No, I’m not dreaming—just working out in my living room while wearing a VR headset, playing the Supernatural fitness game, immersed in a 360-degree wonderland. When it’s over, I’m panting, elated, and totally sweaty, just like when I finish taking a class at the gym—and the next day my lats are on fire. 

So I’m not surprised to read the findings of a small new study which found that VR exercise—specifically the Supernatural app on a Meta Quest headset—was just as effective as comparable real-life, “high-quality cardiovascular activity” like running, boxing, and swimming. 

The study, out of the Behavioral Medicine Lab at the University of Victoria, Canada, and published on June 6 in the journal JMIR Serious Games, looked at the effect of two medium-intensity modes of the games “Flow” and “Boxing” on 24 participants with little or no VR experience. It measured results with what’s called a Metabolic Equivalent of Task, or MET, score, which is a multiple of a person’s base resting rate, used to calculate an estimated calorie burn based on the individual’s weight. 

Further, it looked at mood changes post-exercise and found they were consistent for what you’d expect after vigorous exercise, with participants reporting they felt “full of pep” and “lively” after the workouts. 

“I think there’s a lot of skepticism because [VR fitness] is very new,” Leanne Pedante, Supernatural head of fitness and one of six coaches who guide Supernatural users through its more than 3,000 workouts (at a subscription price of $10 a month or $100 a year), tells Fortune. There is often a  misunderstanding that “you’re not really moving” with VR workouts, and that it’s like a video game, with a perception that “it’s kind of passive, and not an activity where you would actually move enough to sweat.”

The study, Pedante adds, “helps us ground it with cycling, jogging, boxing—things that people are familiar with.”

The study was commissioned and paid for by Meta but carried out independently, led by the University’s School of Exercise Science professor Ryan Rhodes, whose focus of research has been “the psychology of enjoyment and being engaged in what you’re doing,” noted a press release on the study. “A lot of exercise is an act of willpower for people,” he says. “Let’s face it, running on a treadmill is not exactly a fun, engaging activity. We do it because it’s good for us but, ultimately, it can be difficult to stick with it.” That’s where VR technology can step in.

“When you’re doing something like this VR app, it really feels like you’re standing in the middle of Antarctica or you could be on a beautiful beach,” he says. “That can add to the experience.”

The study’s results track with other similar findings, including a 2020 systematic review which suggested that “VR exercise has the potential to exert a positive impact on an individual’s physiological, psychological, and rehabilitative outcomes compared with traditional exercise,” as well as a Supernatural assessment by the Virtual Reality Institute of Health and Exercise.

That organization, formed in 2017 by kinesiologists to study the effects of VR fitness on the body, assigns ratings to VR workouts—others include FitXR and Litesport—based on METs, as with the new study. In rating the Supernatural Boxing game, it found that its combination of straight jabs, hooks, uppercuts, and blocks made for good, vigorous exercise, with an exertion level most equivalent to real-life cycling.

“Looking at the [new Meta] study, I think that their results seem very reasonable,” Aaron Stanton, director of the Institute. “They registered an average MET score of 7.89 METs, and our testing actually rated it higher than that, at 11.44 METs. Their testing was lower than ours, and so I don’t think they’re likely exaggerating.” (Note from this writer: They weren’t.)

But what about community?

Another reason some people may be skeptical of VR workouts, Pedante says, is that, especially post-COVID, they “focus on the isolation part. I hear a lot of that, the idea that you’re kind of leaving the real world.” But, she adds, “The goal has never been that we want people to stop doing things in the real world. The goal is to make sure people find places within VR that can serve their needs in a way that isn’t getting served.” 

It’s something she sees frequently with Supernatural fans, including, “People who haven’t been able to make home workouts stick who are now three years in with this because it’s fun.”

The “gamification,” she notes, is helpful, providing the same sort of competitive vibe you’d get in a group fitness class. “It helps to give you some sort of metric to align yourself with, to chase after.”

Further, while the workouts are indeed solo activities, that hasn’t stopped superfans from creating communities—including a Facebook community page with 108,000 members and real-life meetups happening around the country, including one group making a pilgrimage to hike the actual Tom Dick and Harry Mountain in Oregon that serves as the virtual backdrop for one of the Supernatural workouts. 

