‘’go inside the black box and come out leaner, stronger, faster, and more fit than ever before’’. 

(Black Box, 2020) 

Sounds like a dream right?

WHAT IT IS?

Black Box VR is the first fully immersive virtual reality gym experience in the world. You just step into this Black Box VR boutique gym and surround yourself with a new opportunity to work out and get fit. Black Box is founded in San Francisco by fitness fanatics Ryan DeLuca & Preston Lewis. Black Box is a real physical gym with multiple locations in the United States. 

WHY IT´S COOL?

‘’Wouldn’t it be great if by playing a game you could level up yourself instead of just an on-screen character? It’s now possible. Your actual speed, strength, and endurance will help you win, making it more like a futuristic sport than a video game. You are rewarded immediately for your virtual reality gym fitness performance instead of in the distant future like with traditional fitness routines. That’s how habits are created.’’ 

 (Black Box, 2020)

• Black box motivates you by applying new innovative ways of gamification in your fitness program. It enables you to spend less time on tracking your performance and more on pushing yourself to your limits. 
• The black box contains an integrated cable pulley system which creates resistance for your entire body. In this way, it really contributes to strength-building and muscle growth.  

‘’You’ve heard stories of mothers lifting cars to save their children. Your body has abilities that aren’t easily accessible… until now.’’  

(Black Box, 2020)

• When you step into this black box and immerse yourself into a virtual reality world, your brain will push you as far as possible. This is because your brain still perceives actual danger or urgency in this virtual world. People will discover the limitations of their own bodies by using VR without even knowing that they were capable to do so. Black Box technology will motivate them to push themselves to their fullest potential. This will result in maximized fitness results and an increased effectiveness. 
• The black box adapts it’s workout prescription constantly. The intensity of the workout is adjusted to your personal abilities, the machines learning modules make sure that you reach your goals from the start to finish. Black Box VR enables the innovative implication of gamification to enable the user to develop their personal skills. 
• Once you have experienced the black box, you will feel like you have been torturing yourself in the traditional gym. Let me remind you of what I mean with a traditional gym;

‘’You focus on the pain of each rep or step. The clock ticks by so slowly you wonder if it’s actually working. With advanced hardware and software, Black Box virtual reality workouts are proven to create a canyon between your actual effort and your perceived effort. You are giving 10/10 of your abilities but it feels like 6/10.’’ 

(Black Box, 2020)

• This cool VR experience enables the user to train individual muscle groups in a unique manner. It has a program that subdivides muscle groups into interactive elements that help the user to train different parts of the body in an interactive and unique way. For example,  legs are associated with water. You can fight with opponents who use their arms as fire.

WHY IT HAS FUTURE GROWTH POTENTIAL?

Black Box VR usage will not only maximize the effectiveness and fitness results of people, but it will also make people enjoy their workouts more. Black Box VR could potentially have a significant impact on the gym environment in the distant future. It has the ability to obtain a competitive advantage over traditional gyms and fitness centres with traditional work out routines and dusty, bulky, fitness devices.  

‘’Technology has improved our lives in almost every aspect. Electric cars replace dirty ones. Smartphones replace land lines. The Internet replaces newspapers and old media. Fitness is still stuck with rusty barbells and mind-numbing treadmills, why? Fitness & gyms seem to be forever frozen in the 1950s.’’ 

(Black Box, 2020)

So, Fitness could potentially undergo a big transformation in the coming years. A transformation in which fitness will become gamification. In addition,  this kind of fitness could also have a potential for our complicated COVID-19 society. You are working out individually, but you can still do sport with other people by using virtual reality. This could be an innovative way of working out together without physical contact. Imagine that kids in the future won’t be playing football but doing exercise by going to a VR gym and putting on a VR headset. Maybe this will be a new trend for kids to combine games and sports with each other in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. 

In addition immersive tech has a lot of power;

‘’Virtual reality has the ability to affect the brain in ways that other technology cannot. If your mind perceives it as real, it might as well be real. We consciously know we are not actually in another realm, but other parts of our brain aren’t wired to understand the difference. Using your body as the controller, this can be utilized to create shocking fitness results.’’ 

(Black Box, 2020)

After all we could say that our gyms still have to undergo change, I am curious about the future sports. How about you? 

Bibliography

Black Box. (2020). What is black box VR. Retrieved from BLACK BOX: https://www.blackbox-vr.com/#what-is-black-box

Black Box. (2020). IMMERSE. Retrieved from BLACK BOX: https://www.blackbox-vr.com/#what-is-black-box

Black Box. (2020). No Pain No Gain Not Exactly . Retrieved from BLACK BOX : https://www.blackbox-vr.com/#what-is-black-box

Black Box. (2020). Core Beliefs . Retrieved from BLACK BOX: https://www.blackbox-vr.com/about-us/

Black Box. (2020). Retrieved from BLACK BOX: https://www.blackbox-vr.com/