Xbox Fitness offered free to Xbox Live Gold members

Microsoft has revealed a new piece of fitness software that will be free for Xbox Live Gold members.

Xbox Fitness is an Xbox One title that builds upon the many fitness games released for Kinect over the last few years. It features a number of names that will apparently be recognisable to people who are into such things including Shaun T, Jillian Michaels and Tracy Anderson.

Using Kinect 2.0 it will read your heart rate (without the need to strap any equipment to your skin) and monitor your movements, and then offer a personalised exercise program. Workouts range from ten minutes to one hour and those that prove popular among users will be offered up automatically in the menus.

There will also be social features that allow you to compete and compare with your friends’ efforts.

What makes Xbox Fitness so innovative is the feedback it gives you,” Shaun T stated. The Kinect sensor can evaluate your form, tell how high you’re jumping, how hard you’re punching and even read your heart rate. It’s that little missing piece of validation that hasn’t been possible for home fitness products before. Xbox Fitness completes the puzzle.”

It will be released ‘this holiday’ and will be free for Gold members through to December 2014.