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BULLEVARD<br />
T here are many<br />
compelling reasons to dig<br />
deeper on your deadlifts,<br />
but it’s unlikely you will ever<br />
have found motivation in<br />
the threat of an approaching<br />
elemental fire enemy twirling<br />
a spear. That’s because you<br />
haven’t been to Black Box VR,<br />
the world’s first virtual-reality<br />
gym, which opened in April<br />
in San Francisco, across the<br />
street from the HQ of Twitter,<br />
Uber and Dolby Laboratories.<br />
If ever there was a crucible<br />
of early adopters, it’s here.<br />
“In this game, your body is<br />
the controller,” says Black Box<br />
VR co-founder Preston Lewis.<br />
Each rep generates a fireball<br />
you can aim with your VR<br />
headset. Making selections<br />
on hovering dashboards, you<br />
rotate through six exercises:<br />
chest presses, squats, rows,<br />
deadlifts, overhead presses<br />
and lat pull-downs. <strong>The</strong><br />
harder you lift and the faster<br />
you recover between sets,<br />
the greater your chances of<br />
winning battles, levelling up<br />
and unlocking new characters.<br />
<strong>The</strong> most impressive virtual<br />
feature, though, is the weight<br />
itself. <strong>The</strong> proprietary<br />
machine harnesses electricity<br />
to deliver resistance, meaning<br />
it can ramp up the difficulty<br />
as you progress through a set,<br />
and change the weight by<br />
increments as small as 0.5kg.<br />
And the system uses AI to<br />
adjust your future workouts<br />
based on recent performance.<br />
Black Box VR is a game,<br />
but the workout is no joke.<br />
To reach higher levels, you<br />
need to bang out reps without<br />
long pauses between sets,<br />
borrowing from the proven<br />
principles of high-intensity<br />
Black Box VR<br />
SHREDDY PLAYER ONE<br />
At the world’s first virtual-reality gym, your workout<br />
is a game and your body is the controller<br />
interval training. <strong>The</strong> gameplay<br />
is engaging enough that<br />
eventually you can lose sight<br />
of just how hard you’re<br />
working. Which, of course, is<br />
the point. “People are having<br />
so much fun that they just<br />
adhere to a routine without<br />
it seeming like work,” says<br />
Lewis (pictured left).<br />
Finally, your half-hour<br />
workout ends and you slide<br />
off your headset to re-enter<br />
the real world. Compressed<br />
air blasts your sweat from<br />
the headset and medicalgrade<br />
ultraviolet light<br />
decontaminates and dries<br />
the nanotech-coated lining.<br />
Level complete, achievement<br />
unlocked: your real-world<br />
avatar has been upgraded<br />
with a buffer skin.<br />
blackbox-vr.com<br />
FUDO JAHIC PETER FLAX<br />
24 THE RED BULLETIN
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