Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR and AR) are redefining different industries like e-commerce, education, gaming, healthcare, travel and tourism. VR fitness is changing the fitness industry rapidly while fitness and augmented reality now go hand-in-hand.
Living in the 21st century, people are now immersed in technology that is advancing in different ways and rapidly. Fitness and augmented reality have now become a popular combination. This amalgamation has changed the dynamics of the world of physical activity enormously. It makes exercise more fun, provides a real-life experience and makes the activity more immersive. AR and VR fitness is becoming a new normal in the exercising industry. AR and VR adoption in the fitness industry is accelerating and improving continuously to reshape the entire industry altogether.
Industrial Applications of AR/VR
Correlation Between Fitness and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality
Tracking workout and health data
VR and AR technology embedded in wearable devices are helping people track their workout data and make critical decisions on future workouts, such as reducing or increasing the duration and intensity of workouts, and more. Keeping track of your health is another important application of AR and VR in the fitness industry. All you need is AR or VR fitness equipment and you’re good to go.
Recommending exercises
AR and VR fitness apps can help you stay consistent with your workout by offering and recommending new ways and variations of workout regimes. This makes every workout unique and diverse while including training for various areas such as stamina, flexibility, endurance, strength, and respiratory endurance. AR and VR also suggest exercises to people, depending on their needs. They collect data such as Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and suggest exercises for maximum outcome.
Providing comfort, convenience, and motivation
Using VR and AR, you can stimulate the challenging environment of the gym from the comfort of your home. It offers you the flexibility to work at any location of your choice on the go. AR and VR applications and devices also help in keeping you motivated to exercise daily by making it easy and setting reminders for every workout session. They guide your every step by recording the workout sessions and scoring them to encourage you to work harder and achieve higher.
Adding an element of entertainment
VR and AR make working out fun and entertaining. You can add various interactive elements to your physical fitness world like gaming (rowing machine or zombie apocalypse games) to increase the adventure and fun quotient. Entertainment while exercising can help relieve the pressure and stress on your body and mind.
Sharing experiences
Sharing experiences and improving them together is a great motivator to work out. AR and VR apps can help compete and share workouts from anywhere. This helps in making learning easier, promotes healthy competition, and motivates others as well as yourself. AR and VR technology also allows you to personalize your workouts using your smartwatches or smartphones. They offer real-time data of workouts in different environments and how these changes in location and environment affect your workout sessions.
In the long run, AR and VR fitness will help people be more physically active and reduce problems like obesity and heart disease, which affect a majority of the world’s population. The fusion of fitness and augmented reality/virtual reality has become a normal phenomenon and it is the future of the fitness industry.
