Soojeong Yoo, PhD candidate in the School of Information Technologies, plays a VR game.

Previous studies have demonstrated that ‘exergames’ – the combination of physical exercise and video games, most common on the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect platforms – have the potential to improve people’s physical and cognitive health.

This new study reveals that VR games can provide considerable exertion, even though they may not have been explicitly designed as ‘exergames’.

Conducted by researchers from the University’s School of Information Technologies, the study examined the physical exertion of a wide range of participants – including those who exercised regularly and others who did not exercise at all – while playing four VR games already on the market: Fruit Ninja VR, Hot Squat, Holopoint and Portal Stories: VR.

Each game was chosen to provide a different form of physical interaction for participants: Fruit Ninja mainly works the arms; Hot Squats works the large leg and gluteal muscles needed to squat; and Holopoint works a mix of muscles. The fourth game, Portal Stories: VR, is a puzzle game requiring relatively little physical movement.

Participants’ heart rates were monitored while playing each game for sessions of between 5 and 10 minutes.

Results from the study revealed that for all participants:

Fruit Ninja’s maximum heart-rate score was equal to light exercise (comparable to walking).

Hot Squats’ heart-rate score was considered heavy (comparable to running).

Holopoint’s heart-rate score was equal to moderate intensity (comparable to dancing).

As expected, Portal Stories had the lowest exertion measures and the heart-rate score was equal to very light activity.

In addition, every participant reported they could really feel that they had worked their gluteal muscles and legs the next day, regardless of whether they regularly exercised.