去健身房锻炼身体、做运动对一些人来说是生活中不可缺少的一部分，但也有人认为去健身房就是浪费时间，自我折磨。假设把做运动和虚拟现实游戏结合起来，那么也许一种更有趣的锻炼身体方式就产生了。

 

Going to the gym can be something that many people find a gruelling experience. It takes time and effort, it often hurts, and it can be extremely tedious. Most weight-related exercises are a combination of sets and reps. In order to see any significant change from any one exercise, it will probably need to be repeated six to eight times, for a minimum of three sets, for about three months. Then there's cardio. For some, there's nothing more boring than endless miles spent running on a treadmill¹.

 

But what if there were a way to alleviate² the boredom³ of exercise while still getting a good work out? Luckily for us, there's virtual reality.

 

In the past, “playing video games was a sedentary experience,” says Jo Stauffer of the VR Health Institute, “but VR changes all of that". He says that the room-scale experience engages your body in full.

 

Many VR games are played while standing⁴. In order to play properly, the player is forced to move around swinging their arms or using their legs. After an hour of this on a regular enough basis, it's not surprising that many people unexpectedly find themselves a little fitter. There are already a number of virtual reality games which, deliberately⁵ or not, result in their player ‘getting a good sweat on' if played for enough time. For example, there's a first person shooter which forces the player to sidestep, duck and dodge⁶ incoming projectiles⁷. That's cardio. Or there's a music game which forces players to shadowbox in order to hit the notes – that's an upper-body workout.

 

The potential for VR to help people get fit has been noticed by one company. They want to take the whole experience into the gym. They are making a bespoke⁸ resistance machine, designed to be used in combination with a VR headset. Players challenge a virtual opponent in a series of games, which results in a 30-minute full-body work out. However, the cost of the equipment is expensive and there are safety concerns to be worked out, says J P Gownder from the consultancy Forrester. So don't hang up your gym shorts just yet.

 

Although it's early days, for those of us who struggle to overcome the tedium⁹ of exercise, a new solution could be coming. And a world where a person can exercise and have fun at the same time might be something that many people would want – virtual or not.

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