So, if you've read my other threads, you'll know that three things happened to me in quick succession that all built off of and supported each other: I started a new medication that solved some problems that were really holding me back (related to lethargy, motivation, and distraction), I was given a VR headset, and started workout out again after almost a year off. I posted in the general fitness thread about the regular exercises I've been doing (regular cardio 4x/week, strength 2x/week), but only briefly mentioned VR, despite it being a significant portion of the exercise I've been getting lately. I wanted to touch on that more and give others a place to share (and get ideas.)
First off, VR can absolutely be a workout. At the simplest level, most VR involves standing and reaching. For people who sit all day, that's a huge step up in and of itself. It's not enough to replace exercise, but it's an improvement. The Virtual Reality Institute of Health was founded by a VR proponent and two PhDs (exercise physiology and human bioenergetics) specifically to study gaming and health using science rather than health sensationalism. They have detailed ratings for a multitude of VR games complete with methodology, and they offer an [exercise tracker app[/URL] on Android and Apple that syncs with standard fitness trackers (FitBit has a proprietary data format that doesn't like to share.)
The great thing about VR is that it is still a game. You're being challenged, there are bright colors, fun sounds, usually music, controllers, targets, the whole nine yards. It's fun to do. And when it is fun, it's easier to continue or to make yourself get up and do it. Getting 150 minute a week of moderate intensity exercise can be challenging when it means you have to sit in one place moving your feet back and forth for 30 minutes a day, but when you get to play a game for 30 minutes a day? You'll end up blowing past your goals.
The disclaimer: Like any exercise, you get out what you put in. You can take a bike and really push yourself, minding your posture, riding hills, and so forth. Or you can take that same bike ride like grandpa going down to the corner store for a loaf of bread. I remember when Wii Sports came out. It had a bowling game. We used to stand up and 'bowl' with the controllers, and it was a lot of fun. Then Michelle's dad came over and realized that all you had to do was sit on the couch and twitch your wrist. Guess how the kids played after that? A lot of VR games that provide good exercise can be cheesed like a Wii game, minimizing your movement rather than going with the flow. Here's an example (sticking this in spoiler tags to keep the page clean - no actual spoilers.)
First, Beat Saber. It's a hugely popular game that is essentially like standing inside Guitar Hero and hitting the notes with light sabers. You have two colored sabers and two colored notes, and you have to match the colors, plus you have to cut in the direction of an arrow on the notes for it to count. Score is based on how far you move the sabers and how close to the center your cuts are, plus how long you've gone without making a mistake (a miss, cutting the wrong direction, having a wall hit you (sabers can hit the wall.)
My personal experience: This game is probably the easiest to play of the three, as far as physical impact goes. I don't have any way to actively track my heart rate while playing yet, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that it elevates my heart enough to be well withing the 'moderate intensity' category of exercise. Not only that, but you're moving your arms all over the place constantly. Left, right, high, low, quickly. After playing for a while I can feel the ache in my arms. After playing a couple of months I could very easily increases in muscle in my shoulders, and my range of motion on the left shoulder had increases noticeably (remember, it's partially paralyzed.) It's a blast to play, and getting in 30 minutes isn't even pushing it for me anymore (I did an hour the other day before I ran out of endurance in my arms.) I really, really enjoy this game, and I'm not someone who has enjoyed rhythm games in the past. Part of that is because it isn't entirely a rhythm game. The next game on the list really is - it requires you to time your strikes to the sound. This is a sword game where the targets just happen to be synchronized to the music. You hit them when they're in range, which is always in sync with the song.
Beat Saber on PC also allows you to import custom made songs/maps, and there are some that are specifically made for workouts. Here's an example of a woman play a workout level included with the game, FitBeat (note that she's playing on hard or expert here.) Also, she has her walls set to transparent, which many streamers do. And every time there is a horizontal wall she's essentially having to do a full squat while keeping up with the notes:
Next up: Pistol Whip. Pistol Whip combines elements of first person shooters with elements of rhythm games, if first person shooters and rhythm games were made by John Woo. Instead of standing still and having stuff moving toward you, you move automatically (like those old arcade shooters) and enemies come out from above or to the sides. Those enemies are typically armed enemy agents. It's got a very, very generous auto-aim. If you're pointing in the general direction of your target, you'll hit it, and most enemies go down in one shot. If you don't shoot them in time, they shoot at you. Their bullets are slow and visible, and you have to physically dodge out of their way, which adds a ton of movement. You have health, and you have armor. Get hit, lose your armor. Get hit again, it's over. But if you lose your armor, shooting a certain number of enemies will replace it, and if an enemy is close enough, smacking them (er, pistol whipping them) is a guaranteed instant kill and immediately replaces your armor. Then add in enemies that require multiple shots and barriers you have to dodge. Custom songs are not supported. You can swap out the built-in songs by messing with the files, but
Scoring is based on two things: accuracy and timing. Like I said, the auto aim is incredibly generous when it comes to getting the kill, but scoring is based on your actual accuracy. How many points you get depends on how much the aim assist had to help. Full points requires that you would have actually hit the target. Timing is hitting the enemy on the beat. Think of it as if your gun is part of the rhythm section of the band. Unlike Beat Saber, keeping the time is in your hands.
