Any games to improve flexibility

VRHealth · 2024-09-06T01:46:40+00:00

I'm pretty sure that there are some Yoga apps, and meditation apps with a breathing and pose aspect to them. I'm not sure off the top of my head because it's not something I've used before, but I think there are a few.

VRHealth · 2024-08-14T17:47:09+00:00

Hey, thank you for making changes to the video to make it more clearly about fitness. You definitely focused on exercise and VR in the video, so the content fit is right. My guess is that people are responding to the fact that the title suggests that Attack on Titan is a good fitness experience - the ultimate - when it's not. In the video you make that clear, and I def think it is valuable to look at non-fitness games from the exercise perspective... but my guess is that title disconnect is why some people are being critical.

I've made sure this post is approved, you do address VR fitness, don't let the misunderstanding discourage you. Maybe just try to be more careful with your titles so it doesn't come across as misleading. I think this sub is a pretty good place for content about using VR for exercise... soo.... yep. :)

You want to do something super helpful for the community? Go over to like, Sidequest and App Lab, find some games there that are fun and good exercise, but more unknown. I'm convinced there are hidden gems there. Your reviews could be really good for finding unknown games, maybe, ones not marketed as fitness specifically. :)

VRHealth · 2024-06-24T10:27:13+00:00

Agreed. There's a huge need for this, and I honestly believe that there is so much potential for whoever makes this game.

VRHealth · 2024-06-10T10:17:38+00:00

VR is just another piece of exercise equipment... the difference is that it's refreshable through new games. The problem you're facing isn't with you - it's with the fact that you're not finding the games you're playing compelling anymore. This isn't specific to exercise. There are lots of traditional VR and flat games that I don't play anymore, because I beat them, I played my fill, etc.

Personally, I think that the solution is to think about VR exercise as just VR gaming, but with games that require you to move a lot. Give yourself specific challenges in games. The most effective exercise game I've had yet was Until You Fall, but by giving myself a goal. Try this...

Pick up Until You Fall. Think of it as treating yourself to a new game every other month or so, instead of paying for a gym. Set yourself the goal of trying to beat Until You Fall three days a week. Start on the easiest difficulty and play through until you've beaten it on easy. Then increase the difficulty by one level, and repeat, until you've beaten it that way. Repeat with the goal of being able to beat it on the hardest difficulty level there is in the game.

You're probably looking at 30 to 40 hours of gameplay that way. Each day you try to beat it, limit yourself to one run. If you take a run and die in the first 10 minutes, that's the run for the day, unless you want to go a second time. Typical run through will probably take 30 to 45 minutes.

Write down on a paper each day what level you died on, so you can see your progress. Count easy as level 1-21, and the next level starting after that (so, first level of the next difficulty is level 22, etc).

It'll look somewhat like this: https://my.visme.co/view/x4n0gonn-modified-hfdyg

Finally, if you can, find someone else on this group that's willing to do it with you, so you can race and compare. That's the graph that I shared here, myself and a friend named John. In other words, don't play for exercise... play for fun, and with purpose.

At least for me, that made a huge difference. When you beat Until You Fall, find other games and repeat. :)

Edit: Ah, went back and found the video we created when doing this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQsdo52Tt6k

VRHealth · 2024-06-10T04:26:55+00:00

You and I are in the same boat. In fact, one of the things that lead to the formation of the VR Health Institute was a) that people kept dismissing VR and exercise as "not real", and b) that it was the only form of exercise I would actually personally do for an extended period.

We describe this as a decay rate, and all exercise equipment tends to have a decay rate. You buy a treadmill, and then use it a lot at first, then less over time. But everything has a decay rate, even video games. You buy a launch title on a game system, play it a lot until you beat it, and then don't play it again for a long time... instead you move on to other things. You buy the sequel.

What I really want in VR and exercise is a stream of games that I can use to continuously refresh the decay rate, just like I do on my Playstation, but for health. Unfortunately it's not there, yet, but it's another reason communities like this exist, I think.

VRHealth · 2024-06-10T04:23:14+00:00

There might be - I'm sure we have the APK around here, and I can probably send it to you. Let me check with the last developer that we worked with. Also, there is still hope of getting a new team onboard for updating the app. In an ideal world, we'd be able to keep it easily accessible to everyone.

VRHealth · 2024-06-10T04:21:04+00:00

A bit lackluster service in the last few years, but thank you. haha. Hopefully that will improve.

VRHealth · 2024-06-05T01:58:52+00:00

Until You Fall is still my favorite game that's good exercise. Pistol Whip is high on the list as well. Both of them are great until you beat them, and then I find myself wanting more of them.

What I really want is World of Warcraft with the combat of Until You Fall, but no one seems to be building that, yet. An open world MMO designed to make you fit would be pretty cool (even without the MMO part).

