I Made Beat Saber My Cardio For 30 Days

[@troythuma6337]

I started playing Beat Saber a few years ago at 50 years old. I had blown out my Achilles when running around in the yard (due to being overweight). I had to have surgery to re-attach the tendon. I started playing after I was able to walk around again. I really enjoyed playing so I was able to stick with it. Now, I play for an hour a night (most nights) and have dropped about 35 lbs. This is also because as I experienced some weight loss, I started eating better and walking more as well. It just took getting started with some activity I enjoyed. At this point, I wear a weighted vest while playing to increase the difficulty, however, I only play at "hard" level (and some maps at normal). This is because I find that my whole body movement suffers as I go to higher difficulty as just my arms are engaged. If I play at normal or hard, I can move my feat more, make more aggressive swings with my arms and so on. I'm pretty sure that I flail around like an idiot but when I play, I forget all about it and push to get the most movement and enjoyment out of it. The best part is when you get to that "flow" zone where your mind wanders while your body just moves. I find myself not really even looking directly at the blocks anymore. My arms just know where to slash and my feet just move to the rhythm. To get a better workout with more whole body movement, try dropping down a difficulty level and move your feet. Use more exaggerated motions and straighter arms (less wrist). It's less about the high score and more about the calorie burn. Thanks for the video. I enjoyed watching.

[@raviexthegod]

Definitely how I enjoy playing. I can move more at higher difficulty songs, but I'm also 17 and I play mostly custom songs to incorporate music Beat Games/Meta might not be able to get the rights to include, plus it doesn't hurt that it's free. My main issue that's keeping me from playing more rn is that I've reached a level of skill where I move faster than my Quest 2 can track, and I constantly get tracking errors, resulting in the only songs that challenge me enough to actually be enjoyable and get my heart racing being impossible to play thanks to the tracking killing itself every song.

[@GoldSrc_]

We all flail around like idiots when playing Beat Saber, but man if it isn't fun. 30 minutes of Beat Saber for just 30 days is nothing.

[@nero2355]

Ngl I'm liking the recommendations KZbin is giving me, these smaller youtubers have some good videos

[@thelemonadeheadstand1698]

Smaller KZbinrs? I'm sorry, this dude looks at least 6 foot.

[@corneredconnection]

@@thelemonadeheadstand1698 har har har

[@jasonrossignol5950]

I've been trying to use VR as a cardio replacement for a while, because I can't get myself to exercise otherwise. I find what helps me the most is rotating through my games, and not taking the games to seriously. Pistol Whip is another great game to work on cardio.

[@moki5796]

Cool video! I picked up a VR headset the other day and plan to get a chunk of my cardio done through beat saber sessions. Fun fact: The VR Institute of Health and Exercise found (in a non scientific test) that playing beat saber at a moderate level gets you roughly the same amount of activity as playing tennis. Two notes from someone who is a geek in nutrition: 1. Sports does (usually) not cause a lot of weight loss. When the body gets used to a certain training regime, the burning of calories will adapt, often leading to a short success phase, followed by a bounce back or stagnation of weight loss. This mechanism is most visible in indigenous tribes that move around all day every day to find and hunt for food. Their caloric intake is very similar to what would be expected of someone living a western lifestyle, despite them moving a lot more every day. Meaning: if one wants to lose weight, they need to start in the kitchen, not on the treadmill, because the body will adapt over time. Remember: storing fat used to be a mechanism for survival, and it would be pretty dumb if you lose your survival mechanism when hunting for more food to survive. 2. The daily weight is pretty much considered useless because it changes by 2-5 lbs throughout the day through food intake, water intake or loss and various other factors. If you eat the exact same food every day, go to the toilet at the same time every day and stand up at the exact same time every day, the numbers can make sense, otherwise for most people a weekly weigh in or a week's average makes way more sense to see if weight changes are happening or not

[@Fearless13468]

