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My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

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Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#221

Post by seanmcdirmid »

belinder wrote: post #217
alexknowshtml wrote: post #191

I'm 38. Never had a workout or fitness routine in my entire life except for a few brief and unsustained periods of working with a trainer, but quit. Last May I bought a Quest 2 specifically to try Supernatural, a mix of Beatsabre with a Pelaton-style experience with pre-recorded song-driven sessions. I did one 5 song session (20 mins or so) and for the first time in my life I was dripping with sweat and thought to my…

Do you use the regular strap? I've been trying to get into workout stuff but the regular strap never really keeps the device in place when I go for more than 10-15 minutes

I use the fitness strap and it works well, though sometimes I dial the back too tight and get a headache.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#222

Post by seanmcdirmid »

invalidator wrote: post #49
kitsunesoba wrote: post #17

One thing that’s good to point out to anybody looking to get into VR for fitness is that Beat Saber becomes radically more challenging when playing custom community-made maps instead of the stock/DLC maps. The higher difficulty community maps require a lot of speed, precision, and stamina, and I’m only beginning to be able to play them decently after a few months of practice. It’s almost an entirely different game. U…

I'm several months into using Beat Saber as an exercise routine. Yes, add-on maps are a necessity, not just for the challenge, but also to keep things interesting. I don't find high difficulty levels to be great exercise. I can keep up fine, but I get lulled into using little wrist flicks instead of sweeping arcs. The best tracks for me are ones which aren't technically challenging. Instead, I get my whole body into…

Beat Saber isn’t really designed for exercise but you can raise intensity by keeping your wrists fixed and by imagining you are wielding two really having blades. You have to imagine yourself glaiving the blocks in two rather than simply touching them so they fall apart. The same mental tricks are needed with the more fitness oriented rhythm boxing games.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#223

Post by JoeDaDude »

periphrasis wrote: post #189

A few subjective observations that may be totally wrong when applied to others despite their normative tone: * VR makes me sweaty… because it induces minor vertigo. * Anything which requires intense, complete focus to do right is never boring. Exercise, both strength and cardio, requires this level of focus. * Exercise is essential to physical and mental well-being, especially as you age. The difference between havin…

I am reminded of the quote attributed to Socrates: "No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable."

As the proverbial 90 lb weakling who never did anything athletic, I can attest that once I started, I was amazed at what my body was capable of.

To be fair, we should also understand the context of the quote, which is that Socrates advocates physical strength and training so men could be useful to the states [1].

[1]. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5hcclh/did_s...

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#224

Post by seanmcdirmid »

zfnmxt wrote: post #120

VR exercise is a remarkably poor allocation of time (if your interest is physical fitness, efficiently). It also leaves out the most important adaptation of all: strength. Effective training (not exercising) requires a progression model. That is, on some time frame you must exceed your performance at the end of that time frame when compared to the beginning of the time frame. This must be done in some measurable way-…

> Throw in some HIIT

VR has HIIT already, FitXR has many different levels of it.

VR fitness is mostly just aerobic workouts that you would get from a kickboxing or more tradition aerobics class with an instructor. You aren’t using weights in those classes either, it isn’t suited to anaerobic exercise.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#225

Post by JoeDaDude »

dinkleberg wrote: post #51

Forgive my ignorance, but I always see the quest mentioned. Are there any comparable devices that don’t require Facebook? I’ve sworn off FB and while VR for cardio has me intrigued, nothing is gonna get me to sign back in there.

I'd recommend you look at the HP Reverb headset, which has a good performance/price ratio. Technically, it is made for the Windows Mixed Reality ecosystem, but I find it supports almost all Steam VR games and there are work arounds to make it work for oculus games without a FB account. YMMV

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#226

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Simon_O_Rourke wrote: post #159

> I wake up at 5:30, and do some deep work; at 7:15 an alarm goes off, which reminds me to fire up my Oculus Quest and start my VR workout. Not being bad about it, but if you find a gym that's open at 5:30 it's going to be pretty empty, that's if COVID worries are keeping the OP out of these environments. > I clear out my workout space and make sure my cats aren't in the main play area. No wife and kids huh? I don't…

I tried doing VR with my toddler around once. Now whenever he sees me with it on he thinks I’m going to accidentally bop him. Definitely not toddler friendly, you need the kid at daycare or with your partner and the room needs to be locked so they don’t wander in.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#227

Post by seanmcdirmid »

WalterBright wrote: post #97

Geez, go outside for a run. Get some fresh air, smell the rain, say hi to the neighbors, watch houses being built, get chased by a dog, check the Little Library for something interesting, swallow a bug, see if anyone has a cool car in their garage.

Running can be a monotonous grind if you do it on a schedule. That’s assuming you live in a place with decent enough weather that lets you keep to that schedule year round.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#228

Post by seanmcdirmid »

d--b wrote: post #52

I don’t own a VR headset, but working out is one of the main reasons I could buy one. I have some questions though: 1. Isn’t the headset moving when doing fast moves? 2. Does the headset get dirty from sweating? 3. Does any sweat build up inside the device? 4. Did anyone break their device by moving too fast?

1. No, with the fitness strap upgrade at least.

2. Not really. The main thing that gets dirty is the face insert, which is detachable and can be washed by hand. I have a silicon layer above that so just wipe it off after each session. The oculus 2 is much better than the 1 in this regard, which had a fabric around the unit that could get really grimy.

3. I’m not sure. My first oculus died from reasons I can’t determine. I thought it might have been because of the sweat. The oculus 2 avoids fabric for the main unit and seems to be more resistant in this regard.

5. No. But I’ve had more than a few accidental controller strikes on either the other controller or on the unit itself at high speeds. Never hurt the hardware, but I’ve hurt my fingers a few times.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#229

Post by kitsunesoba »

rideontime wrote: post #218
kitsunesoba wrote: post #17

One thing that’s good to point out to anybody looking to get into VR for fitness is that Beat Saber becomes radically more challenging when playing custom community-made maps instead of the stock/DLC maps. The higher difficulty community maps require a lot of speed, precision, and stamina, and I’m only beginning to be able to play them decently after a few months of practice. It’s almost an entirely different game. U…

Do you play the PC version via quest link? Wondering how it performs given the unavoidable latency bump.

I use the wired link. Compared to a Rift CV1, latency is a bit higher but not by much, and it’s easily adjusted for in Beat Saber’s settings.

Re: My First 80 Days of VR for Exercise

#230

Post by seanmcdirmid »

foolfoolz wrote: post #15

the most outlandish thing about this post is waking up at 5:30am to work

I used to do it all the time. Up At 5, at Starbucks around 5:30, out by 7:30. Or wait for the gym to open at 6, or maybe an early morning run. Mornings used to be great, but then I had a kid and the pandemic hit and it will take awhile to go back to see them.
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