“I often go to the Facebook page for inspiration, and to see what workouts are coming out, what people are achieving,” Jessa Curcillo, 45, tells Fortune. “The collective excitement keeps my motivation going.” The Columbus, Ohio mom of four kids between 10 and 16 says that Supernatural helped bring fitness back into her life full-throttle, as it has previously been something she “endured for the results.” 

Doing these workouts for about 30 minutes a day, she says, “really changed my mindset about fitness. I really felt like I was cheating the system, like it was a vacation just for me.” As a contract worker, her schedule is flexible, and while she does other real-life exercising here and there, Supernatural is her main workout. 

“I’m kind of in a phase of my life that is pure chaos, so if not for this, I couldn’t fit fitness into my life,” she says.

Pedante points to people like Curcillo as the reason why Supernatural’s stickiness is so important—especially considering that no more than 28% of Americans met the combined aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, per the CDC. 

“We see it all the time—people who hadn’t been able to make home workouts stick who are now three years in because it’s so fun,” she says. “There is a massive benefit all of us [coaches] have seen, and we want more people to know the solution is there for them.”

More on fitness and exercise:

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Strength tests can be extremely useful for hikers who are training for a big objective, or simply want to learn more about their own fitness levels. Last year, we published four assessments to test your trail readiness. There are plenty of other physical tests you can do to see how strong your hiking muscles are. Below are four exercises you can perform to monitor your overall hiking fitness and highlight major areas that feel powerful or could use more training. (Feeling really strong? Combine both tests for a complete full-body assessment.)

How To Perform This Strength Test

Objective measures are useful, but subjective results reveal more about your fitness. For example, you might be able to complete 20 single-leg sit-to-stands per leg on the initial assessment, which is a great score. But if the exercise left you tired and sore for days, that’s less ideal. 

Perform the strength test honestly and stop once you can no longer execute a full range of motion with good form. If you can’t achieve the baseline targets on the first go-around, keep strength training and try again in four to six weeks.

It’s helpful to re-test regularly to understand your progress. Upon reassessments, think back to your previous attempt. Did the effort required to complete any particular assessment feel easier? Did you recover quickly? Was there any lingering soreness? Were your muscles burning at any point? These subjective results are a great measure of progress that won’t necessarily appear in objective findings.

To interpret your results, compare the scores for your right and left legs. If they are equal or within a few reps, that’s good. If there is a difference of more than five reps per side, add an extra set of the suggested exercises for the weaker side. Your training is going well when the assessments all meet the baseline. 

Single-Leg Sit-To-Stand

One of the more challenging assessments, the single-leg sit-to-stand, primarily targets the quads, hamstrings, adductors, glutes, core, and ankle mobility. What makes this assessment hard is the control required to lower down to the bench or chair. 

Begin this assessment standing with your back to a stable chair or bench. With control, you’ll lift one leg and hold it in front of you while lowering to sit on the bench or chair with the opposite leg. Return to standing using one leg and repeat until you can no longer perform the motion with controlled form. End the assessment if you start using your arms for momentum or if you start using a rocking motion to come up from the seated position.

For this assessment, the goal is 25 controlled reps per leg. If you fall short, add some single-leg step-downs and pistol variations into your regular training routine.

Single Leg Dorsiflexion

This exercise tests the endurance of the big shin muscle, the anterior tibialis. This muscle helps lift the foot when walking and lowers the foot back to the ground after the heel makes contact. Basically, it prevents you from tripping. Strong shin muscles can also ward off issues like shin splints and help make ascents and descents easier.

Stand near a countertop, wall, or doorway if you need to hold onto something for balance. While keeping your heel on the floor, raise the rest of your foot as high as possible—the motion is like lifting your foot off a gas pedal. Avoid shifting your hips backward as you raise your foot. With control, lower your foot back down to the floor. 

The goal is 40 repetitions for each leg. If you come up short, add single-leg dorsiflexion from a 4- to 6-inch step to your weekly workouts, or try the wall lean dorsiflexion variation. Both will provide a greater range of motion and are excellent for building strength.

