UFC Personal Trainer review

I’m actually quite into my fitness when I can be bothered. I actually did the whole three months of P90X with Tony Horton and although it was tough, it really got my fit. UFC Personal Trainer claims to be the “ultimate fitness system” but although it does work you, it does fall short of what a good set of DVDs and a wall chart can do for you.

Based around the disciplines of UFC, this official product features over 70 MMA and NASM-approved exercises that aim to improve your stamina, strength and endurance. Boot it up, and even doing the fitness test you’ll soon learn that if you put the effort in, you definitely will burn some calories and gain strength and muscle definition. There are 30 and 60 day challenges which require commitment but also quick workouts that target different areas of your body whether it’s upper body, legs or core. There are also mini games to take part in; the one of most relevance being ‘Hit the Mitts’ which is basically a bit of boxercise.

The problem is in the way it’s packaged and partially the Kinect itself. The main thing any exercise programme should do is motivate you and UFC is let down greatly in this department. Your instructors repeat the same stock phrases and even say strange things like “your heart should really be pumping now” when you’ve actually only been standing on one leg for about 20 seconds. Surely more variety in what they say and making sure they say things in context to make you at least feel like you have someone reacting to your efforts is the least it should do!

The Kinect also sometimes doesn’t recognise a rep when you’re doing floor work and especially if you use weights. My BowFlex weights stopped the Kinect from recognising upright rows entirely but doing the motion without them was fine but of course didn’t provide any resistance, thus making the exercise pointless. Warm ups and cool downs also go on far too long, are boring and I’m dubious about the one where you kick to touch your hands first thing - try it without at least getting your heart rate up a bit first and you risk puling a hamstring!

There’s no doubt that if you stick to UFC Personal Trainer you will get results - it’s just that the presentation means you’ll probably get annoyed with it before you complete its 30 Day Challenge. It’s certainly more hardcore than Wii Fit or EA Sports Active but I think I’ll just stick with P90X - at least Tony doesn’t tell you you’ve failed when you don’t do the reps he suggests.

UFC Personal Trainer gets a good but flawed 6 out of 10.

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Related: EA Sports Active, UFC 2009 Undisputed, UFC Personal Trainer review on Youtube