How VR Fitness Games Can Transform Your Workout Routine

Choo-choo! Welcome aboard the VR Fitness game train: the train helping to solve the most pressing fitness and workout routine challenges. 

Yes, keeping up with your fitness routine is tough. It quickly becomes boring and feels like yet another mundane task that you have to get done. 

This is why many people give it up after just a few weeks. But the solution exists! 

If you find a way to make your workout routine fun, so that you actually look forward to it each time, you’ll have no problems ensuring consistency and great results.  

Now, what could make your workouts fun? Some people like listening to podcasts, some like watching movies, and some are actually fine with staring at the wall lost in their thoughts. 

However, if you’re like me, that’s simply not enough. The distractions are great, but not great enough to make me forget I’m riding my indoor bike. It very quickly turns into me counting down the minutes, and my bike into a clothes hanger. 

That’s where VR Fitness games come in. And when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. 

Introduction to VR Fitness

VR Fitness games fuse immersive gaming together with physical activity. The user wears a VR headset such as the Meta Quest and engages in a fitness-based game. 

These games have been designed to solve the age-old problem of workout boredom, and considering the rising popularity of this VR game genre, it seems to be working. 

Compared to traditional methods of making fitness fun, which usually consists of 2D screens, VR Fitness games immerse the user in a whole new 360-degree virtual universe. 

You become a part of it, and forget you’re exercising. 

On top of that, all these apps are gamified, meaning they motivate you to push harder and longer and to come back to your routine. 

Remember games like Candy Crash and how they always drew you back in? The premise of VR Fitness games is similar – except you’ll be exercising. Win-win!

The Benefits of VR Fitness Games

To start with, VR Fitness games make workouts fun and increase your motivation. 

The fun virtual worlds usually distract you from the fact you’re exercising, while the game-like aspects make the experience fun and motivating. You’ll usually have fun tasks to complete, things to collect, opponents to beat, and leaderboards to rank on. 

The majority of VR Fitness games also have a Multiplayer feature which means that you could be competing against or training with your friends or other app users. 

Moreover, most of these games now offer exercises that target your whole body, making them an efficient and economical fitness option. For example, with HOLOFIT, you could be exercising on a rowing machine that targets over 85% of the body’s muscles, and then also target the rest with its bodyweight HOLOFIT Freestyle and Combo Workout exercises. 

Finally, mental health is an amazing added benefit of VR fitness games because they offer a level of escapism that can reduce stress. The users get to “escape” to virtual worlds for a short while, helping to elevate their mood and lower their stress levels. 

Different Types of VR Fitness Games

With the surge in popularity of the genre, we’ve seen many VR Fitness games come out. While the categorization of these games can be a bit blurry, we’ve come up with at least five types of VR Fitness games: 

1. Trainer-led arcade-style workouts 

VR Fitness games like FitXR or Supernatural offer trainer-led workouts that resemble arcade games. 

The user is placed in a beautiful virtual environment, but they remain stationary while elements come at them. They then have to punch the elements, slice them, or duck to avoid them, set to some great tunes. 

(Cool to note here that FitXR also offers fun dancing workouts, including even Zumba, that are a great cardio workout…) 

2. Fitness machine-based games 

Apps like HOLOFIT or VZfit offer fitness machine-based VR workouts. 

With HOLOFIT, users can use their indoor bike, rowing machine, or elliptical, together with the Meta Quest headset to enjoy incredible workouts. They can choose between relaxed exploration workouts, guided cardio programs, or Multiplayer, and travel throughout amazing virtual worlds. 

Some worlds are based on real places like Paris or NYC, some on natural environments like Tropical or Antarctica, some on fantasy worlds like Saturn, Troglodyte, or Cyberpunk, and some on history like ancient Babylon. 

(It’s cool to note here that HOLOFIT also offers no-equipment bodyweight exercises that enable users to travel the worlds without fitness machines, as well as exercises like boxing, squats, karate, and more…)

3. Exploration games 

Compared to games where the user is stationary, VR fitness games like HOLOFIT let the users explore and interact with virtual worlds while exercising. HOLOFIT offers more than 15 virtual worlds and keeps adding new ones to ensure you’re never bored. 

