More than a month ago, after having played (and loved) on Oculus Beat Saber, Dance Central, and even Thrill of the Fight, I saw FitXR suggested on my Oculus home page. I figured, what the hell, let’s try it out, so paid the $29.99 and downloaded it. Quickly, I was glad I did. What at first just seemed like a fun game soon turned into a mainstay in my workout routines — and I have been getting stronger.
What is FitXR?
“FitXR” launched for the Oculus Quest in August of 2020. Before that, on Oculus Rift, it was “BoxVR,” a game very specific to boxing. When it entered Quest, it broadened its fitness to include dance. Its workouts are all set in virtual reality (VR), and you do them — and sweat — while wearing a VR headset.
My first few days in FitXR
Upon first entering FitXR and after creating a profile, I saw a slew of options, but realized that, before I could try any, I would need to watch a demo and do a 3-minute dance and 3-minute boxing class to learn how to use the game. Lucky for me, my Apple Watch only needed five minutes to close the exercise ring for that day, so the two 3-minute starter classes would be perfect.
Not knowing what to expect, I set my watch’s Workout app to “Fitness Gaming” and started the dance intro class. I saw my user name (“Xinxiya”) on the leaderboard, then suddenly the board filled with six other player names. In the center of the room was an avatar of a fitness instructor. The other six players and I circled around him. Of the other players, I could only see shapes where their VR headsets and controllers would be. I could hear no voices except the instructor, and no mics were on.
As the instructor started, it reminded me of Dance Central, where, in a nightclub environment, you follow a dance instructor’s moves and see a glowing “Awesome,” “good,” or “OK” depending on how well you performed that move. It also reminded me a little of Zumba because the instructor only used a few moves and repeated them, which made it easy to follow. (I later learned, incidentally, that the non-beginner dance classes are not so easy to follow.) In any case, it was fun, and the better I did the move, the more points I made. The competition was motivating, and I was excited to see my User ID move to the No. 1 spot on the leaderboard!
When the game was over I looked around, kind of wanting to high-five the other players, as I’ve enjoyed being able to do on my Peloton, but their virtual heads and hands stood frozen. I later learned that these other players had not been playing in real time with me but were in fact just “ghosts” — recordings of players’s previous plays. Even though these other players are not playing in real time, competing against them on the leaderboard still makes the game much more exciting. However, if you dislike leaderboards, you can chose the option to play solo.
Next, I tried the 3-minute boxing intro. What appeared to be glowing medicine balls flew toward me, and I had to punch them with a mixture of jabs, hooks, and uppercuts. Every now and then, a huge obstacle also flew at me, and I had to squat to avoid it. This workout, for me, was harder than the dance, and I only made it to No. 4 on the leaderboard. But it was still fun.
Day 2: I tried the regular classes
The next day, I put my headset on, ready for more. In the lobby, you’re placed in front of three large display boards. The board on the left highlights the “class of the day.” The board in the center shows recommendations to play and “store packs” that can be purchased. The board on the right, however, is the most important board because it has a directory of classes. It lets you filter classes by “studio” (either “dance” or “box”), instructor, duration, genre, and intensity. The shortest classes are just 3 minutes while the longest are about an hour, but most are between 10-25 minutes. There are more than 10 instructors to choose from. Intensity can be light, moderate, or intense. For genre you can pick rock, pop, electronic, hip-hop, or “mixed.”
For my first “real” class, I selected the class of the day, which that day was a 15-minute, moderate-intensity boxing workout by Ianthe, FitXR’s head of fitness. Seeing six other players fill the leaderboard alongside me sparked my energy. Bring it on!
At first I seemed to be doing great, punching all the flying medicine balls. But I noticed I started missing some uppercuts. Meanwhile, I was squatting and swaying to avoid flying obstacles. And they kept coming! This was hard! Wait, was I really at the bottom of the leaderboard? Oh no — I didn’t want to be last!
As I played, I realized that, by adding power to my swings and jabs, my points increased. Hitting the ball hard enough for a halo to burst around it creates an “explosive” punch and earns more points. This first real game was exhausting! Every few minutes, between songs, though, the game slowed just enough so I could catch my breath. At the end of — after only 15 minutes — I was way at the bottom of the leaderboard but drenched in sweat.
