Fitness
Review: Fitness Boxing Feat Hatsune Miku Is an Easy Way to Exercise
Fiction usually depicts nerds and gamers in two extremes: a big dude inhaling burgers while lying on the couch, or a scrawny beanpole of a person with long hair and big glasses. Very unfortunately, I am the type who prefers lying around all day while munching on snacks. You can imagine the wonders that does to my figure. But never fear, fellow nerds and gamers who can’t be bothered to slot the Joy-Cons into the Ring Fit ring every day! Hatsune Miku and her Vocaloid friends are here to whip you into shape with some fitness boxing in Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku, and she’s ready to throw hands.
For starters, something that you’ll notice when you boot up the game is that the Vocaloids all speak in their native Japanese. However, the instructor who coaches you through your exercises speaks in English. It personally is a little jarring to hear a Vocaloid’s synthetic voice chitter away at me in Japanese, followed by Lin, carefully enunciating every syllable, telling me (in English) to keep my back straight. It didn’t take long for me to sort of tune it out while exercising, but it was a little distracting on the first day.
Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku is pretty much what it says on the tin. An instructor tells you what to do or reminds you what proper form is. Meanwhile, a Vocaloid of your choice boxes with you while offering words of encouragement. They’re nice even if you mess up your combo, and the positive atmosphere made it easy to keep going every day. Miku Exercise is the mode where you get to box to a Vocaloid song. I’m a fan of the selection, which features classics like “Melt” all the way to “The Vampire.” Other favorites include “Melancholic,” “World End Dancehall,” and “Romeo and Cinderella.” I’m hoping that DLC in the future will introduce some more songs and Vocaloid partners.
In Fitness Boxing, you have to punch and move while staying in rhythm. The action the game wants you to do appears on screen, like Beat Saber or a more violent version of Colorful Stage. You start out with simple jabs and straights, then move on to hooks and uppercuts, before finally adding in dodges like sways. So the more you play, the more variation you’ll get in your daily workout. Of course, you can also go straight to the Miku Exercise and jump past all the combo lessons if you’re confident in your skills.
When I first started fitness boxing, I thought that it wasn’t as useful as Ring Fit. The physical ring that you have to use, as well as all the different kinds of exercise you can do in that game, made it feel like I was getting a lot more out of my workout. But as I continued on my fitness boxing journey, certain stretches and moves became easier than they were when I first started. That was a great feeling. I don’t understand why I never get that satisfied sense of exhaustion I always felt after yoga or Ring Fit, but maybe my daily workouts need to be a lot longer than thirty to forty minutes per session.
Since I tossed my scale ages ago for mental health reasons, I don’t know the effect Fitness Boxing feat Hatsune Miku has on my weight or my waist line. I certainly feel better though! Compared to Ring Fit, it’s way easier to boot up, so I’m less tempted to skip a day or two out of sheer laziness. Though my review ends here, my fitness journey has only just begun.
Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku is readily available on the Nintendo Switch.
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Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku
Partner up with Hatsune Miku for some exercise using the classic Fitness Boxing playstyle, or enjoy the new “Miku Exercise” mode with original songs from your favorite Piapro characters! Get moving and enjoy exercising at home to your favorite songs with Hatsune Miku!
A fun and easy way to get in your daily exercise, and the feeling of getting better at fitness boxing is a serotonin rush that can’t be beat.
Food For Thought
- Even people who don’t know who Hatsune Miku is can enjoy this game, since the point of it is exercise rather than the Vocaloids.
- You have to slowly unlock songs and characters, but the good ones are really easy to get so it doesn’t feel unnecessarily grindy.
- I almost threw my Joycon at the TV while punching so if you’re the clumsy type (like me), then you really should listen to the game and play with wrist straps.
A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — 8News got a visit from two special guests Friday to learn about the benefits of Pilates and try out some beginner moves.
8News anchors Autumn Childress and Delaney Hall were joined by Laura Mae Harper and Angie Madison with Point and Flex Pilates. The studio, which opened on Sept. 3 last year, offers a variety of classes, ranging from beginner to intermediate and advanced.
“We went through years of teaching at other places and developed this beautiful studio for them and this community, and we’re super excited about it,” Harper said.
For more information, visit Point and Flex Pilates.
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Like every piece of gear you wear on your body day in and day out, fitness trackers are incredibly personal. The right tracker for you should be comfortable, accurate, and tailored to your lifestyle, including your preferred workouts and health goals. Do you bike, row, or strength train? Do you run on trails for hours at a time, or do you just want a reminder to stand up every hour? Do you want to wear it on your wrist or your finger, or tuck it into your sports bra?
No matter what your needs are, there’s never been a better time to find a powerful, sophisticated tool to help optimize your workouts or jump-start your routine. We test dozens of fitness trackers every year while running, climbing, hiking, or just doing workout videos on our iPads at night, to bring you these picks.
