New VR technology may become a future technique to prevent workout pain. A research study was conducted by a PhD candidate, Maria Matsangidou, from the University of Kent’s School of Engineering and Digital Arts (EDA). The point was to discover how virtual reality tech could affect performance.
Matsangidou used a number of different criteria to measure the impact of the virtual reality. These included workout pain intensity, heart rate, time to reach exhaustion, perceived exhaustion, and private body consciousness.
Studying VR for Workout Pain
The research involved the participation of 80 people. They were all required to perform isometric bicep curls set at 20 percent of their maximum weight lifting capacity. They were asked to hold the move for as long as they could. The participants were divided into two groups. One was the control group. They were required to hold the lift while in a room with a chair, a table, and a yoga mat on the floor.
The VR group being studied for factors such as workout pain was required to hold the position while wearing a virtual reality headset through which they viewed the exact same environment as the control group saw in real life.
What the Results Showed
The research findings showed that those using the virtual reality headset had a much lower perception of workout pain as well as overall effort. After one minute, the group wearing the VR headset perceived 10 percent less pain intensity than the control group.
Moreover, the VR headset wearing group also had a time to exhaustion that was two minutes longer than the control group. The virtual reality group’s average heart rate was three beats per minute lower than the average control group heart rate. The study outcomes also indicated that there weren’t any significant differences between the private body consciousnesses of the VR group over the control group.
Linking with Prior Research
Prior studies have indicated that people with a higher private body consciousness tend to experience higher amounts of workout pain because they better understand their bodies. That said, this most recent research suggested that VR didn’t reduce private body consciousness, though still decreased perceived pain in an effective way.
For people who suffer from workout pain, virtual reality could one day help to make exercise more comfortable and, therefore, may even improve results.
