Before I embark on my Doom Eternal/Animal Crossing: New Horizons adventure on this lovely Friday morning, I thought I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how much of a godsend Ring Fit Adventure has turned out to be.

Apparently it's sold out everywhere at the moment, but I had actually picked it up a few months back. I missed about a month at the gym over the holidays which, along with all of the eating & drinking, I had gotten fat and out of shape again in a hurry. The idea was once I started getting back into good shape via going to the gym every weekday morning, I'd add Ring Fit into my repertoire as a sort of supplemental workout I could do on the weekends, or in a pinch if I didn't have time to go to the gym or was out of town.

With COVID-19 shutting down my gym (through the end of March as of now, but will probably extend beyond that) I was a bit demoralized as I was just getting back into a good groove in terms of both cardio and weight lifting.

I turned to Ring Fit in my time of need, and, wow! I had my first RFA workout yesterday morning, and I'm blown away by it. I hadn't realized how many muscles I'm not using on a regular basis. Because I'm in an apartment, I have to do squats in lieu of jogging in place, so I knew my quads would be hurting today. But my hamstrings and upper back are both on fire this morning! I chose the second-highest intensity, and maybe that will prove to be me flying a bit too close to the sun, but I'm going to go with it for now. I did about 20 minutes, which was about the first 2+ missions, and it was as legit a workout as I've had.

Anyone else Ring Fitting it up during the lockdown?

Oh yeah, I dig Ring Fit Adventure! My kids really like it, too. It's a surprisingly good workout, and the "RPG" and "adventure" elements do a great job of gamifying the whole workout. And yeah, while it's not a true replacement for an actual visit at the gym, it'll do in a pinch!

I was worn out after World 1!

Ring Fit Adventure was probably my game of the year. It's a brilliant, innovative, and polished piece of software.

Alright, 72 hours later and my trapezius and hamstrings no longer feel like they're on fire. I think I'm ready for workout #2!

Anyone else try out the rhythm mode? I didn't realize the "17 songs including music from Mario and Zelda!" would be 13 songs from Ring Fit Adventure plus a couple from Mario and Zelda, haha. And I'm skeptical as to whether the ab mode actually works my abs? But it's fun and free!

My wife was playing the Rhythm Mode earlier. Looked fun enough. No DDR, but what is? :P

Also I guess they added the ability to finish a set of reps even if you beat an enemy? That's a good addition.

Have you guys still been playing this during the quarantine? I actually wasn't planning on it; I bought a pull-up bar about a month ago and decided to just do at-home bodyweight stuff. But then I ended up hurting my arms by doing way too many pull-ups right away after never having done them before, and was sore for weeks on end.

But now that I'm feeling better, I'm loving Ring Fit Adventure! Still slowly getting into it; I'm only on World 4. But it's very fun. My main fitness goal is to put on muscle, and I'm skeptical how much this will help with that, but I figure it's probably not that much worse than just doing pushups every day, so as long as this is fun, I guess it's what I'll stick with until the gyms re-open.

Still going strong. I can already tell how much it's helped with balance, posture and overall flexibility (which I have always been lousy at). All of the stretches and various exercises have gone a long way and shown how much of my body I was ignoring w/ previous workouts. It's noticeable how much stronger my core and lower body have gotten.

I may stick with this even after my gym re-opens; it offers a better, more well-rounded workout than my usual elliptical/bike and weight lifting regimen.

TheBigG753 said:

Still going strong. I can already tell how much it's helped with balance, posture and overall flexibility (which I have always been lousy at). All of the stretches and various exercises have gone a long way and shown how much of my body I was ignoring w/ previous workouts. It's noticeable how much stronger my core and lower body have gotten.

I may stick with this even after my gym re-opens; it offers a better, more well-rounded workout than my usual elliptical/bike and weight lifting regimen.

You took the words right out of my mouth! (Except for the weightlifting part.) This game exercises muscles which I almost never use, otherwise. It really improves my flexibility and balance.

Warrior III is still a bitch, though.

Only been using it more heavily for 3-4 weeks now (I try to exercize every other day, though often I'll skip 2), and already there has been a noticeable, measurable increase in the amount of time spent flexing in front of the bathroom mirror.

@Guillaume
Haha!

I'm an every second (or third) day guy, too. I've been trying to be more consistent now, though, what, with the end of the world, and everything...

Trying to make this a regular weekday thing and shuffle up exercises day-to-day. Increased to 2 to 3 to 4 days as my quads adjusted to it, and I should make it all 5 days this week.

I just did my first Fan Pose yoga exercise, and my right hip said "NOPE!"

I never thought I'd have to suppress a shudder when I see a pinwheel, but here we are.

Got my workout in today:

I'll buy it at a high price.

::out of stock everywhere::

Missed a few days due to a weird work schedule and some sore hammies (I really went hard on the squats one day and really paid for it!). I'll get back on it tomorrow.

I let my core really have it today.

The routine I've settled on is closer to every other other day than every other day.

Still, I'm seeing results, but I'm probably a long way before anyone else sees it (especially since no one is seeing anyone at the moment).

They say the moment you build muscle is when you can barely finish your reps if at all, right? I find that playing the rhythm mode a bunch is a good way to achieve that. The bits where it has you quickly squeeze the ring just kill my arms, and they just kill them more and more the longer I play.

I also started jogging this morning. Outside. Eh… we'll see if that sticks.

edit - BTW, DO check out the Custom mode. I had been stringing individual exercices one after the other in Quick Play, but Custom will make you a personalized stretching routine just like the story mode does. It's neat.

I think I've finally gotten close to finishing Adventure! This is a pretty long game.

@Guillaume

I've been tempted to play around with the other modes, but I really dislike how none of them except Adventure add to your total time. I like to shoot for around 15 minutes of exercise time when I play, and I like the game keeping track of that, but it seems like nothing outside of Adventure wants to do that. Kinda de-motivates me a bit from experimenting...!

Guillaume said:

edit - BTW, DO check out the Custom mode. I had been stringing individual exercices one after the other in Quick Play, but Custom will make you a personalized stretching routine just like the story mode does. It's neat.

Thanks for suggesting this. I tried it today and I'll definitely be making use of it regularly.

Because I have to do quiet mode, I do a lot of squats normally and whenever I do a lot of leg exercises on top of that, my legs are shot for the next day or two. Initially I was trying to do a well-rounded exercise each time, but I've switched to alternating more specialized workouts (legs/cardio day, then arms, then core, etc.).

Since my next main story mission has an emphasis on leg exercises and I haven't yet recovered from the last round, I just did the Custom set of core exercises today rather than replaying a core-focused mission I already did.

(Although I flew a bit too close to the sun today, and did 2 - well, more like 1.5 - boat poses, and felt like I was going to die. My core strength isn't there yet!)

TriforceBun said:

I've been tempted to play around with the other modes, but I really dislike how none of them except Adventure add to your total time. I like to shoot for around 15 minutes of exercise time when I play, and I like the game keeping track of that, but it seems like nothing outside of Adventure wants to do that. Kinda de-motivates me a bit from experimenting...!

Do you mean cumulative? (as in, it adds to your overall time playing with the game).

At least from what I saw today, in Custom mode you get a summary at the end of each custom workout (instead of one at the end of your total workout for the day). But I ran through my custom workout a second time and the clock in the corner did retain my total time from my first and second workouts.