Rec Room is still one of the most popular social games in virtual reality. Players love it for all the different things they can do, including create and share their own rooms. We’ve already written about how to get fit while playing in Rec Room’s Rec Royale mode, but with the Rec Room Stunt Runner update out towards the end of last year, Rec Room now boasts a far more physically involved movement system that allows you to skirt through obstacle courses, run across walls, and go climbing.
That said, here’s how you can make the most out of the new gameplay modes and features added by the Rec Room Stunt Runner update. You can have tons of fun and burn plenty of calories with these while you play, which is the best part about playing and working out in VR.
Play Rec Room Stunt Runner
The best part of the Rec Room Stunt Runner update is, well, Stunt Runner itself. This new mode throws you and up to three other players into an obstacle course that has you each race to a finish line across each of six different courses that gradually escalate in difficulty. The only thing that’s stopping you and the others from reaching that finish line is an entire stadium full of obstacles, traps, and climbing areas.
You’ll run, jump, climb, slide, and wall-run your way through the entire course at your own pace, but you’ll only have three minutes from start to finish in order to do so. The part of playing Stunt Runner that creates fitness benefits is primarily the climbing, but just by exerting yourself harder and getting more focused to beat the other competing players, you will burn more calories.
Play in a Climbing Course
Rec Room features a ton of custom-made climbing-themed rooms now, which generally feature large vertical structures that you can climb with your hands, with some running and jumping mixed in. You can also tackle these homemade obstacle courses with other Rec Room players at your own pace.
Spending a solid 30 minutes in a virtual Rec Room climbing course is a great LISS exercise that you can do when you want to work out and get social without much stress. As a suggestion for some great climbing course rooms to start with, you should take a look at ^RecRockClimbing, a room that features a decent selection of some of the best Rec Room climbing courses that we’ve seen yet.
If you plan to climb up a few different courses in a climbing room, make sure to bring plenty of water. Even virtual climbing with just your hands is tough work if you do it enough times, and staying hydrated is a major priority for anybody who works out in VR or elsewhere.
Wear Weighted Gear
Generally, a game like Rec Room will only offer a LISS workout at best, regardless of the amount of time you spend playing it. It also won’t offer much in the way of resistance, given the fact that you’re essentially moving air around with your arms and hands while you play.
Weighted vests, ankle weights, and wrist weights are all extraordinarily useful in adding resistance to workouts in VR games, and Rec Room is no exception to this rule.
By wearing a weighted vest that fits your body appropriately, you can push your entire upper and lower body further, as well as bolster your cardiovascular system. Use no more than 10% of your body weight for no more than an hour.
Meanwhile, you can also wear ankle weights and wrist weights to add even more resistance. Wrist weights improve your entire upper body, and ankle weights improve your entire lower body. Both types of weights improve your cardio. Beginners should exceed no more than one or two lbs for ankle and wrist weights since it’s incredibly easy to give yourself an injury if you’re not paying attention to muscle strain in those areas of your body.
Use Rec Room Events
Rec Room lets players host public events. This feature can help you get into groups of other Rec Room players more easily, adding a social element to your workout that you would be harder pressed to find if you simply jumped into a room at any given moment.
Exercising socially is something that makes a specific type of workout more fun and enjoyable for a longer time, decreasing the risk of burnout. If you can find events where players are climbing or even competing with one another on obstacle courses, take advantage of those and enjoy the fitness benefits that social VR gaming in Rec Room can provide.
Aside from climbing rooms and stunt competition courses, Rec Room events are often host to plenty of different activities. If you want to go dancing in a room full of other people while a DJ mixes music together, that’s perfectly viable and Rec Room’s events panel might have two or three of those going during on any given day.
Do Auxiliary Exercises
You might not always be moving around and doing stuff while you play Rec Room. There are some loading screens and waiting queues here and there, and those are the perfect times to do some auxiliary exercises. You might be hanging out in a line for the next round of Stunt Runner, or you might be waiting for the other players to catch up with you at the finish line.
This downtime is the perfect time to complete some ancillary exercises. We encourage you to create your own mini cardio routine that keeps you moving around while you play, but doesn’t stress you out too much or risk causing an injury.
Note that this section of the guide assumes that you aren’t using a weighted vest or any weighted gear. If you are, you can ignore this entire tip section.
Here is a sample downtime workout routine that you can follow in Rec Room:
20 Jumping Jacks per room change.
10 Squats upon joining getting “out” in any competitive game.
15 Mountain Climbers when you reach a finish line.
5-10 Pushups upon loading into the game.
We know that this immediately looks like an arbitrary way to play and enjoy a game like Rec Room in VR, but we’ve found that there are plenty of little nooks and crannies throughout a single Rec Room session to fit extra exercises into. Be creative with your workout plan!
Rec Room continues to drive social VR gaming with fantastic support for community-made content. Now that the Stunt Runner update has been out for a little while, it’s time to use it to burn some extra calories and get socializing with other VR players. Rec Room is currently available for free on the Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, SteamVR, and PlayStation VR.