(Tip - while in the lobby, pick a spot on the wall and pull the gun up to aim quickly without thinking about it. Now look at the actual sights. If they were too low or too high, go into the options and adjust the gun tilt until your quick aiming matches the gun's sights. For experienced shooters this is caused by the fact that a controller doesn't have quite the same angle as a gun's grip, which can throw you off.)
My personal experience: This game also rates as tennis, but it's a much more intense workout for me. It's tough, physically, due to all the dodging and movement. Where Beat Saber usually has you paying attention to a point on the horizon and letting muscle memory handle hitting the targets, Pistol Whip puts your head on a swivel and makes you work for your hits, and makes you move around at the same time. It's more visceral and immediate, and messing up penalizes you faster. I do find it a little harder to find the beat in the songs, as the musical style doesn't focus so much on the beat the way Beat Saber does. Luckily, the game helps you out by having the enemies 'pulse' white with the beat.
/edit - I found a video I liked better. The original video I had here I moved to the spoiler tags.
It really is designed for fitness. The score screen doesn't just list your hits, misses, and combos like Beat Saber, or your accuracy and timing, like Pistol Whip. It lists that stuff, but it also lists your perfect hits, your hit speed, and how many squats it made you do during the level (sadistic bastard.) It even allows you to hook up a heart rate monitor to your PC, input your sex, height, and weight, and then tells you exactly how many calories you've burned doing all those high speed precision squats. Scoring is what you'd expect - you get points for hitting balls, keeping your hands in the streams, and bonus points for building combos of consecutive hits which resets on misses. But you also get a bonus for how much you physically moved around your space, and bonuses on every target for the strength of the hits (determined by how fast your hand was moving when it impacted the target.) It also tracks your hands when you're dodging barriers to prevent you from just leaning slightly. You have to actually get out of the way. You can't cheese this one.
Personal experience: This game kicks my ass. It is fun, but wow, it really is intense. While Beat Saber gives me an arm endurance workout and some lower body/core work from the occasional barrier I have to go under, and where Pistol Whip has me moving your entire body dynamically, this game really pushes everything. You're squatting, dodging, moving, and throwing hard, fast punches constantly. It leaves me hot, gasping, and drenched in sweat, with every part of my body feeling like a wet noodle. In other words, it's a great workout. I've fiddled with the custom song function and didn't get great results, but that was my fault. I had just started playing, and my selection of songs wasn't ideal for this type of game. They were too slow and didn't have much of an emphasis on beat, which meant that the targets were having to come faster than the beats, which threw it off. From what I saw, though, the right songs should give good results.
Note: I tried to find a mixed reality video for this (where you see the person in the level), but there weren't many that weren't trailers. This one has the actual human in the corner, but you can still see how he has to move to finish the level.
Last one, and this is more of a place holder. Synth Riders I own this, but have yet to play it (I think I'll remedy that this afternoon.) The VR Fitness Institute places this one at "elliptical equivalent", which is one step below the others at 4-6 calories per minute (8/minute at 250 pounds, so 240 calories per half hour.) From what I've gathered, it's like a cross between Beat Saber's use of using each hand for different notes and PowerBeatsVR's mixture of targets and streams, but it's more about moving around to get the notes, accuracy, and speed than it is about power. You just need to get your hands in the right spots rather than cutting or punching (although I think there's a punching mode, but it's not popular.) By reputation, it plays more like a guided dancing game than any of the others, and is a bit lighter of a workout, which would be nice for when I'm not in the mood to be drenched and sore, or when I've been sitting for a while and just want to get up and move around a little.
And, hey, look! A mixed reality video that isn't a woman in tight clothes (you'd be surprised at how hard those are to find.)
And, even better, they have an elctro-swing pack!
I think I'll try this out, excuse me...