I can't even say how much I enjoy my DDR games. Once you advance past the first level, which doesn't take long, it becomes a workout- without the WORK! It's all fun. It can be so intense sometimes that time flies by, a zen experience for some, but love for me.
watch it break - sorry this is so long in coming but a big thank you for taking the time to explain Yourself! Fitness in such detail.
And now for some inspiration & motivation to all of you fellow DDR lovers. I have now lost a total of 37 lbs from DDR & moderate change of diet. I can't tell you all how fortunate I feel to have come across a type of exercise (ha! Fun is more like it!) that I can't get enough of which just so happens to melt away the pounds at the same time. Tired old cliche coming, but nonetheless, I feel as if I've stumbled on a "Dream Come True".
There is only one downside for me. I love it so much that I'm losing more weight than I want to due to the amount of time I spend DDR'ing. I'm now faced with having to either: 1) Spend less time dancing, or 2) Increase my calories. Neither sits well with me. Less time dancing means losing something that has become a treasured part of my life. Increasing calories scares me to death - I'm so afraid of ballooning up again!
Anyway, as my husband says, "It's a good problem to have." I guess he's right in a way. ???
Reddalice - You hit the nail on the head. If you let your mind and body go it does become a Zen-like experience. Sometimes I surprise myself when I find that I'm practically floating above the dance pad without even thinking about the arrows or the music or where to place my feet. It just seems to come from somewhere inside me and that is when I'm at my best and start scoring grades that I never would have believed I was capable of when I first started playing.
I probably sound pretty goofy about the whole DDR thing but when you find something you truly love doing it becomes something you want to share with the world. At least it's like that for me.
Neleh - So, how are you doing with Dance Factory? Have you been pursuing (sp?) it? I still haven't bought it yet. I decided that I'd wait until other people have had more experience with it first before I jumped on the boat.
Well, off the computer I go. I got some dancing to do!
I got DDR Max 2 a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say I love it. My setup has its problems, but if I can accomplish any weight loss or fitness from this, I'll be happy! I have to be consistent with it if I want to see results.
Right now I am doing "workout" mode with timer set to 30 minutes, which ends up being more like 45 because I'm navigating the menu all the time. I believe there is a way to set it up on a "course" so I don't have to do the menu thing, but I'm still in the very beginning stages of learning. I think if I can do this every day for a couple of weeks, I might start to see some progress (in my body and my DDR ability!).
I'm still on "beginner" (which means I'm dialing the difficulty down). I tell you though, 30 minutes of DDR gets me more pumped and sweaty than 30 minutes of continuous walking. Knowing that I'm doing this on beginner gives you some idea of my fitness level.
The dance pad I have (React) has squares that are too small for my huge feet, so I'm constantly stepping on the up or down arrow by accident. But I'm having fun, and I must be accomplishing something if the sweat and heart rate are anything to go by.
I live on the 2nd floor, and so far I'm just restricting myself to DDR before 8pm. The woman above me treadmills all day long, so I figure my downstairs neighbor can listen to my 260 lb self bouncing around for an hour or so without complaining. No one has complained so far!
I'm definitely going to check back on others' progress. I'll post mine if anything happens.
i'm really interested in this topic. how well do burned CD's work with Dance Factory?
Also, I'm a little confused--I know there are different DDR games, but what are the games? Are they just different songs?
I know nothing about Dance Factory (I'm also curious about the burned CD thing though).
I have a PS2, and there are something like 5 versions of DDR that I have seen for PS2 (Max, Max2, Extreme, Extreme 2, and Supernova). I think each one has something like 70 songs, some of which you can only access by receiving a passing grade on other songs. There are also different versions of DDR depending on what platform you use (XBox, PS, computer, etc).
Then there are In the Groove and Dance Factory and other games with the same dancing concept. And there's the whole eye-toy thing which I also know nothing about (yet).
I'm very new to the whole DDR and PS2 thing. Some of the others reading this will definitely know more.
We got it about 3 years ago, when I was 4 months pregnant with my second daughter. It helped me keep the baby weight off, and kept me in awesome shape while I was pregnant. I played until I was 8 months pregnant, and it helped me keep my balance and stamina. We started off with a Beat Mania pad - the $25 kind that are flat and roll up. It was good then.
My husband got really really good at the game, so he plays heavy (expert on the new ones) on all the songs. Eventually, he tore the sensors out of the BeatMania pad. We invested in a Red Octane pad ($99).
I used to only play Easy songs, now I'm on Standard and Heavy for most of them. I play about 4 times a week, 10 songs at a time. That's about 250 to 300 calories a session (20 minutes).
I'm waiting to get DDR Supernova, since it has the continuous mode on it, which the UltraMix ones really don't have. I liked UltraMix 1, since it had a calorie counter in workout mode. That kept me going.
I switched to doing a "program" in workout mode instead of using the timer goal. 20 songs on a program takes me 30 minutes and I don't have to pick the next song after every song. I'm still on beginner but I've started some light.
The meter says I'm burning 100 to 200 calories per session, but I don't trust it. I'm just using it to see whether I'm improving by burning more calories each time I do my program.
Somehow I'm still managing to unlock songs even though I have no idea what score or grade I'm getting on songs. I'll figure that out eventually.
I'm just happy that this is something I look forward to doing. I feel great afterward too.
Does anyone know about the TV DDR mat that has 50 songs? I was surfing EBAY and came across it. I don't have an XBOX OR PS2.
I was thinking that may be the way to go without investing soooo much up front. I really need something to keep me interested. Thanks for any info.
Basically, the one we have, you pop it in the DVD player, and you work out on the mat. There is no 'pass' or 'fail' you just keep up with the beats. You won't know if you missed any or not.
It would be a good way to get into it, and see if you really like it.
I don't know anything about that, other than just hearing about it. There are some boards at getupmove.com that might be helpful. The site is down now, but the boards are still there.
I tried DDR at an arcade first. If you can get over the embarrassment of making a fool of yourself in public, that might be a way to try it. We have several game themed restaurants in my area that have it, and on weeknights their game areas are pretty quiet. If you can convince a friend to go with you, you might like it more. The first time I tried it was because my friend dragged me over and made me try it. And it was fun! I had no idea what I was doing, but it was still fun.
I figured the PS2 was worth the investment because we could use it for other games. We'll see.
On amazon.com I found "Dance Dance Revolution Konamix" for PS1/PS2 and "Dance Dance Revolution" for PS1. Amazon doesn't sell either of them itself, but it lists several copies of each under "used and new". You'd probably have to order a game since it seems like the big box stores aren't selling PS1 stuff anymore. It seems like some of the readily available dance mats will work with PS1/PS2.
Thanks for the review of Dance Factory, April. All the reviews I've found are similar to yours - DF has been disappointing to just about everyone. That's really unfortunate because there's nothing I'd love more than to dance to songs that I prefer from from back in my day and age instead of the more current tunes.
Depending on how old you are, you might like the songs in SuperNova. Lot's of stuff from the 70's and 80's.
I love DDR Max and DDR Extreme. However I did get tired of the songs. I'm only good enough to play in standard mode (I think, it's not beginner but the next one up) I just cannot do the harder ones. I'm just not coordinated enough.
I am really interested in the Dance Factory if anyone has any more info on it.
I am also going to check into getting the Yourself!Fitness.