4. Rhythm-based games

While not strictly VR fitness games like the ones above, games such as Beat Saber provide a heart-pumping workout as a side effect. 

If you don’t know Beat Saber, think VR Guitar Hero. The user faces incoming cubes and needs to slice them in the right direction to pass a level, set to some popular song. 

5. Martial arts-inspired cardio 

Les Mills, famous for its worldwide fitness programs, has stepped into VR with Bodycombat VR, offering its popular martial arts-inspired workout in virtual reality. This app blends boxing, kickboxing, and MMA elements to deliver a high-energy cardio experience. 

How VR Fitness Can Replace or Complement Traditional Workouts

Can VR fitness replace traditional cardio workouts? Yes! Does it have to? No – you can still keep doing your favorite cardio workouts and complement them with VR Fitness workouts. 

The flexibility of VR fitness allows users to choose how they want to integrate it into their routine, making it adaptable for any fitness level or lifestyle.

For those who find traditional cardio repetitive or unengaging, VR fitness can be a game-changer. 

High-energy games like HOLOFIT offer a way to elevate heart rates and burn calories while engaging with immersive environments, which can feel more like an adventure than a workout. This makes it an excellent alternative for people who struggle to stay motivated with conventional routines.

On the other hand, VR fitness also works well as a supplementary workout tool. If you love running, biking, or even the classic bodyweight exercises, VR fitness can add variety to your regimen, keeping things fresh and preventing workout burnout. 

You can enjoy a VR dancing session on recovery days or squeeze in a quick, intense VR workout such as boxing when time is limited and a full gym session isn’t possible.

Personalizing Your VR Fitness Routine

One of the greatest benefits of VR fitness games is the possibility to customize your workout routine to align with your personal fitness goals and get you there faster. 

Whether your goals include weight loss, endurance, and performance improvements, or simply better health, VR fitness games will have a fitting program for you. 

For example, HOLOFIT lets you choose between relaxed workout modes when your goals are relaxed, multiplayer and performance programs if you have a more competitive spirit, and guided cardio programs such as Fat Burn or HIIT. These programs will also let you choose a difficulty level based on your fitness so that your workouts are just challenging enough each time. 

Finally, because all your workouts are saved, you can easily monitor your progress in a structured way. You’ll be able to see stats like calories burned, time spent, distance gone, and even rank on various leaderboards. 

This data can be motivating and help you measure progress over time and adjust your routine along the way if needed. 

The Science Behind VR Fitness and Calorie Burn

VR fitness is an extremely effective tool for cardio workouts. 

Researchers have found that it not only makes fitness fun, but it also helps to decrease the workout pain so that users keep exercising for longer periods of time. 

In fact, a University of Kent study reported that exercising in VR lessens the perceived pain intensity by an incredible 10%. To build on that, University of Georgia researchers have found that high-intensity cycling is 12 – 13%  less painful when combined with virtual reality. 

VR fitness games also help with motivation and keep users coming back. The MOTIVE study by the University of Maryland demonstrated that virtual reality apps like HOLOFIT could effectively encourage users to increase physical activity. Incredible, right? 

Don’t worry: these exercises were proven to be just as effective as traditional cardio workouts. Just more fun! 

Common Concerns and Overcoming Them

We’ve been doing this for a while and the two biggest concerns we’ve seen are motion sickness and equipment costs. But those are easily overcome. 

If you’ve never had experience with VR, you may experience some unpleasantness the first few times that you try it. But this is the case for any VR app, not just VR fitness games. 

We advise you to start with short sessions at the beginning and gradually increase their length. Also, note that some games may cause more motion sickness than others. 

However, VR fitness games like HOLOFIT, where your real-life movements are synced with the virtual ones, eliminate this issue. HOLOFIT even has a patent for its fluid movement technology. 

If you don’t have a VR headset, you’ll have some equipment costs. But the good news is that these costs seem to be going down with each new VR headset release. 

Just a few months ago, Meta released its newest Meta Quest 3S which starts at only $299.99. A great deal for a fantastic VR headset. 

Success Stories and Testimonials

You’ve heard enough from me. But hear from some other VR fitness game users, this time from HOLOFIT members.

Ready to try a VR fitness game? We’re a bit biased but we have to recommend that you try HOLOFIT first. It offers a 7-day free trial, cancel anytime.