What if I told you that playing you could burn more calories in less time? How about if you had done pushups, situps, burpees, and running (in place) in this game? Wouldn’t it be great not to have to hold or use controllers? What if i told you Was this game FREE? Do I get your attention now? VRWorkout lives up to its name, it’s a full-body workout and turns you into a calorie-burning machine. It’s also available for FREE to Oculus Quest and Quest 2 users through SideQuest!
SideQuest
If this is your first time hearing about VRWorkout it might be because you can’t find this game on the Oculus Store. VRWorkout is currently only available on SideQuest and is available to Quest and Quest 2 users for free!
SideQuest for Strangers is another resource for Quest users to load games onto their headset. Most of the games are currently in development and SideQuest serves as a means to allow users to test and support these indie titles and developers. VRWorkout is a prime example of a game worth supporting and defiantly worth adding to your fitness routine.
Loading games from SideQuest onto your headset takes a bit of effort, but isn’t a particularly complex task. I found out and can barely tie my own shoes. There are some good tutorials out there that explain how this works. Take a look at these and follow the step-by-step instructions. Once you have the game installed on your headset, you can begin a series of workouts designed to turn your game room into a home gym. Complete with “sweat demons” on your floor.
Prepare for the action!
All VR fitness games and experiences should be approached in a similar way. Make sure you are hydrated and have taken the time to stretch. Do I sometimes skip stretching before playing Beat Saber or Ragnarock? Sure, sometimes I’m in a hurry and make the mistake of foregoing the extra effort. Is that wise No not at all. However, with VRWorkout, you do NOT want to skip the limbering process. If you are not properly hydrated or not stretching before a session in VRWorkout, it will almost certainly result in a poor experience, including muscle pulling and strain. So get ahead of this problem and take the time to prepare your body. This is a workout, an absolutely intense effort, and a push. Give yourself respect and take care of your body or you will regret ever loading this application. If you can’t tell from the article other than the importance of stretching and hydration, I will sleep soundly at night.
Now, with intensive training, there is a lot of sweat. Do what I do to reduce damage to your headset by using a VR cover. If you’re like me and want to play other VR games later on, there’s nothing worse than putting on a cold and wet headset. You have many solutions that will help prevent this problem from occurring.
The VR workout experience
I will tell you how my first experiences with VRWorkout were. I got the game first and set a timer to practice in it for about half an hour. My goal for the day was to just give it a try and possibly move on to more familiar titles in order to meet my calorie burning goals for the day. I created a playlist in their menus and had it calibrated. It took a while to get used to the native hand tracking supported by VRWorkout, but after calibration it worked wonderfully.
VRWorkout started when other popular fitness apps started beating, moving, and crouching my head and body. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when the virtual trainer told me that the next exercise would be jumping. A hollow shape of your VR headset hovers right above you and requires you to jump in the air to get a decent score. It sounds silly and I probably looked silly, but after a few moments my heart raced and I began to breathe heavily. The VR workout had just started!
Push position up, MOVE!
Soon I was instructed to sit in a push-up position. The same hollow shape told me to move my head and body up and down. In order to give the mixture more effort, the familiar hand shapes that I was supposed to make earlier now asked me to reach for them in the “up” push-up position. This got more intense, more intense than I thought possible in a VR practice routine.
Accelerate!
I was then instructed to stand up and sprint on the spot. I’m not a runner, I do VR workouts for a reason. But then I was in my living room, running as fast as my legs would allow. The game has a zone at your feet that will help you stay in place so you don’t fly through a wall. At this point, that was the least of my worries as I was almost out of breath before the voice called me to another position.
Crunches in a VR training?
I went on my back in the sitting position. Move my head and body up to meet the hollow shapes and reach for the handshake positions. I did crunches, legitimate and actual crunches, while playing. During this time I was able to catch my breath, but only barely.
Burpees?
Next, the game made me stand on my feet to start a series of burpees. If you had asked me beforehand if you thought it was possible to do a burpee with an HMD, I would have probably said you were crazy! I am here to tell you it is! I went up and down. Jump to reach the hollow shapes and then back down to meet the lower ones.
So … tired … have to … breathe …
The song ended. The headset went off. I was ready. I checked my timer and found that I had only done about 17 minutes of my 30 minute workout. Bathed in sweat, out of breath, I sat on the floor to question life. I picked up my water bottle and took a few sips. Wiped off as much sweat as possible and started my soaked Quest 2 again.
I managed to get my workout done in the 30 minutes, and by that I mean, I’ve successfully met and exceeded my goals for the calorie burn day. Ordinarily I would train three to four times as long to play a variety of other games. So that was a shock and at first I thought it was a mistake. A few days later I tried the same workout with the same results. VRWorkout is real, worth checking out, and is now part of my weekly routine. Notice that I haven’t said daily, not yet. So if you have 30 minutes to spare, want a Quest or Quest 2 headset, and workout that pushes your limits, VRWorkout is the only choice.
Follow us on social
Stay up to date with the latest VR fitness news
This article may contain affiliate links. When you click on an affiliate link and buy a product, we may receive a small commission to help publish it. More information here.
Comments are closed.