I exercised with the Meta Quest 3 and FitXR for two weeks — 3 things I learned
Can you get your sweat on with one of the best VR headsets? Workout apps have become very popular with the Meta Quest 3 for people who want to keep in shape, but don’t have the space for a treadmill or some other big piece of exercise equipment in their home. Or maybe, they just want to try something different when it’s time to exercise.
Needing to get my lazy butt moving after a winter of overindulgence, I tried FitXR’s app for the Meta Quest 3 for a few weeks to see if it would get me motivated. Here are three things I learned after trying out this VR workout app.
If you sign up for an annual contract, FitXR costs $8.99/month ($107.99 total); if you go month-by-month, it’s $12.99 per month. FitXR also gives you a 7-day trial to see if you like it.
The workouts kept me entertained
There’s a good variety to all of the workouts in the app, from HIIT to boxing to dancing. When you first launch the app, you’re asked about your overall fitness level, as well as the sorts of exercises you want to concentrate on.
Once in the app, you can search for workouts based on their type, length, and difficulty level. I bounced around a lot, trying different ones.
The avatars for the trainers are a little better than Nintendo Wii in terms of graphics, but they did provide plenty of motivation and instruction during each session. Plus, each workout is gamified; you get points for streaks, and there’s a leaderboard to see how well you’re doing versus others in the class.
Most of the workouts involve you hitting glowing balls that come out of you; in some cases, you’ll have to perform uppercuts, jabs, or move to one side of the other to hit them, so you get a bit more movement.
However, I did try a few dance-style workouts where I had to imitate the movements of the instructor. Without anything to specifically guide where to move my arms and hands, it was more difficult to know if I was doing the exercises correctly, although the controllers would vibrate if I moved in the right way.
My upper body got more of a workout than my lower body
All of the workouts rely on the movements of the Meta Quest 3’s hand controllers in order to provide feedback, so by necessity, most of the exercises concentrate on your upper body.
There were a few that required me to squat down to hit a target, or shuffle back and forth a little, but I felt as if my lower body didn’t get quite as much exercise as my torso.
Maybe some company will come up with foot attachments for a kickboxing workout; until then, I’ll keep running outside and doing some of the best lower body exercises.
30 minutes was long enough
Most of the workouts in FitXR last from 5 to 10 minutes — there are a handful that last 20 minutes or longer — so I would string together two to three workouts, with a brief pause in between each.
Depending on the intensity of each workout, I would work up a good sweat. However, I rarely went longer than about 30 minutes in total. By that time, enough perspiration had built up on the Meta Quest 3’s liner that it started to feel a bit icky.
And, while I wouldn’t call the Meta Quest 3 overly heavy, it did start to weigh on me a bit in a way it didn’t when I was using it sitting down and playing Microsoft Flight Simulator or some other game.
Finding time for workouts can be tricky, and if you don’t have one of the best treadmills or exercise bikes, it can also be a challenge if the weather doesn’t agree with your plans. FitXR on the Meta Quest does away with those would-be roadblocks to workouts.
Because the FitXR workouts are fairly short, it’s easy to sneak them in when you have the time — just make sure your headset is charged up.
FitXR isn’t the end-all, be-all for fitness apps, but for about $100 a year, it’s a nice complement to other exercises you may do, and won’t cost you much more than one of the best streaming services.
At the very least, it’s a fun way to use your Meta Quest headset for something other than gaming.
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