News
Virtual Reality Fitness? ‘Yeah, It’s a Workout’ // WebMD
Hitting the mainstream is more than just being used by an increasing majority, but being mentioned in WebMD also feels like another moment where we can point to that VR is the mainstream. Regardless of your feelings toward the website millions of people rely on the website for medical opinions and advice. If it gets people off the sofa who wouldn't normally go to the gym and more people into immersive experiences that's always a plus.
Exercise and Virtual Reality // U.S. News
Another news outlet helping to combat the long-held incorrect belief that playing games is harmful, and introducing VR to their audiences with data from the Virtual Reality Institute of Health and Exercise, reputable organization we'll mention a bit more about later in this newsletter.
These VR Dumbbells Are Perfect For Fitness On The Quest 2 // VRScout
If a long session of Supernatural or Beat Saber doesn't work up a sweat any longer perhaps you should consider these weights that attach to a Meta Quest controller. We have them on order and can't wait to add these to our VR workout routines.
Apple Health will soon integrate Oculus Move VR fitness stats // The Verge
Starting in April 2022 Meta will allow activity information to be available within the mobile Oculus apps, which also means for iOS users that it can be pulled into the Apple Health app. This is a major initiative to help add quantifiable data to the health benefits VR can provide.
Experiences
Supernatural
During the pandemic when gyms were not available this was one of the experiences that really put VR exercise onto people's radars. With dozens of workouts and recently announced a series of workouts with comedian Tiffany Haddish it's doing all the right things to bring in a subscriber base of loyal health enthusiasts into VR.
VRWORKOUT
This free workout experience available in early access on Steam and via App Lab on Oculus does well translating established training activities into VR. If you are looking to try out VR exercising without needing to start a free trial subscription this is an experience we recommend.
Exercise by Accident: VR Games To Help You Work Out at Home // Meta
Meta's push for VR fitness is apparent, and it's good that they are also putting out collections of experiences that make it easier to find titles to try. If you're looking for more titles to try this there are a lot of good options on the Oculus platform beyond the three most popular titles you think of for VR fitness.
WebXR Virtual Reality Fitness and Martial Arts Gym
We can't attest to these experiences yet (ran out of time before publishing this issue) and this free online XR fitness platform feels a bit early days but with a lot of potential. Since it is not bound to just the Meta Quest (works with the Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, and more) without needing to install any software we feel they are on the right path to get a broad audience. We'll need to find time to investigate further and share how it went in a future issue.
One More Thing
Real fitness. Real gaming. Zero compromise // QUELL
Hype aside, we're still pretty hyped for this soon to be released wearable fitness console that blends gaming with workouts in a way we haven't quite seen in a commercially available product before. Not needing a camera or a headset sounds great, and form the and if they are able to provide engaging content we're sold. Pre-orders are open now and we're really debating if this is what finally gets us to cancel our rarely used gym membership.
Commentary
Anyone who plays Beat Saber for the first time can attest to feeling exhilaration from the game, and probably also feeling pretty winded. As fun as the experience can be it's also exercise. Some experiences make fitness their primary focus and others reach that level of activity by their intensity, but in both cases we see some of the potential of VR to add layers of activity that can be just as beneficial as a cardio workout in a gym.
This issue we're sharing some of the experiences, news, and fun we've learned doing a deep dive into the current state of fitness within Virtual Reality. Even if you don't quite believe the estimated market value for VR fitness being over 59 billion USD by 2027 the health benefits for those still not able to venture to gyms or outside is immediate.
We also saw an historic moment for immersive tech and sports with Racket:Next VR became the first game officially sanctioned by International Racquetball Federation. There was actually much more going on in the space than we had space for in this issue. Perhaps we'll need to revisit this in the summer.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
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