You’ve tried everything to lose weight, stay in shape, or are so out of shape you need advice on where to get started in VR. No worries, we all have to start somewhere! To help you succeed in your VR fitness mission we’ve pulled fitness tips from readers who have been there.
Kevin William
Kevin lost 32 pounds by playing VR games like Soundboxing and Beat Saber. He credits playing for 30 minutes to an hour or up to even 100 minutes every day to stay fit. Competing against his best scores in games pushes him to stay motivated on his fitness goals.
Fitness Tips
“I try to keep everything in VR but there have been a few occasions where I have been so pumped after beating/scoring high on a song that I decide to go run a few miles after. These games work the upper portion but not so much the lower, so I started jumping around or doing anything that worked out the lower half while playing.”
Gabriel Moss
Playing VR games like Onward, Echo Arena, Sparc, Space Pirate Trainer, and BOX VR helped Gabriel lose 30 pounds. He also takes walks daily, goes for runs around his neighborhood, and dances with friends to keep cardio entertaining. Check out his site Gluten Free VR!
Fitness Tips
“The thing about VR is how every game teaches fitness and coordination in some way. I like to play Onward, a popular mil-sim (military simulator) for VR, and it’s vastly improved my hand-eye coordination. Same with Echo Arena and Sparc, which both require me to build my arm strength and dexterity to compete with other players […] BOXVR is the only game that I’ve encountered, so far, that makes me do squats. And I actually think it makes me do more squats than my old HIIT instructor. So that’s my leg day game.”
Jonathan Voudrie
Making a choice to get healthier is something Jonathan did to reclaim his health and wellbeing after living with PTSD. He’s lost 18 pounds with VR and live streams on Twitch at http://twitch.tv/bounty_v where he plays active VR games like Space Pirate Trainer and Echo Arena and focuses on promoting a positive gaming atmosphere.
Fitness Tips
“Sprint Vector is probably the best sweat session I’ve experienced so far. In all fairness, I’ve not gone back to it for a decent session since I lost this weight so perhaps I’m more used to it now, but having played it for 6 hours straight at launch let me tell you I was WIPED OUT. Even 2 hours during the closed beta week had my arms super weak.”
Juan Espinosa
Juan attempted jogging with an old knee injury to stay in shape but found it was a challenge for him. After getting a VR headset as a gift from his wife he turned his workouts around and lost 15 pounds. He plays games like BOX VR, Knockout League, and GORN to fire up his metabolism.
Fitness Tips
“At first, I began jogging and that didn’t work out for me that well because of my injured knee. So I found out about BoxVR and decided to take a shot. I saw immediate success and just went full force into it. At the minimum, I would work out 30 minutes a day in VR. The other key factor I have to throw in there is that a healthy eating plan is a must. The biggest life change I made was what I was putting into my body and it shows in the progress I’ve made so far.”
Jeroen van Werkhoven
Jeroen writes posts on his Being Invisible Blog where he discusses mental health and the work it takes to accomplish life goals. He uses VR as a way to gather strength and motivation to tackle negative thoughts and is an inspiration to others. He plays empowering games like BOX VR, Robo Recall, and SUPERHOT VR to stay fit.
Fitness Tips
“So BOX VR is not only a way to keep my body in shape, but also to cope with my anxiety and depression and turn it into more positive energy. I usually do my workouts during the weekend, but sometimes when I feel a lot of negative energy I jump into BOX VR to release some tension just because it’s fun!”
Karen Cusimano
Karen is a Zumba instructor who was looking to switch up her full body workout routine after daily 60-minute workouts. She found VR and says that games like BOX VR, Sprint Vector, Racket: NX, Holodance, and Audioshield challenge her body the most. She plays VR as a low impact exercise that helps keep her muscles guessing.
Fitness Tips
“The one thing that surprised me when I started actually using the VR games as a workout was the different muscles that I worked doing each one. I always figured with Zumba, that was a pretty good full body workout, and it is. But the first time I boxed with BoxVR, I couldn’t move my arms for 3 days. Same thing after 50 minutes of Sprint Vector. After my first session with Holopoint, it was another few days before I stopped getting out of my chair like a 90-year-old man, my legs were so SORE! So different games work different muscles and combining that with Zumba, I really feel like I’m getting a great all-around workout. I also really like games that let me import my own music. When I import my Zumba tunes, I get the best of both worlds at the same time.”
Are there fitness tips that you’d like to share with our readers? Let us know about it in the comments!