The opinions stated here are my own, not those of my company. And, I’m not being compensated or asked to do this review by Black Box VR.
Some of the best workouts of my life were in tiny rooms lit only by neon lights. And no, I wasn’t in a club or a SoulCycle – I was in a Black Box Virtual Reality (VR) private booth.
The neon-lit booth in question, as well as one sans neon lights
Black Box VR was started by the founders of Bodybuilding.com in 2016 as an “epic arena fitness game.” Visually, you’re indeed in an epic arena, trying to destroy your computer-controlled opponent’s base while protecting your own. Physically, you’re pushing and pulling on a cable resistance machine while wearing VR glasses on your head and sensors on your wrists.
One of the HTC Vive sensor pucks attached to my personal wristbands, as well as the HTC Vive headset inside UV-sanitizing “Clean Box” case. I think the pucks have since been switched out for a sleeker version.
You win the round by smashing your opponent’s crystal, which is protected by two gates and various units; you lose the round (entirely possible!) by letting the enemy destroy your crystal. By completing various physical compound lifts (e.g. deadlift, chest press, and standing rows), you deal damage to your enemy’s team and base while accruing points to spend on sending out your own units. There’s an element of tactical gameplay as well: different units and lifts are designated as fire, water, or wind, and each element type is stronger or weaker against another.
A still of what an arena looks like, taken from a YouTube video of a recent invitational tournament
I was a paying member ($199/month for unlimited sessions) at the SF location for five months, until February 2020. During that time, I also dragged four of my friends in to try it out, competed in its first esports-style tournament, and did a lot of squats.
A souvenir shirt from their first esports-style tournament in January 2020
What went well?
First, Black Box VR gets the “little” experience details right. It’s clearly a gym that happens to use VR, not a VR arcade masquerading as a gym. There was a well-stocked warm up-locker-shower area, ringed with motivational neon signs on the wall: “LEVEL UP YOUR LIFE” and “YOU ARE THE HERO.” (Really, they’re in all caps.) There was protein powder in the lobby. With members regularly talking on the Discord, it felt like a community even though everyone’s working out in private booths. And inside those booths, there was even a designated spot to plunk down my water bottle, so that I could find it later in VR.
Second, the VR game is incredibly motivating — my brain was convinced that I was in this alternate world where just a few more repetitions (reps) could crush the enemy champion hacking at my crystal. Now, I’m a powerlifter, which means I like to pick up really heavy things and put them back down – but preferably not too many times in a row. And it’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but it’d always been a mental struggle to finish sets with more than ten reps.
Luckily, Black Box VR smashed that mental block. I was regularly maxing out the number of reps per set – a number that for a month or so I erroneously believed was fifteen reps. But I was astounded to figure out it was actually twenty-five reps!
Finally, the system erases the lifter’s tedious mental calculus that’s done for every exercise and set: how many pounds should I be picking up? Instead, the algorithm automatically adjusts the resistance for you every session based on your previous performance.
In short, I was getting stronger without even really needing to think about it. And I was busting through my previous mental roadblocks without even noticing.
An example screenshot of the in-app progress tracking. Source: Black Box VR website
What could be improved?
To be clear, it wasn’t a perfect experience. First, I’m not confident the system spends enough time teaching safe form, especially to beginners lifting to failure while totally engrossed in a virtual battle. The tech knows where your hands are, which is enough to catch form mistakes like “you’re not using both arms when you row!” but not more insidious mistakes like “you’ve lost your core tension and need to get back to a neutral spine.” This could be just enough to lull a novice lifter into a false sense of security.
Second, I’d also love to see more core-specific exercises, like a cable woodchopper (pictured below). There are better ways to teach core stability, especially to a beginner or someone with a relatively weaker core, than through the chest press and the other full body compound lifts currently supported.
The cable woodchopper exercise. Source: Women’s Health Mag
Finally, in terms of inclusivity, the cable resistance machine itself wasn’t designed for someone as short as me. Since I’m only about five feet tall, the cables lost their resistance at the bottom of every squat rep (when the handles were closest to the machine). It can be dangerous for your body to unexpectedly absorb the shock from transitioning from zero to full resistance; powerlifters actually learn specific techniques to start reps safely. Another very short, less experienced lifter probably wouldn’t have been able to identify this potential danger.
Would I recommend it?
SFGate reviewed Black Box VR in March 2019 ahead of their soft opening, writing, “The workout could be recreated on any resistance machine, or simply with weights in your living room…. The appeal of a concept like BlackBox VR is novelty and exclusivity; there’s nothing like it on the consumer market yet.” I think this review really misunderstands and underestimates Black Box VR’s value.
Over the years, as a former product manager in this space, I’ve tried a lot of gimmicky AR and VR experiences whose only appeal was novelty and exclusivity. Sometimes, they’re harder to use to achieve the same goal as their non-mixed-reality alternatives! But Black Box VR is the real deal: an experience made 10x better. Specifically, it makes getting stronger 10x easier by increasing motivation and automating away tedious training design decisions.
I only stopped going because of Covid-19. Post-vaccine, I would subscribe again. And yes, I would recommend anyone who’s looking for highly motivating strength training to try it out. (Use the full trial period – I felt the workouts got better over time, especially after graduating the easier onboarding rounds.)
As I wrote about in an earlier article, VR’s ability to craft entirely new experiences like the Black Box arena is an incredible solution to the “motivation” problem. But VR fitness will continue to be limited by the physical distribution of VR devices, whether at venues or personal devices purchased for homes. That being said, I’ve been impressed by the company’s expansion efforts, like their partnership with EoS Fitness to expand their physical distribution. I look forward to a future in which gym chains, corporate gyms, hotel gyms, and all sorts of other locations have Black Box VR installed. And if it’s ever available in-home, I’d be willing to pay a premium for a unit.
SFGate was right that Black Box VR is novel and exclusive. But it’s not some gimmicky experience – it’s a top-notch training program.