.

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Those that follow this blog know that I’m a pretty big fan of Nintendo Wii, and what it can contribute to a healthier world.  It’s recently been verified that it does, in fact, provide beneficial exercise.  With the release of Wii Fit Plus and EA Sports Active: More Workouts, comes more studies on the benefits of the interactive exercise games, and more.

The amount of energy adults expend playing active video games may equal that of moderate-intensity exercise, according to a new study.  Also, Los Angeles City Department of Aging and SCAN Health Plan have joined together to provide Wii consoles to the city’s 16 Multipurpose Senior Centers (MPC).
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We’ve been writing, every so often, about the upcoming Nintendo Wii game: Real Heroes: Firefighter.  It’s a game that excites me, in particular, because when I was a kid I wanted to be a fireman when I grew up.  My life went in a different direction, but I always thought the uniform was cool, and I always wanted a Dalmation for a pet.  Due to release in August for a mere $29.99, we have some pretty spectacular news about the game: It’ll have celebrity voices in it.

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ProCPR has long understood the value of keeping your skills fresh between classroom visits, which is why we’ve been able to train so many people online for many years now.  Our students also recognize that value. So it comes as no surprise that CPR training is coming to the Wii.

The American Heart Association has pledged $50,000 to fund the work of University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) biomedical engineering undergraduate students who are working to develop a computer program that teaches CPR using hand-held remote controls from the Nintendo® Wii video game console.

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Here it is, the final entry of the 30 day challenge.  I’ve completed all 20 workout days of the 30 day challenge as of right now.  Day 30 is a rest day, on the schedule.  It’s been a long and arduous journey, and I’m happy that I made it this far.  However, results are very mixed.  I was able to accomplish a lot, and through this, able to reach goals, and have been more active than usual.  However, it has taught me that EA Sports Active alone cannot help you lose weight if you’re not willing to work harder than doing this on Medium.

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Today’s challenge was really easy, and came without glitching.  The most glitch that I see is the TV that I bought about six or so years ago is starting to do a strange ripple.  It’s annoying to watch and even more annoying to play games on it.  But I can see clear enough to do this game on it.  I’m not too happy about this, but at least when I re-play the unsavable games, I’ll be able to do so on a newer HD TV, in Widescreen.  It’s built into those games, but I’ve never played them like that.  Anyway, on to today’s workout.

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I didn’t get a chance to write about these two days of trainings on Friday and Saturday until now.   Both days were rough, and filled with software glitches.  These resulted in more glitches, and now my Wii is probably heading to New York to be fixed by Nintendo, which will include a major loss in data, as well as other things.  I’m still able to use it for EA Sports Active, but that’s the only game I’m willing to have in at this point.  I don’t want to lose any more than I already might.

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Today’s workout was definitely not good.  And it wasn’t really the fault of the workout.  I had to restart the whole thing 3 times!  I’d be either at the end of a workout, or in the middle of a workout, and the game would suddenly freeze and to get the Wii going again, I had to pull the plug.  The game had completely locked up the system.  I can’t figure out why it would do that, but if you’re reading this EA, I have a few suggestions:

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Today’s workout had lots of upper body exercises.  It had some of most everything that I’ve done with my arms and upper body.  It was a pretty decent workout today, and managed to show me just how far I have come with the program.  This would have been a very hard workout to complete a month ago, when I started it.  Since I’ve been keeping up with it, though, the exercises are becoming much easier to complete.

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