I play Beat Saber pretty hardcore. After a good hour+ long session my arms will be on fire and my heart rate can be as high as 180. Some of that is probably just stress and not the actual workout. Look at Geometry Dash players. Some of them can reach near 200 heart rates being completely still just from sheer stress. I've noticed similar things with me and Beat Saber. My heart rate can be just as high or higher doing complex maps rather than physically demanding ones. After a few years of playing, my triceps and the muscles that flex my wrists are monstrous proportional to the rest of my arm muscles. Beat Saber is a workout and a few studies have been done that puts Beat Saber at a similar level of fitness as professional tennis. Conclusion. For beginners and average players Beat Saber is more than enough of a cardio and arm workout. For high level, skilled players Beat Saber can be compared to professional sports. How much it benefits you depends on your own dedication to it, and your own biology. Having played Beat Saber pretty hardcore for several years, I can say while it's a good workout, it should not be a complete replacement for going outside for an actual walk or run. It's good to get out every now and then. Just a quick afterthought. I will use wrist weights every now and then for added resistance. That is a real arm workout.

[@snart9223]

I've done Beat Saber as exercise off and on for the past few years and I found that while I can do higher-difficulty, more complex songs, turning the difficulty down has resulted in some better workouts. Because if I don't have to focus so hard on wrist precision, I can do more of a dance with my whole body.

[@jssfrk161]

So if I’m say…physically disabled and going outside for a run is not a good idea….beat saber can be my whole workout?

[@Fearless13468]

@@jssfrk161 It can be a decent way to get some cardio in if it's all you've got. It's a decent arm and shoulder workout, as well as cardio if you are doing something hard enough. I personally wouldn't use it as a full workout, but if it's all you can do, you might as well try.

[@myguitartwerks7825]

Running a lot actually helps lose weight. And also eating less on top of it. I am working for amazon as a delivery driver and losing weight running door to door. And because routes can be challenging and tedious, I sacrifice my breaks for more time to get my routes done. As I feel myself fasting and running on top of it, I can feel myself losing weight. Just playing beatsaber before to try and lose weight never worked for me.

[@raviexthegod]

I'm basically the same way, I've been playing Beat Saber, speficially custom songs, usually Metal and Rock mapped to the drumbeats, for years, and have definitely noticed the workouts to my arms. One question though, Do you have any tips on how to minimize tracking loss when moving really fast using a headset like the Quest 2? I tend to move faster than the headset can track my controllers, resulting in tracking randomly killing itself and either delaying my swing as it tries to catch up, or straight up just launching my controller into the abyss.

[@thesunlightguardian]

Hey bud, idk how i was blessed for this video but i would love to talk about trying this from the other side. I think a lot was glossed over with the game and it makes a large difference if you play expert+ or easy, and even how you play. I will hopefully be getting a new place here in november where i could recreate this but on the side of i do not work out at all but love the game. Let me know if you want a follow up and ill gladly track it if you can direct me

[@kurisu7885]

Well, seeing the results you got has me working on getting Beatsaber set back up, namely modding it for custom songs. And setting a time of five minutes a day is actually pretty solid, especially since a lot of songs are five minutes long

[@mdk42o74]

mini stair stepper and 30-60 min of beat Saber iv lost 85 lbs already it works good keep it up

[@timm7524]

Great video. Huge agree: I've learned over and over that the biggest impact on my health is the first *consistent* activity I take on. If I do anything daily, even a little bit, my health slowly dramatically improves across the board. And doing nothing it falls apart. Funny this popped up for me as I've been using Beat Saber to get my 30 minutes daily again! In the past I've definitely found dedicated cardio and light strength training was better. But you gotta wanna do it first. Interestingly I also find my scores go up when I'm in better shape overall! At my fittest I was dabbling in expert plus. Now I sometimes need to drop to hard. 😅

[@crushl2451]

For me Beat Saber is working out great. Doing it for 4 months now (about 1 to 1,5 hours per day). It does not only train the body / arms, but also the mind. You start out on easy with 1 to 2 notes per second and going to 6 to 8 per second on Expert+. At first it was clearly my head that was too slow until I got to 5+ notes per second when finally my arms started hurting and felt really drained. So in my opinion, beat saber gets better in the long run when it really starts challenging your body AND mind at the same time.

