The best way to lose a flabby tummy is to sweat the fat off. VR fitness with the Oculus Quest 2 holds the key to a leaner and fitter future.
Living the crypto lifestyle means spending much of one’s life on the road. As intrepid road warriors, our hopelessly busy schedules do not always allow for a decent night’s sleep, and our meals are often rushed affairs. When our travels do permit us an undisturbed window of time for a proper meal, our jet-lagged disposition often prompts us to overindulge in junk food and booze.
Gluttony offers a temporary emotional escape from the reality of the road, but like all vices, net results are quickly materialized in proportion to excess. Looking in the mirror today, I am reminded that weight gain always follows a hideously sadistic pattern: one’s paunch increases slowly over months, and then it balloons—all at once.
OhShape
The reality of a growing beer belly requires an extended jog around the neighborhood today; however, the heavy rain outside shows no signs of cooperating with my fitness mandates.
Before discovering VR fitness, I would react to defiant weather conditions with exasperation and resignation—if Mother Nature willed it to pour, I took the day off from training. However, her April shower tantrums are no longer a match for the tools of the crypto lifestyle. The Oculus Quest 2 has changed the rules of engagement, an OhShape has reinvented the game.
OhShape has become my preferred way to stay physically fit and sweat off the first signs of wine gut or bitch tits. Paired with the Oculus 2, this dandy VR application has become my favorite piece of gym equipment. I have convenience—I don’t have to leave the house to use it, portability—it fits nicely into a suitcase, and privacy—I can break a sweat, completely naked, in the seclusion of my hotel room. (The opportunity for nude workouts is the premier differentiator for me—a set of flapping testicles can significantly improve equilibrium in games that demand persistent balance.)
Combining dance moves, balance capability, and reflex aptitude into an immersive VR experience, OhShape is both engaging and healthy. Players groove to a groovy beat-centered soundtrack while navigating a series of obstacles (and required poses and movements) that continually move towards them. In addition, players can earn points by grabbing precious gemstones that spontaneously appear and disappear as they make their way through a barrage of blue, yellow, and red barrier walls.
What I love about OhShape is its Small Room Mode. Typically, the game requires a 2.5m minimum space for optimum play to accommodate a perpetual provision of side steps and arm movements; nevertheless, in small room mode, space-constrained users can compress the game’s action landscape without sacrificing much of the game’s core functionality. For players that frequently spend their time stuck in tiny Japanese business hotels, this feature is a godsend.
Tracking Progress with Oculus Move
Our virtual reality fitness routines generate a tremendous amount of health data. Luckily, Oculus Move (built into the Oculus platform) provides a fitness tracking feature that generates and stores key data around the physical activity of Oculus users. VR gamers can now track their workouts, i.e., calories burned, minutes physically active (called “move minutes”), etc. in highly personal and customized ways that continue to be impossible in the world of brick and mortar gyms.
Here is what I love about the Oculus ecosystem: workout data can be shared with applications that live outside the Oculus headset. I can view my workout data on the Oculus Mobile iPhone app, which I have synchronized from my headset. But even better, I can integrate and sync my VR fitness statistics with the Healthcare App on my iPhone. There is no need to manually track my calories, activity, steps taken, etc. It is all mashed up automatically for me outside of any metaverse or virtual world native apps.
Aspire to Perspire
In crypto life, we spend a lot of time in the metaverse and VR worlds. But in real life, we don’t always take the best approach to grub and booze; moderation does at times escape us—not a good look if we want to appear lovely and alluring when we shop for our bananas at Trader Joe’s.
With Oculus Quest 2 and Oculus Move, our training routines not only get more creative, they also gain effectiveness. With VR, we now have access to fitness (and every important data point around our physical well-being) wherever we are and whenever we want. Better yet, we don’t have to worry about what to wear to the gym. I am the ultimate test case: I aspire to perspire, stripped from my waist down.
William Laurent is Blockster’s Editor in Chief. Widely published throughout his career, Will is regularly featured in American Banker, Foundry, and Tech for Good, to name a few. He’s advised over 30 Fortune 500 companies across North America and Asia on content strategy, data visualization, and digital/cultural transformation. He is an influential educator, writer, artist, crypto dad, and husband. His artwork and NFTs are sought-after collectibles. Connect with William on DeSo and LinkedIn.
