Four Reasons Why Virtual Reality Exercise Is Perfect for Disabled Folks Like Me

What I’ve always longed to do but has never worked well for me is doing group fitness classes such as Pilates or Yoga. In those classes I usually find myself kneeling in the back or off to the side and constantly having to modify every flow movement, pose, or exercise for my own capacities. This eventually builds to so much frustration that I just start doing my own thing. Or, occasionally, an instructor will work to modify every exercise for me while they are teaching the class, and I’ve found that this is awkward for me as I’m trying not to be a spectacle for everyone else there.

Me, exercising in a rock climbing gym before the pandemic.

Over the years I’ve tried yoga DVDs, YouTube fitness, and even online Kundalini chanting. However, this mode of fitness I find to be un-motivating, because it’s just too easy not to show up to a Tracy Anderson workout or to not push myself to finish every exercise repetition. For a few months, I joined Peloton and found it to be exciting and motivating, but using a stationary bike is difficult with my current prosthetic leg, so it wasn’t really a match for my needs, either. I wanted something that was more focused on the parts of my body that work well: my arms, back, and core muscles.

Then someone I follow on Twitter mentioned Supernatural, a Virtual Reality exercise game built for the Oculus Quest platform. He was effusive about how much he enjoyed starting each morning in a gorgeous natural setting for his meditation practice, and how the cardio workouts were so engaging that he forgot he was exercising. I read a few reviews, watched some YouTube videos, and figured that it might be worth trying. At the time, I didn’t have a VR headset and I was hesitant because of the steep price of the Oculus Quest II, but I justified it by looking at how much money I hadn’t paid for my gym during the pandemic and realized that I could use that savings to fund my purchase.

I was immediately hooked. Hands down, this is the best exercise platform that works for my disabled body. Let me explain why:

1. I didn’t have to deal with any of the gawkers, onlookers, or curiosity-seekers that I deal with when I work out at the gym while wearing a robot-leg. I’ve been an amputee for a long time, so I’m used to the extra attention that comes from being different, but when I’m at the gym I find it especially frustrating to be stared at while I exercise.
2. The Supernatural sessions can vary from a quick 5 minutes to much longer (40+ minutes) so I can squeeze it in throughout my day rather than setting aside a large multi-hour block of time to go to the gym. In fact, I keep my Oculus headset and hand controllers on a hook on the side of my work-from-home desk so I can do a quick workout in between my work meetings.
3. The settings in Supernatural allow me to decide whether I can do squats (I can’t) and I can even select workouts that are all arms rather than having any lower body exercises. Because of this, I can focus on the areas of my body where I have capability — rather than feeling frustrated that I am not doing the exercises in a group fitness class.
4. There’s an online Facebook community and a leaderboard, both of which keep me motivated to be consistent in my workouts. This gives me a social element to my exercising that I like from group classes but omits the parts that don’t work for me, because I’m actually doing the workouts in my own comfortable home environment.

My right leg, showing my robotic knee.

I had tried VR headsets over the years and found them to be bulky and even nauseating, but have not found this to be the case with the Oculus Quest 2 or Supernatural. In fact, I’ve stayed online with this game (and others) for over four hours and haven’t felt even a twinge of nausea. VR has definitely come a long way over the past few years!

Even if you aren’t disabled, and if you find the gym or fitness class environment to be intimidating, using VR for exercise may just be the right thing for you. You don’t even have to take my word for it: there are hundreds of testimonials from others who have found health through VR.

Click this link to watch me doing a timelapse Supernatural workout from my home office.

I’ve found some other VR apps, besides Supernatural, that have enhanced my wellness during the pandemic. I’ll share more about those soon, so consider following me on Medium if you’d like to learn more about VR exercise from a disabled person.