[@clobzz]

yeah ive reached a point where my body is SEVERLY lagging behind my mind, like i see all these maps that i like know whats going on, i can read them, i just cant keep up with them, cant swing fast enough

[@eves9599]

For anyone doing stuff like this I'd also heavily recommend the game Until You Fall if you're looking for more active VR experiences! It's a bit more complicated than beat saber but more actively makes use of things like squats and leans in it's combat setting as well as a different range of motion compared to the occasionally largely up and down motion of beat saber.

[@justajukebox]

nice video, surprised when i saw how little views this had

[@TheDoomSlayer_777]

I didn't even notice until you pointed it out. Definitely deserves more views

[@Barbecuemonkmain]

I’ve played beat saber for years and my heart rate is now normally 110 bpm but playing it I’ll get to 180bpm

[@SpamMaster57]

The experiment I always wanted to do but I always got tired of Beat Saber. Thanks to you now I know this is the good ending: I picked up capoeira, so now I do actual quality workout, fight, and acrobatics to music. Pistol Whip is worth a shot for the same challenge though.

[@TheDoomSlayer_777]

You definitely deserve more views and subscribers. This is a great video

[@happyllama25]

very interesting! great video! i liked how you included and explained the reasons for each different pain/feeling you got

[@ardynamberglow3124]

Honestly, Beat Saber, and Pistol Whip are very good as workout alternatives. On my first day of getting my VR headset set up, over the course of a 3 hour session (mostly beat saber), I was able to burn a total of 500 calories, and had a max heart of about 120. Song Intensity also plays a huge factor because they require either more intense movements, or odd timings. Plus, given that you can fail a song means that sight reads can be incredibly hard--and being able to search for a song either on your workout playlist, or one you like in passing and be able to play it at expert, or expert+ can lead to some really fast burning calories. Pistol whip is similar in that you need dodge and move your head while also maintaining accuracy, and the harder the songs, the more intensive it gets. In both instances where I've done a Beat Saber, and Pistol Whip game in one session has lead to some very intense workouts, at least for me.

[@mrswhatever]

Good now I can show this to my husband and he will get me a VR set :D

[@sidrat2009]

Should have mixed the month up between Beat Sabre, Pistol Whip & Synth Riders, with a rest day Pianovision because why not - co-ordination matters.

[@jbmurphy4]

I find pistol whip is great for cardio compared to synth riders. Though synthriders can tire your arms out more when your holding those notes. I havent tried beat sabre yet though.

[@Katastrophe9009]

I feel like if you're a music lover, and/or music is just very important to your workout routine, definitely give Beat Saber a shot. Once you find some songs you like doing on it, it straight up doesn't feel like a workout, but if you put your whole body into the motions, you will come away with a decent sweat. There are plenty of charts specifically designed to move your entire body, where you have to dodge left, right and duck. Those are the ones that really get you moving. Basically, you don't want to just stand in one spot flailing your arms like a madman, that's a sure fire way to get nothing out of it but shoulder pain.

[@Calakapepe]

In a different way, i find Synth Riders to tire me out more once Im on the master or expertt difficulty

[@nickjaxter4531]

Beat Saber is a good game for being active, but unless you are going for the full-body songs its going to lack a large chunk of the value it can have for an exercise. A variety of games would make more sense for both exercise purposes and for just enjoying it. When I was in CVRE playing Beat Saber for competition, I would often play other games that asked for different types of mobility (and I rock climbed through-out that time as well). Games like GORN, Blade & Sorcery, and especially "Until you Fall". Each of those games when played at reasonable intensity demand a lot of attention and fast, technical movement. Similarly, you can modify your workout with wearable weights, which can really make someone into a machine.