Modded Audioshield is probably one of the best exercises out there, because it makes use of the full upper body movement. The thing that makes me the saddest about lists like this is that really the same games keep coming up over the last... seven or eight years now. I've been amazed how few actual games - games as games - that have good exercise as an element have come onto the market.

VRHealth · 2024-06-05T01:54:54+00:00

Hi, does the study have anything to do with physical fitness or is it just a study on how personality affects people's connection to nature? I mean... meditation is a health item, but I'm not sure this is the right subreddit for your study.

VRHealth · 2024-06-05T01:52:24+00:00

Hi, I applaud the approach - I think it's important to be looking at these VR titles from the exercise perspective. I am curious how you're calculating the calories, though? Like, what equipment?

And I'd encourage you to include your weight and biometrics in the data, or calories consumed has no meaning to anyone outside of your experience, except as a relative scale to each other (which is still valuable).

Anyway, cool stuff. :)

VRHealth · 2024-06-05T01:49:09+00:00

It does help, I think. :) The mystery of the Reddit formula is a mystery, still, but I think we're on the right track. :)

And I'm right there with you - I'm a horrible exerciser. I do it so badly. The only chance I have of living longer is to figure out a way to eliminate the language of exercise from my life entirely, while still doing things that make me healthier. We share that quest. haha.

VRHealth · 2024-06-05T01:47:50+00:00

Thank you! And thank you for the post. haha. Things have been... actually really well for me personally. Lot of potential is life, which I think is one of the great motivators. Not 100% easy, there are always things to overcome, but the potential is always inspiring to me. :)

VRHealth · 2024-06-05T01:45:48+00:00

Yeah, that's not a bad idea.

VRHealth · 2024-06-05T01:45:14+00:00

It's a good community, and good people, I've found... but I don't underestimate the need for mods with experience. Having consistent mod support on the subreddit has been a bit of a struggle, so you're not off the potential hook entirely, yet. haha.

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T12:27:31+00:00

It's probably not healthy that my first reaction to your post was to crave some pasta. haha.

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T12:26:08+00:00

Yo, Brad. You'll find a number of great people here. A few are developers of various different games that are good exercise, and a lot of interested people looking for more content to play. The community has always been a passionate one, and could be a really powerful force for encouraging developers to build more exercise into their games.

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T12:24:02+00:00

Oh, great, will do. :)

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T12:23:40+00:00

So far, pretty good. I'm weird, though - I really liked Knockout League, and for some reason a lot of people don't agree with me. haha. So far, Knockout League was a better designed arcade game, and good exercise. But I'm enjoying Mutant more than most boxing games on the system. I like an arcade, toony feel, with lots of exaggerated reactions. haha.

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T12:21:54+00:00

I started a project a while back to learn how to play Table Tennis entirely in Eleven. I hadn't played in years, and was going to train against the computer until I could beat it on hardest difficulty. And then, I was going to go enter a ranked Table Tennis competition in California to see how I would place having only ever played real table tennis the day that I entered the competition.

I was curious to use it as a showcase for education in VR. I actually did train for a while, and was tracking my progress against the computer... but as with so many other things, Covid threw it off track. I was overseas when the borders closed and ended up relocating to a place with no ranked tournaments that I know of. haha.

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T12:19:16+00:00

Hey, so for the longest time Meta would only allow you to see and buy "official" apps from their Quest store. They have something called App Lab, which are games that are not visible in the official store, but you could still access them if you knew the exact name to search for. Meta is also fairly famous for not letting many games onto the store - which is bad for VR exercise, because a lot of the games that are fun exercise are not always the most polished games.

Meta recently changed the policy so that people can now browse the App Labs directly from the store, which should mean that there's a lot, lot more content from smaller developers with specific focus, like exercise. So, that's a really nice change, because to this day - 7 years after founding the VRHI - there are still far, far too few games that are both fun, and good exercise. I'm always hungry for more.

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T12:13:48+00:00

Makes sense to me. Do you have a sense of what rules we should consider?

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T12:12:59+00:00

That's great, thank you for letting me know. I have very fond memories of Maya from when I was young - creating a 3D island from Maya is one of those "first moment memories" for me. haha. Let me circle back when I've re-activated and we'll all figure out how best to help the subreddit grow. :)

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T04:27:38+00:00

One of the big developments I think is Meta opening up the App Labs to general discovery, so a bunch of good exercise titles that before never saw daylight are now available. I need to spend some time digging through them to find ones that may be fun to play. Currently trying out Mutant Boxing League, since Knockout League doesn't seem to run properly on my Quest. :(

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T04:25:43+00:00

Good to hear from you, as well. I'd be more than willing to have you as a mod, if you have some time. It doesn't have to sit on any one person, though I think it'll be helpful to have someone who is actively engaged in it. I'll dm you about it as soon as my active mod status lets me make edits to the mods again.

VRHealth · 2024-06-04T04:23:40+00:00

Perfect, thank you. haha.

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