Acute Effects Of Virtual Reality Exercise On Young Adults’ Blood Pressure And Feelings

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study examined the acute effects of virtual reality (VR) on young adults’ blood pressure and emotions. Specifically, we examined the effects of three types of VR exercises (one immersive VR and two non-immersive VR exercises) on young adults’ blood pressure and emotion (i.e., feelings) as compared to a traditional exercise biking session. METHODS: A total of 36 college students ( females; Mage = 23.6) participated in this study and completed four separate 12-minute exercise sessions: 1) immersive VR biking on VirZoom VR bike using PlayStation 4; 2) non-immersive VR biking on Gamercize bike using Xbox 360; 3) non-immersive VR biking on Game Rider EZ Gaming Bike; and 4) traditional biking on Spirit Fitness XBU55. Their blood pressures (systolic and diastolic) were measured before and after each session. Exercise-induced feelings were assessed via the established survey after each session. Participants’ previous experience with VR was used as the covariate in the ANOVA with repeated measures. RESULTS: Overall, significant main differences were seen between biking sessions for systolic blood pressures [F (2, 29) = 3.04, p = 0.02, η2 = 0.38)] and feelings [F (3, 32) = 7.74, p < 0.01, η2 = 42]. Post-hoc LSD comparisons suggested that immersive VR (21.31 ± 8.04) and traditional biking (24.02 ± 9.11) had significantly greater increased systolic blood pressures compared to two non-immersive VR exercises (16.00 ± 8.83 vs. 14.92 ± 10.41, p < 0.05, respectively). In addition, immersive VR (1.86 ± 0.72 vs, p < 0.01) had significantly greater increased feelings than the two non-immersive VR (2.61 ± 1.63 vs. 2.58 ± 1.46), whereas these two non-immersive VR exercises had significantly greater increased feelings compared to traditional biking (1.78 ± 2.06, p < 0.05), respectively. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest immersive VR-based exercise bike could lead to higher exercise intensity and feelings among healthy young adults in comparison with non-immersive VR bike exercises. It also yielded higher feelings than traditional biking. Thus, immersive VR-based exercise can be a fun and physically active health promotion approach for young adults.