MeinMMO editor Benedikt Schlotmann has completed a fitness training with his Switch for several weeks. And it worked surprisingly well. Benedikt explains why this has helped him a lot in his daily life.
I have been regularly exercising for years. But during the Corona pandemic (lockdown from 2021), swimming pools closed, and many other options in indoor sports suddenly went away. This meant that I could do less and less sport. Overall, I just moved too little in recent years.
At the beginning of 2024, I decided to at least rebuild my basic fitness and took my “Ringfit Adventure” out of the closet for that. I had bought it during the pandemic for my partner. This is a fitness and sports game for the Nintendo Switch.
I really had little alternatives: The gym is too far away for me, and my local swimming pool has been closed for years due to construction work and lack of staff. And cycling was also not an option in winter and the currently rainy spring.
Trained for 30 sessions: Since the beginning of the year (2024) I have now completed more than 30 fitness sessions with my Switch and the system. On average, I train every two days, and I feel as fit as I haven’t felt in years. My collected data also speaks for itself:
- Overall, I have trained just over 7 hours over 30 sessions. On average, about 20 to 25 minutes per day.
- I have run just over 50 KM. Usually, this was 1.6 to 1.7 kilometers per session.
- Over 30 days, according to my smartwatch, I burned between 6,000 and 7,000 kcal. My Switch indicates a little over 2,300 kcal.
Ringfit has become a real alternative to the gym for me
What is it at all? “Ringfit Adventure” is a system that was developed for the Switch several years ago. You step into the role of an athlete, armed with a Ring-Con and a Joy-Con strapped to your leg, and fight various monsters with your sports exercises. Alternatively, there is also a mode where exercises are simply lined up.
Nintendo tried to “gamify” sports more. Meanwhile, there are quite a few sports games for the Nintendo Switch, but Ringfit Adventure is probably the most well-known of its kind.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Nintendo Ring Fit Adventure Nintendo Switch* | Zu Amazon |
*Affiliate-Links. Wir erhalten bei einem Kauf eine kleine Provision von Amazon. Vielen Dank für Eure Unterstützung!
How did I train? Over the last 6 weeks, I have completed more than 30 training sessions in total. I saved the training data with the Switch, and I tracked my health data with my Galaxy Watch. Especially for health data, the smartwatch is more detailed and accurate.
How well did the training work? Since I sit a lot in daily life due to working from home, I primarily opted for exercises for the abdomen, back, and pelvic muscles. Throughout the 30 sessions, I used the same set of 7 exercises to target specific muscles or just to get fit again.
At the beginning, the exercises were a bit too easy for me, so I adjusted the tasks upwards after 3 days.
The positive, lasting effect is definitely that I feel as fit as I haven’t felt in years. Certain pains that I used to have immediately after sitting for a long time are now almost gone.
However, it is important to stay consistent: I had to take almost 10 days off once because I had professional and private appointments and was simply too exhausted to do sports.
This immediately had its consequences: I didn’t feel as fit anymore, and my backside immediately reacted after several hours of sitting. After a few days of renewed training, I felt better again right away. Since then, I make sure to start another session by the day after next at the latest.
The leg strap has cost me a lot of nerves
There is room for improvement here: The Joy-Con on the leg is not necessarily stable or firm enough. This has to do with the knee strap with which the device is attached. Because it is not always reliable.
In the most frustrating case, even an exercise was not recognized as such, and the Switch then issued a warning. Because the Switch and the software cannot detect whether the Joy-Con has shifted or is not being recognized correctly, although the exercise continues. This was sometimes really annoying, and I had to curse out loud several times because of this.
By the way, it was only a few years ago that I discovered the Nintendo Switch for myself. For years, I couldn’t get into the console until I finally bought it and was really surprised. You can read my experiences directly on MeinMMO:
I mocked it – Now the Nintendo Switch is my purchase of the year 2022
