Stress is our body’s response to pressure we all feel. It is a response that causes physical, emotional, or psychological strain. So how can we handle stress in healthy ways?

Everyone has their own way of dealing with stress. Someone benefits from meditation and a regular sleep schedule, another person from healthy eating habits or regular exercise. If you choose to exercise, here’s how you can benefit from it and take it to the next level.

According to a study done by Coleen McClure and Damian Schofield: The benefits of using VR systems potentially goes beyond physical fitness and may demonstrate mental health benefits as well. The studies discussed above all illustrate the potential of VR systems to have a positive effect on mental health as well as physical health.

What is VR Fitness?

VR fitness is a novel technology that is growing and developing each day. It immerses individuals in a three-dimensional world where they can interact with the virtual environment through a headset. To make your exercise more fun and effective, you can use various fitness machines and equipment.

Here at Holodia, we made an immersive VR platform that connects to rowers, bikes and ellipticals (SkiErg coming soon!) enabling you to take your workouts to a whole new level.

Now, you might be asking yourself:

Why VR Fitness?

In addition to having physical health benefits, exercise has proved to be a powerful stress reliever. Training in VR triggers positive emotions by generating endorphins – natural substances that help you feel better and maintain a positive attitude. Moreover, it allows you to exercise longer by minimizing pain. This is very important, because pain can deter you from sticking to your workout routine.

And these are not only our opinions, but scientifically proven facts! VR fitness works and here’s the science behind it:

To put it plain and simple – studies have proven that VR exercise helps you burn more calories, lowers your perceived pain and lets you workout longer!

VR technologies have revolutionized sport and fitness. You can now get a full workout from the comfort of your living room. Moreover, not only are you active, but motivated. Many HOLOFIT users claim to have forgotten they were actually working out, because they had so much fun exploring the wonders of VR environments!

Apart from motivation and having fun, VR also brings you a much-needed distraction. You`ll stop looking at exercising as a boring, never-ending task, and start enjoying it.

Imagine coming home from work, stressed and weary. You hop on your rower and are momentarily teleported to an out-of-this-world world! You are rowing on Lac d’Aiguebelette, enjoying the calm waters as the sun sets in the distance. Much better than staring at the wall, right?

Apart from calming environments like the Lac d’Aiguebelette and Cambridge, HOLOFIT offers a variety of immersive HoloWorlds:

- Real cities like Paris
- Real sport events like the Grand Sablon desert, based on the longest foot race on Earth – a six-day, 251 km (156 mi) ultramarathon through Sahara desert
- Imaginary worlds like Troglodyte, the fan-favorite HoloWorld full of magical creatures
- Nature environments like the serene Tropical
- Environments like Babylon that transport you to ancient cities

Various workout modes can test your endurance, help you reach your goals, engage you with other members or simply let you workout in peace, at your own pace. Right now, there are 5 workout modes:

Explore mode: Enjoy the immersive environments and collect trophies all while working out
Cardio Goals: Customize your workout according to your needs.Fat burn, cardio or HIIT on the right level for you
Race: Members get to participate in races with virtual opponents developed to match their individual level
Time attack: Once a record has been set,improve individual score in competitive play or beat other users’ results
Multiplayer: Get everyone working together by engaging in small group training or competitions

Many Holofitters enjoy the meditative experience HOLOFIT can offer and would like to have less data when working out.

We will take care of this by adding the Zen mode, in which you will be able to switch off everything but the beautiful HOLOFIT worlds.

With Zen mode you’ll enjoy HoloWorlds at your own pace, in your own time, without any distractions.

Bottom line, we all know that exercising in general is beneficial for your overall health. So why not give VR Fitness a chance? Improve your self-esteem, enhance your mood and battle stress in a healthy and fun way!