How to Make Your At Home Workout Routine More Fun

By Robert Kobierksi

What is Virtual Reality

Virtual reality or VR is a computer-generated simulation that one Is placed into in order to play a game or become a part of the computer environment. This technology can be used to turn games into exercise. The game includes a headset or large TV for visual, bur also includes had controllers and sometime foot boards or monitors to measure body movement.

Using a VR headset is actually easy. Using the Oculus Quest for example all you need is the headset, controllers, wifi, and about 20 square feet of free space.

Top VR headsets available today

·     HTC Vive

·     Sony Playstation VR

·     Oculus Rift

·     Oculus Quest

·     Samsung Gear VR

This give you the ability to play video games and get exercise all at once. One example of these games is the game Astro jumper which the designers describe as “an immersive virtual reality exercise game developed for use with a stereoscopic projection display and full upper-body motion tracking. Where the player has to dodge asteroid as they fly through space” (Finklestein 2011). Other popular exercise games include Hotsquat, Knockout League, and many more games.  These games mainly act as a substitute for Cardiovascular exercise. You can pair the VR exercise with any other kind of exercise to make an effective routine including yoga, HIIT, or muscular strength training. This can also be used to change things up if you are getting bored of regular cardio. 

These exercises should be incorporated into your regular exercise. If your regular exercises are getting boring this is a great change of pace to replace a few days a week of your workouts. Or this can be incorporated in as cardiovascular workout, followed by or following a strengthen, yoga, or any other type of workout you pair with cardio.

Other Ways to Use VR in Exercise 

·     We can use VR to help get those who have never had experience, such as those who play video games consistently. Through the experience with video games it gives them a gateway to enjoy the exercise because it also involves games and technology. Especially those who feel uncomfortable going to a gym and working out outside in front of others. This makes a simple easy to understand and fun way of getting the workout done at home. 

·      We can also use virtual reality to get older adults to become more active and social as it says in the research by Anderson-Hanley, “social presence causes individuals to evaluate and adjust their exercise performance in response to the individuals within their social environment, and that this change can result from making personal comparisons between their own abilities and the abilities of those around them.” This article shows how it is necessary for the elderly to not only be active but also social, and how virtual reality can give them this opportunity.

·      Another possibility is to give those who are physically unable to participate in sport and activity a way to play a sport or activity they enjoy. Although many people may have physical disabilities that prevent them from playing sports, VR can put them right into the game. For example, someone who enjoys boxing who has the inability to walk could not actually box. But if we are able to place them in a VR game where they are able to box against the computer, now they can enjoy exercising and playing the sport they enjoy.

References:

·      Finkelstein, S., & Suma, E. A. (2011). Astrojumper: Motivating Exercise with an Immersive Virtual Reality Exergame. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 20(1), 78–92. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00036

·      Anderson-Hanley, C., Snyder, A. L., Nimon, J. P., & Arciero, P. J. (2011). Social facilitation in virtual reality-enhanced exercise: competitiveness moderates exercise effort of older adults. Clinical interventions in aging, 6, 275–280. doi:10.2147/CIA.S25337