Effects of “Your Shape” Virtual Reality Gaming on the Physical Activity of Young Adults

Abstract

Background: A virtual reality (VR) environment gives the user the impression that they are completely engrossed in their surroundings. A video game played with virtual reality (VR) equipment is referred to as a virtual reality game or VR game. The majority of virtual reality (VR) games focus on player immersion, generally using controllers. With these games, one can "accidentally" acquire a lot of physical activity.

Objective: To determine the effects of Your Shape virtual reality gaming on the VO2 max of healthy young adults using Xbox 360 Kinect.

Methodology: The quasi experimental study where 20 young adults were enrolled according to the inclusion criteria; being 18 to 30 years of age with VO2 max with the average range 31.0 to 41.9 ml/kg/min. Non probability convenient sampling technique was used. The participants performed total 9 cardio session on Xbox 360 with 48-hour interval between each session. Every session included 4-minute warm-up and 3-4-minute cool-down. The aerobic session was 30 minutes long. Heart rate, VO2 max, Metabolic equivalents and energy expenditure were measured before and after the intervention. The number of drop outs were 3.

Results: The analysis was conducted through SPSS version 21. VO2 max, Metabolic equivalents and energy expenditure of the total 17 participants during the 9 sessions of cardio exercise through “your shape” virtual reality exercise gaming statistically increased from pre to post exercise gaming sessions, and P value was 0.001 which is considered statistically significant.

Conclusions: The results showed that “Your Shape” virtual reality exercise gaming is effective for improving the physical activity by increasing the VO2 max of healthy young adults.

Keywords: Energy Expenditure, Metabolic equivalent, Oxygen consumption, physical activity, virtual reality, VO2 max.