Abstract
Exercise is a powerful tool for disease prevention and rehabilitation. Commercially available virtual reality (VR) devices and apps offer an immersive platform to gamify exercise and potentially enhance physiological and psychological benefits. However, no work has compared immersive exercise to closely matched 2D screen-based equivalents with the same visual and auditory stimuli. This study aims to compare the acute effects of an exercise session using a commercial immersive VR workout to the same stimuli and workout presented on a screen. 17 healthy participants (male = 7, female = 10; aged 24.18±4.56 years), completed a 12-minute guided VR boxing exercise session in FitXR™ and a screen-based equivalent. Physiological responses were recorded continuously using a heart rate monitor and telemetricmetabolic cart system. Psychological and perceptual responses were measured using their ratings of perceived exertion, the physical activity enjoyment scale, and the physical activity affect scale. In the immersive VR participants chose to engage in more intense exercise (%VO2max; p = 0.044), showed higher levels of all enjoyment subscales (p
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e0314331 |
| Journal | PLoS ONE |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| Early online date | 18 Dec 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 18 Dec 2024 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 Barbour et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords
- Adult
- Exercise - physiology - psychology
- Female
- Heart Rate - physiology
- Humans
- Male
- Virtual Reality
- Young Adult