Tonight, after dinner, my husband and I got off the couch and went for a walk. It was 36 minutes of alone time where we were able to walk, talk and see wildlife (lots of deer).

I love going for walks with my husband. We frequently even get up early to do it.

But it is something that we can’t do when the weather gets cold, so we own a treadmill. It sits in our room, and while we do use it, we don’t use it a lot. I don’t use it because I hate using it. I get bored. It is loud, so I can’t watch TV unless I turn it up loud. It is also hard to hear an audio book because it needs to be loud.

Plus, it doesn’t even compare to going out and walking outside with my husband. It is much more enjoyable to go on the actual walk.

I have been looking into buying exercise equipment. Is there something out there that I’d like more than the treadmill? I was thinking about an elliptical bike (you can use as both).

I was also thinking of buying the above chair. My friend just bought one, and she said when she first started using it, her hips ached.

What exercise equipment do you use? Any recommendations?

Disclaimer: I did not receive any compensation for this review. I purchased my XBox Kinect and the game. 

Have you tried Zumba? I am loving Zumba. I’ve gone to real-life classes and played the game on XBox, and I am constantly considering buying the videos but haven’t done that yet.

But this morning, I wanted to work out to my Zumba and more than a half hour later, I gave up because I could not get the stupid Kinect to sign me in.

I’m not sure if this is a Kinect problem or a Zumba problem, but I suspect it is a mix of the two.

I can log into Kinect, but when I start the game, I have to log in again even though my ID is already loaded. Too often, the Zumba log in doesn’t recognize me and refuses to see me “wave to enroll.”

I find myself constantly stepping in and out of the play area hoping to be “recognized.”

I’ve found it is better if I don’t log into Kinect before trying to log into the game, but it really becomes a hit and miss whether the game will enroll me or not.

Most of the time, it works like it is supposed to but when it doesn’t, it is frustrating. I find I’ve spent my entire available workout time trying to enroll to play.

The game needs to have a way to log in manually and not rely on the Kinect seeing you to enroll.

For all other activities, the Kinect recognizes me and my movements. It is just this glitch in signing in.

The Actual Game

Once signed in, the game is great. It is fun. There is a variety. Once you’ve started unlocking levels, you can increase your workout time.

You can take tutorials to learn moves, take individual classes or the dance party. You can change locations and levels.

The music is great. The workout is great.

The instructor changes colors as you dance to help indicate whether you are doing the move correctly. This is a great feature. It helps you learn and correct the moves as you are doing the workout.

The game needs a workout mode. I don’t play Zumba as a video game to compete. I don’t want to work my way through levels. I want to access what I need to do the workout that I want to do that day. I’ve done real Zumba; I don’t want to use the tutorials and classes to earn levels to get to the longer workouts.

Recommended?

Yes. Despite my frustrations, this game is one of my preferred workouts at home.