Side Plank

The side plank is an excellent exercise for building stability and core strength. Specifically, it targets the obliques, abs, and other stabilizing muscles required for carrying a fully loaded backpack.

To perform a side plank, lie on your side with your feet stacked and your elbow underneath your shoulder. Raise your hips off the floor, aiming to keep your trunk straight and still from your head to your feet. Don’t let your hips sag toward the floor; stay tight. Once you can no longer maintain position, lower your hips back to the floor and repeat the assessment on the opposite side.

Your goal is to hold the plank for 90 seconds per side. If your time isn’t quite there, don’t worry. Train any side plank variation or weighted marches (such as suitcase marches or farmer carries) to get stronger. Pallof isometric holds or Pallof presses are also great additions to any training program.

Ankle Dorsiflexion

This test assesses your ankle’s range of motion, which, if limited, can increase the risk of ankle sprains and injury. Place a tape measure perpendicular to a wall, measuring away from it. Get down on one knee in front of the wall with your leading foot 2 to 3 inches from the wall. Keeping your hips straight, glide your front knee forward to touch the wall, and keep the heel of that foot down. If you can’t touch the wall with your knee while keeping your heel down, move closer to the wall and retest. If you can touch the wall, move your foot back and retest. Record your score (the furthest distance you can place your foot from the wall while keeping your heel down) for each ankle and use the chart below to find your degree of dorsiflexion.

Normal ankle dorsiflexion is 40 degrees, or about 4.5 inches from the wall. If you fall below 34 degrees of dorsiflexion, roughly 4 inches from the wall, you have a fivefold increased risk for ankle sprains. In addition, if there is an asymmetry of more than 5 degrees per side, your risk of injury increases.

If your measurement falls below 40 degrees, or you have an asymmetry greater than 5 degrees, add ankle mobility work to your workout warm-ups. There are three options to improve dorsiflexion: Start with the ankle rocker, progress to a dumbbell, and finally, use a band to mobilize the joint. If your retest score does not improve after four to six weeks of ankle rocker exercise, move on to the dumbbell or band option. Once your mobility improves, reduce the frequency to once per week.

Four-time Mr Olympia champ and International Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Jay Cutler, is a trailblazer who has helped to elevate the bodybuilding industry and at 50-years-young is now training a new generation of rock-solid athletes through his teachings at fitness conventions and on social media where he has millions of followers.

In an Instagram post on June 8, 2024, Cutler shared his “Number One” exercise for hamstrings.

Jay Cutler’s Go-To Exercise for Hamstrings

“This has always been my number one exercise,” shares Cutler. “In fact, when I lived in Massachusetts, okay, I lived in Worcester, and I end up choosing to go to a gym in Framingham, Mass, which is probably 25 minutes away when I had [a gym] like right next door to my house, just to use a seated leg curl, which at the time it was a Flex, it was called a Ham Tractor.”

Cutler may be known for his “Quad Stomp” on stage, but his success in bodybuilding hails from an all-encompassing journey to growing his legs. The hamstrings are comprised of the biceps femoris long head (bi-articular) and short head (mono-articular), semitendinosus (bi-articular) and the semimembranosus (bi-articular), and they assist with the movement of the hips and knees. Since the seated leg curl places stress on both our knees and hips, it makes this a great movement for targeting those muscles.

Studies have also shown that the seated leg curl provides greater hypertrophy than prone (front-lying) curls, making them excellent for building mass. “It’s always, always, always, if you ever follow my videos, its always the first movement I do,” explains Cutler. “Why? It just seems to target my hamstrings. I get a crazy pump after doing this one movement.”

The bodybuilding icon lays out his approach, explaining that he does three working sets and notes that he throws in one or two feeler sets beforehand, to get a gauge on the type of weight that he wants to use in the working sets. “I’m gonna focus on doing ten or twelve reps,” he says of each set. In the video, Cutlet starts with around 130 pounds in his first feeler set and shares why he sticks in the ten-to-twelve rep range. “So, whether it’s a warmup or a working set, I always still focus on about the same reps,” he explains. “The high reps; s**t, It doesn’t help anything. Everyone thinks you get cut up if you do more high reps. Misconception.”

To follow more of Jay Cutler’s bodybuilding tips follow him on Instagram!