Our top choice for most people is the Garmin Vivoactive 6 ($300), which works well with Android and iOS, but we also vouch for the latest Oura Ring 5 ($399) and the budget-friendly Google Fitbit Air ($100). For more wearables, check out our guides to the Best Smartwatches, Best Smart Rings, and Best Sleep Trackers.
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Best Fitness Tracker Overall
Garmin makes some of the most accurate fitness trackers on the market, and the Vivoactive 6 is the best midrange option for most people. It strikes a solid balance between smartwatch features and fitness tracking, with support for both iPhone and Android users.
Why WIRED recommends: The Vivoactive 6 is accurate, comfortable, and packed with useful wellness features without feeling overwhelming. It uses Garmin’s proprietary algorithms to power features like Morning Report and Body Battery, which provide daily insights into your sleep, recovery, and readiness. It also has built-in satellite connectivity and GPS, so you can track outdoor workouts without bringing your phone along. There’s also incident detection, which alerts emergency contacts if it detects a serious fall.
Garmin’s biggest advantage remains its free Connect platform, which enables health and fitness tracking without requiring a subscription. The company also continues to add new software features through regular updates without putting them behind a paywall.
The trade-offs: Garmin launched Connect+, a $70-per-year subscription with extras like live tracking and access to Garmin’s AI-powered Active Intelligence. Former editor Adrienne So doesn’t think most people need it, but it’s worth noting if you’re looking for a completely subscription-free experience. The Vivoactive 6 may also feel like overkill for casual users who only want basic activity and sleep tracking.
Fitness
Why this unexpected exercise is most effective for building arm muscle in your 50s – and how to do it properly
When it comes to building strong, defined arms, traditional fitness advice will usually point you toward endless sets of bicep curls and tricep extensions. But according to Dr Stacy Sims, a leading women’s exercise physiologist specialising in perimenopause and menopause, isolation movements like these aren’t necessarily the most effective. Instead, she advocates for one functional compound movement: the farmer’s carry.
Speaking on podcast A Life of Greatness, when host Sarah Grynberg asks how to get arm muscles like Dr Sims, the 51-year-old explained: ‘In order to get shoulders like this, heavy farmer’s carries. I’ve been travelling so much this year, and I haven’t been in the gym being consistent with all the push presses and Olympic lifts that I love to do, but what I have been consistent in doing is heavy farmer’s carries.
‘It’s good for grip strength, learning how to walk properly, core strength, shoulders – so if there’s one move everyone should do, it’s heavy farmer’s carries.’
The magic of the move lies in its ability to engage your biceps, triceps, shoulders, forearms and hands all at once. And because your arms are working continuously to stabilise heavy loads against gravity, the exercise activates the deep muscle fibres that don’t fire up as efficiently in single-joint arm movements, like bicep curls. Here’s how to do it with proper form, plus how heavy to lift and a workout to try, straight from Dr Sims.
How to do a farmer’s carry
- Standing with feet hip-width apart and weights at the outside of the ankles, hinge your hips back and bend the knees, keeping your back flat.
- Tighten up your lower back and abdominals before reaching down to grab the weights.
- After gripping the weights, begin to stand tall by driving your heels into the ground, maintaining a tight form. Once you reach full standing position, tighten your armpits and make sure your shoulders are pulled back to activate the muscles in the rotator cuff area.
- Finally, begin to take small steps forward, maintaining a strong grip and form. If you’re returning in opposite direction, set the weights down, turn around, and then grab the weights again before walking in the opposite direction.
Set/reps for results: Aim for three sets. Try timing your farmer’s carry for 25 to 30 seconds or go for 10 steps forward and back.
Form tips: Start out with a light weight to ensure you don’t end up leaning too far forward or towards one side. Make sure to keep your back straight for safety. When it comes to moving, small strides will do. They’ll keep you balanced as you increase your weights.
How heavy to lift
As for what “heavy” means to Dr Sims, she says: ‘How many people have heard that you should be able to farmer carry 75% of your body weight for a minute? That is made up from bro science. It’s a good metric but there’s no science behind it. So, a heavy farmer’s carry is you have two very heavy dumbbells by your side and you’re walking back and forth.’
Here’s a weight guide to follow:
- Beginners: 2x 4-6kg
- Intermediate: 2x 8-12kg
- Advanced: 2x 12-20kg
Farmer’s carry workout
Dr Sims shares a descending ladder workout to try.
- 500m ski
- 500m heavy farmer’s carry
- 400m ski
- 400m heavy farmer’s carry
- 300m ski
- 300m heavy farmer’s carry
- 200m ski
- 200m heavy farmer’s carry
- 100m ski
- 100m heavy farmer’s carry
‘If you really have anything left in the tank after this workout, you go back up in 100m,’ she adds.
One of our most frequently asked questions here at Women’s Health? How to build muscle and burn fat at the same time. So, we asked superstar trainer Oyinda Okunowo exactly how to do it. In this 4-week plan – created exclusively for Women’s Health COLLECTIVE members – you’ll get the workouts and nutrition guidance needed to help you on your way to better body composition. Tap the link below to unlock 14 days of free access to Oyinda’s plan and start training today.
Get the plan
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
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