[@CultReaperGaming]

if your shoulder is hurting then your not playing it right beatsaber mainly focuses on your wrists and forearm theres only a very few maps that requires a full swing and even at that point depending how good you are at the game you can just get those full swing notes with a simple flick of the wrist

[@CrudelyMade]

warming up certainly is important, but what I also find is that some people just focus on arms, and not use the body. I come from a sword fighting background and I think it's easier to achieve a 'flow' on the maps I like. I Avoid the maps that force 'unsmooth' or 'forced' movement. when teaching people sword fighting, athletes are a little harder to teach because they tend to try to overpower the sword, using more muscle and strength than learning to work with the sword and achieve more a flow, working with the physics. thing is, it's easier to teach athletes with a very heavy sword than a lighter one, because they can feel the weight more and start to understand how to work with the weight instead of against it. being familiar with it, it was an easier transition for me to the controllers which have practically no weight. overall it sounds like you like running, as opposed to beatsaber. you might also try 'thrill of the fight' (not 2).. even boxers get good cardio from that pretty quickly. but.. if you don't enjoy boxing then it also won't be for you. maybe you're a runner. I'm not. despite ultimate frisbee player. but I sprint there instead of the steady job so many people like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ good luck! 🙂

[@Katastrophe9009]

I've definitely found you get out what you put into it. I like Beat Saber for exercise specifically because I get really into it if its a song I like and start bouncing to the music, jumping back and forth, and before I know it I'm drenched in sweat and I don't even realize it's happening because I'm just having so much fun. This is the key to me. Find your "flow" state with the game, and it wont even feel like exercise until the song is over, and you're already done then.

[@dirtyfloormarshmellow]

As someone with around 1000 hours in the game. I have lost a little bit of weight, but not enough to make me not look like Im built like the Globglogabgalab. (Short Answer: it does work but nowhere near as fast as actually working out)

[@KortiLP]

Good idea but I think Pistol Whip is better because you really have to move your whole body

[@timm7524]

That kind of depends on your play style. I'll choose an easier level in the interest of feeling more free to dance around like an idiot while I saber, and it's absolutely full-body exhausting. For sure if you get into wrist flicking through maps, it doesn't work the body near as hard though.

[@KortiLP]

@timm7524 Don't get me wrong, I love both games and move around a lot in Beat Saber. I prefer playing on hard. But Pistol Whip forces you to move more because you have to dodge obstacles and bullets a lot

[@dragonbeast2853]

It looks like KZbin randomly decided 3 days ago that everyone needs to see this

[@ChickenGtag123]

As a person who can beat power of the saber blade, it works for me

[@codythep]

Bro is a beast at Beat Saber tho

[@trackingdifbeatsaber8203]

With shoulder pain dropping player height can help although this makes accuracy on bottom row notes worse, so I only do it on fast maps. the ACC saber playlists make for good warm up and cool downs. Beat leader goes up to 15.61 stars I have a few 12+ but mostly play 8 to 11. I would not recommenced playing everyday and I don't measure anything physical, and I wouldn't recommenced playing for more than 2 hrs at a time or 4 in a day. A interesting thing about beat leader ranking is the star rating is split into three components if you hover your laser over it you can see the different components, and in the web browser you can click on the triangle to find maps that are challenging in a similar manner.

[@Flaggstang]

Good vid bru

[@PlanetJeroen]

Having just started with VR fitness, I first tried Beat Saber, but I find that the really fast tracks encourage wrist movement more than anything else. I tried FITNESS! which is nice, and then X-Fitness, which is murdering me daily now. I find that shadow boxing targets and slicing them is much more engaging for the whole body than Beat Saber. I use Beat Saber on my off days to relax a bit and not do nothing.

[@Awfulwaffal]

You should try this challenge again but with fitXR or Supernatural. The things that are actually advertised to be for exercise in vr

[@Katastrophe9009]

I can tell you from personal experience FitXR is definitely a real workout, but that's just it, it really feels like a workout most times. The music selection is very mid, no big name artists or anybody I really like. The coaches are great, and the exercises are fun, but at the end of the day, it still FEELS like a workout. For this reason, I couldn't stick with it, and have since picked up Beat Saber instead and have not regretted it one bit. Crank up the difficulty as high as you can comfortably do, and really put your whole body into the movements. You'll be drenched in sweat by the end of the session guaranteed.

