Can you get in shape with a VR headset?
- tobbyasz .
- Sep 2, 2021
- 3 min read
Last year I bought the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. I had some unrealistic expectancies from the headset. I thought I'm going to be like Tony Stark. I will have five monitors around me in the air. I thought I'm going to be a productivity god in virtual reality. The headset arrived. I've unpacked it. And the first thing I saw was a blurry mess.
After that, I've spent countless hours figuring out how to set it up for my eyes. The first thing you need to do is measure your IPD (interpupillary distance). It's the distance between the centre of your eyes.
The max IPD for the Quest 2 is 68 mm. You can download some apps from the google play store or the IOS App store, which will measure your IPD in no time.
It took some time for my eyes to get used to the VR headset because of the blurry edges.
So as it stands, I couldn't use it for productivity stuff. It just made me dizzy all the time. I had to turn my head to get everything in the centre of the screen to make it sharp.
But wait, there are some games as well. I downloaded the game called Beat Saber. If you ever played guitar hero, then you already know the basic concept. Some cubes are flying towards you. The aim is to slice them with the matching coloured lightsaber. It can be a cardiovascular workout as you need to stand and move your arms around and crouch. There are five difficulty levels for each song, expert+ being the hardest. As to this day, I failed to complete some songs on expert+. I managed to get some sweat drops on my back playing the game.
Then I downloaded FitXR. Now this game took the workout with the headset to another level. I prefer the boxing classes in this game. The water flows down on my back after a good session with this game.
One day I was watching a youtube video with a guy playing Beat Saber with wrist weights. A light bulb went off in my head. I need to try this out.
I went and bought the Reebok Premium Ankle/Wrist Weights. The first couple of days were terrible. But after that, I could feel the change. It felt like if I just had good basketball practice.
Just a friendly suggestion. Before attempting any physical exercises, consider consulting with a doctor. Using wrist weights can be dangerous. If you feel any pain or feels uncomfortable, stop using them.
Just a tip. Don't use the headset after your running sessions. Your lenses will be foggy from the heat and sweat on your face.
All in all, for me, it was helpful. It took me out of my daily comfort zone. I love playing video games, as you can tell. So for me, the VR headset just combined my passion for gaming with physical exercise.
I firmly believe the headset can help you to lose weight. Pair it with a healthy diet and some other physical exercises. For me, with running after two months, the changes were already noticeable. But this is another blog post.
I would like to say thank you if you made it this far. Check out my other content as well. Feel free to leave a comment. See you in the next one.
Check out the products I am using below:
Reebok Unisex's Flexlock Wrist Weights, Black, 1 kg - https://amzn.to/3zHaTMP
Comments