After about a half an hour break, I decided to go back in for a dance routine. Because of its boxing foundations, FitXR is heavy on the boxing and does not have as many dance options. I picked a six-minute dance class of moderate intensity. The instructor again stood in the circle and guided the moves. The moves were simple enough and I ended up at No. 2 on the leaderboard, but still got a good workout.
The more I played, the more I preferred the boxing workouts. Now, after playing regularly for more than a month, I almost exclusively box.
My technique and stance improved
When you start a game in FirXR, a display indicates how you should stand: either right or left foot forward. Every few minutes or so it tells you to switch. At first, I started adopting a rather lazy stance, with both feet forward. I knew that this front-facing stance was a terrible stance for defense because, if I were fighting a real opponent, it would expose my body to punches and make it easier to lose balance. But in VR, where there was no real opponent, did it really matter? As I was researching to write this blog, I learned that, yeah, it does matter.
I learned that the twisting motion of a punch from a proper stance works out the ab muscles. Boxer David Walker explains that, from a proper left- or right-facing stance, the act of punching forward creates a twisting movement at the waist “as you fully extend your punching arm and then recoil back to your defensive stance,” and that is basically, an ab workout. And “the more you train the more developed these [ab] muscles will become, meaning your punches will get stronger and you’ll have a greater reach.”
This made sense why a forward stance was my default lazy stance, and by standing like that I was only cheating myself, and my fitness. I play FitXR for fun, of course, but my ultimate goal is fitness, so if I want to best strengthen my core, I need to have good form.
FitXR works out more that just my upper body. Many of the workouts involve squats, which engage the lower body and core, and it really can be an excellent workout. In an Instagram video, FitXR instructor Dillon Spicer explained and demonstrating proper techniques, including squatting and lunging. I realized that my other default lazy positions of ducking and swaying to avoid the flying barriers were also cheating me from better fitness, and, after watching Dillon’s video, I focused more on the form of my squats and lunges to better strengthen my legs and give a better workout.
As I continued using FitXR, I got better and stronger
At first, I was fitting in a game every now and then, but not daily or on a regular basis. However, I soon realized also how easy it was to play a 10-minute game in the morning to get my day started or in the mid-day slump. I eventually started a habit of playing as soon as I got home from work, and it became something I really looked forward to, almost like a fix I needed (but a beneficial one). It’s also a great way to release any built-up stress from the day.
To protect the Oculus from being sweat-drenched, I bought a silicon cover for it and wear headband. I also bought some 2-pound wrist weights to get more bang for my buck and really improve my strength. I do not wear the weights for most workouts, though, because, frankly, they are too difficult, but using them once in a while makes me stronger overall and, afterward, when I play without them, the game is easier for me.
I started playing with just one 10-minute game a day and gradually increased my play time. I noticed that I was able to play longer classes as well as classes back-to-back. I am not quite to the level reached by some other players who do up to an hour a day, but I’m getting there. Although I started with the moderate-level classes, it was not long before I escalated to the intense-level classes.
Just with one class a day, however, I noticed my strength and muscles increasing. I primarily noticed and felt it in my biceps and triceps, but also felt it in my chest and back — muscles I had been neglecting in my usual workout routine of mostly cycling with occasional rowing and even more occasional dumbbells. After just a month of almost everyday practice, I felt like my arms had gotten more defined. For the last year, I had been trying to get results like this by using dumbbells; however, because lifting dumbbells is boring, my lifting workouts have lacked consistency and never gave me solid results. FitXR is different, though, because it is fun — and I want to play it. So, essentially, I got better overall strength fitness results from a VR game than I did from my 10-pound dumbbells.
Apparently, building muscle is not unusual for FitXR players. I joined a Facebook group of players, and many said they had built muscle. One male player said his arms had doubled in size.
Boxing in FitXR is not all about muscle, though; it’s an amazing cardio workout. I track my average heart rate per workout using my Apple Watch and have found my average heart rate to be higher in my FitXR workouts than it is from doing a spin class on my Peloton. I also notice it improving my agility, as my “average punch speed” is slowly improving.
Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend FitXR. It is not as intense or scary as The Thrill of the Fight (where you’re placed into a virtual boxing ring) but is a much bigger workout than Beat Saber. The more I play, the better I get, and the more I am able to handle. There are enough classes to avoid boredom, and buying the expansion packs adds to the variety. It’s a workout I can do at any time of day and anywhere I have WiFi and can wear my Oculus Quest 2. Most of all, it’s fun.
