How FitXR is using virtual reality to take the work out of your workout
Sam Cole was on track to play rugby for the All Blacks but he realised that team sport was more than competition, it made exercise fun as if you were just playing – so he co-founded FitXr, writes Andy Martin
Growing up in Auckland, New Zealand, Sam Cole dreamt of playing rugby for his country. And until around the age of 16 he was on course for the All Blacks call-up. But then he had a realisation: “I was just not good enough to be a pro.” Fortunately, a few years later, he had a second realisation: “When you’re playing a team sport, it doesn’t feel like you’re doing exercise, you’re just playing. You’re in a ‘flow state’. I thought it must be possible to bring that same feeling to exercise – so that you forget that you’re exercising and you’re just having fun.” The result is that Cole switched from All Blacks glory to becoming CEO and co-founder of FitXR, which offers virtual reality dance and boxing classes that take the work out of workout.
Cole took a law degree at Otago University in Dunedin then came over to England in 2014 accompanied by his half-Kiwi half-Yorkshire wife. He worked in finance for a year then took time out to do an MBA at the Judge Business School in Cambridge, which is where he joined forces with his co-founder, Sameer Baroova. Sam and Sameer met, in fact, at the interview dinner at Queens’ College before they had even been accepted. And they immediately started talking about what would become FitXR.
Sameer had previously been a games developer, with the emphasis on mobile games for iPhones. Sam was a fitness fanatic. But they had a shared passion for virtual reality. It was a meeting of minds. “I already believed in VR,” says Cole. He tried out some prototype VR headsets and had been particularly taken with a spin bike simulation that took him around the Tour de France and beyond. “It’s so immersive. You get transported to a destination. Even with those early headsets, you would find yourself getting lost in the experience. It was clunky, there were cables everywhere, and we thought: if you can forget these constraints, then there are no limits.”
They were also inspired by the example of Peloton. “They’ve done an amazing job,” says Cole, “importing the studio group experience into people’s living rooms.” FitXR incorporates many Peloton-like social features: metrics, a leader board, other players at different performance levels and a selection of instructors providing motivation (all, it must be said, at a fraction of the cost).
Cole and Baroova started working on their first prototype in a garage in Woking in October 2016. “It’s a lot colder and a lot less glamorous than the stereotypical San Francisco garage where such things are born.” They tried out “boxercise”, spin, and rowing (partly influenced by their time in Cambridge). But the boxing program showed the most promise and they launched it in 2017, working with their first customers to improve and finesse. One of them said: “This is the best thing to happen to exercise since exercise.”
“What we believed is it had to be broader than just boxing,” says Cole. “It had to work for anyone. It had to be the most fun way to work out at home.” In 2018 they started collaborating with Oculus Quest which produces the headset. “We were the only thing that was not a game. We thought that was really important – that we saw ourselves as a fitness company, not video gaming. The kit that has been built by games companies – like the Wii, for example – the focus is not on fitness.”
FitXR released their dance option, 18 months in the making, together with a boxing upgrade in 2019. You can get the app on any one of three platforms: Playstation, Oculus and Steam.
Having tried it out while it was snowing outside, I can warn you about one thing: make sure you warm up beforehand because you are going to get a very serious workout. Fifteen minutes bashing away at an assortment of virtual objects flying at me, and it’s a knockout even without anyone hitting me. I am definitely a convert to the joys of VR, although my dog was completely baffled as to what I was getting up to. As far as I was concerned I was no longer in my living room, I was either in a rather spacious gym or up on a rooftop, but my dog thought I had gone mad (and was probably starting to wonder if he was ever going to get his dinner).
The software is constantly evolving. They are rolling out new environments all the time. “We want to bring more variety, so it can be personalised,” says Cole. “You might want to feel like you’re in the middle of the jungle – or in a city. There is no right or wrong answer. So you can find what works for you.” He points out that there are no real-world constraints. “You could be floating above the ocean. All the variables can be tweaked.”
The hardware is likewise developing. These days the Oculus Quest headset (now owned by Facebook) is wireless and easy to slip on and off. But Cole is already looking to the future. He foresees a convergence between VR and augmented reality in the shape of glasses that you would wear as readily as you put on headphones. “It doesn’t have to be fully immersive,” says Cole. “It’s mixed reality – it adds a content layer on top of your real world experience that guides and enhances.” So, for example, you would be able to go for a jog and find that Usain Bolt is jogging right alongside you. Or you’re on a treadmill, but it looks like you’re running along the beach in Hawaii. Or it can be snowing, if you really prefer.
Virtual reality workouts have been a great alternative while non-virtual reality has been so curtailed and locked down. Sam Cole says he is not worried about the gyms reopening (assuming they do, one of these fine days). “FitXR is not opposed to people going back to the gym. Our tech can add to the experience.”
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