Even lone wolves have packs. Credit to: VR Fitness Insider
It can be difficult to motivate yourself to play VR fitness games at times, especially if you don’t change the rotation of the games you play or encourage the right habits for the rest of your lifestyle.
Still, I’ve fallen away from the VR fitness game many times. No matter how hard I fell, I’ve always managed to come back for one reason or another, mainly because VR workouts can be so convenient and fun! Nowadays I tend to stay indoors due to the pandemic, so VR fitness has basically kept me alive since March.
Of course, like any other fitness program, there are a billion reasons why you can fall down and stay away forever if you don’t pay attention to what you are doing. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the best ways to motivate you to play VR fitness games more often and to keep up with your physical (and hopefully mental!) Health with the help of VR.
Track your workouts
Keeping track of your workout is one of the easiest and most important things you can do to keep track of your VR fitness workout. It is important that you use a tracker that can at least read your heart’s BPM and record the calories burned (kcal) from your exercise.
You can also check out YUR.fit. It tracks your fitness in every VR game you play.
By tracking your workouts in VR, you can do two things:
- You can see an immediate result of the work you’ve done while playing active VR fitness games. You may not feel or see the results of your workouts in VR right after you finish. However, with the digital data feedback from a fitness tracker, you can see on screen how much work you’ve put in once you’re done working out.
- You can plan your workouts more efficiently, creating a precedent on which to base your regime and game rotations. For example, you may find that you see the best results in The Thrill of Fight in 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes. Then decide to swap the last 15 minutes of your workout for a session in BoxVR or Pistol Whip. A fitness tracker at least opens the door to experimentation.
As an added bonus, as a Pokemon GO player, you may find that following your VR fitness routine will help you progress a little faster in this game.
Turn on your VR fitness games
Playing the same games over and over again gets boring no matter who you are. It is true that some of the most efficient and popular VR fitness games are like Beat Saber, Superhot VR, The Thrill of Combat, and BoxVR. However, there is much more to find and choose from.
We definitely recommend checking out our VR fitness game reviews section which is constantly updated with some of the latest active VR games.
In addition, we always recommend a trip to the VR Institute for Health and Exercise, which lists a ton of games and shows scientifically accurate fitness values for each game. The game results there are based on much broader data samples than just an expert. This is a simple recommendation for anyone looking to tweak their VR fitness training routine.
Clean up your VR play area
VR has the inherent problem that people feel like it is too much of a chore to jump into the headset and play anything. This is known as “friction” and is an even bigger problem if you don’t clean up the room where you play VR games.
Cleaning a room is a bigger hassle that requires more thought before jumping into a VR headset and exercising in it. Clean the room and keep it clean. Depending on where you live and what environment you play VR in, this may not always be the most practical course of action, especially when children or pets are walking around in a narrow space.
Just like with morning bed making, however, we always recommend a tidy VR play area where you don’t have to think twice about having your VR fitness game session within.
Create a motivational workout playlist
Sometimes it’s just hard enough to get inflated to exert yourself in any way. Whether the juice is no longer there for you or the external conditions are bothering you, the time to step into a virtual reality headset and throw punches or do cardio may not be the right time.
Totally fair! I have personally encountered the same problem. This is why I created a workout playlist on Spotify that is full of my personal favorite songs that make me play VR fitness games.
You don’t necessarily have to do the exact same thing, however. Personally, I love Spotify, but I’ve also made playlists on YouTube and Soundcloud. If the platform you choose has the best of features and most of the music you want to hear, then this is what you should do instead.
When you run out of ideas, stick to rhythm games with built-in music selections like OhShape, Pistol Whip, BoxVR, Beat Saber, AudioShield, Synth Riders, and Audio Trip.
Set a VR fitness workout time
The best way to make a habit pen is to do it at the same time every day for about 30 days.
VR fitness isn’t something you do once, then finish and move on. It’s part of a healthy lifestyle. So you have to do it every day, or at least every week, unless you’re just adding VR to another workout routine (in which case, do it whenever you need to!).
We recommend choosing an early morning or late afternoon time It doesn’t interfere with your daily activities. Note that doing VR fitness within three hours of bedtime can affect your sleep schedule – which didn’t stop me personally, but I still never bothered about my sleep!
Now that you have seen our best ways to motivate yourself to maintain a VR fitness routine over the long term. Do you have any special tips and tricks? If so, leave them in the comments!
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