[@Awfulwaffal]

@Katastrophe9009 I play beat saber on expert plus so I understand what you mean. The thing I don't like about beat saber for exercise is the same thing that happened to him. When you play expert + a lot your arms start hurting a lot. And it's not from soreness from exercise it's from moving them awkwardly. Beat saber is great but its not really geared toward exercise and can have a negative impact on your body. I've tried fitXR and Supernatural. Supernatural actually has a lot of big names on there so you might like it more. But I agree after a couple of months on either the workouts start feeling stale. And I hate that you can't customize the songs in a playlist. With that said I would say try and give supernatural a chance. I liked it more than fitXR because it had better music and better coaches.

[@starakatart]

Supernatural fitness and Starwave are also good choices for VR cardio. I think the limiting factor is that you’re using your arms a lot but not your legs as much. If you love running or walking, you’ll feel limited using these apps.

[@iM0rb1d]

I play beat saber for 3hrs a day. And its fun. Didnt care about the weight loss. Still dont think of it that way.

[@derekschommer1465]

I suspect it’ll have a huge impact for me I spend a lot of time playing games on my pc just got a quest and I love beat saber so if I can keep playing it instead of playing pc games it’s hard to snack while playing cause obviously you can’t and also actually moving around instead of 3-5 hrs in my desk chair every day

[@nrdfoss]

i play beat saber almost everyday and i don't feel like super exhausted

[@kevogames86]

challenge accepted

[@KaleahVR]

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@dosanlol]

yeah your scapula dies and so does your shoulders if you play this daily, I normally play it every other day with the weekend being a rest to allow them to recover

[@loriziell]

Now try Thrill of the night 30 minutes everyday

[@nickhtk6285]

I use Pistol Whip. Much more mobility and ROM driven.

[@andrewross3133]

Try VR dance dash for Cardio

[@myguitartwerks7825]

Your wrists will probably start to break especially doing expert+ levels a lot. I was trying to do that and my wrists are starting to snap a little when bending

[@convoludedduded5086]

dude ur a beat saber god wtf

[@henrytuttle]

Seems to me, arm muscles are too small. Do something as intense with your legs for 30 minutes and I think it'd be good.

[@scottyflamingo1413]

I recently got a VR and this video has convinced me not to get this game. The game footage makes me think I'm going to have a seizure. It's crazy! Unless you sped up the footage massively.

[@HeisenStark13]

It depends on the difficulty but it does look a bit sped up. I think you can change the background if you actually are prone to seizures. I recommend the game, it's fun.

[@romulusmars1776]

Did you not have any rest days?

[@NerreraFightStories]

Good vid

[@JavaJake123]

W video

[@johndoe-yw7eb]

Interesting that you started getting bored and burned out before the 30 days was even up. My thoughts on Beat Saber are similar. As a dance gamer used to having hundreds of songs available, the Beat Saber song list feels pretty limited, unless I want to start buying up all the DLC.

[@clobzz]

i assume you dont have the ability to mod it, otherwise if you did have the ability to there is literally ZERO reason not to because you are missing out on tens of thousands of songs, thousands of which are high enough quality to be ranked

[@GoldSrc_]

Mod it and get custom songs, you don't need to buy anything other than the game. Be it on PC or Quest, you can mod both.

[@jasonmelo1974]

15% body fat at 205 lb? What are you a boxer? 😆 I think we need to check the body fat percentage again.

[@devonthompson9922]

Unfortunately beat Saber isn't great for cardio because to be good at it your have to really only use your wrists

[@kirbnt]

Not true at all. Being a top player, you have to use a lot of arms, especially for tech maps and accuracy maps. Pure speed maps are mostly wrist but that's only a portion of all maps

[@timm7524]

I agree, but actively choose to play on easier map level if it lets me feel free to throw my whole body into it, dancing like an idiot. If I feel I need to lock in place to wrist flick at blocks, then I'm both not getting the same activity and honestly not having at much fun!

[@HeisenStark13]

You shouldn't do the hardest difficulty if the goal is cardio

[@devonthompson9922]

@kirbnt that's not true at all you can be completely accurate and get the highest amount of points easier using just your wrists

[@devonthompson9922]

@HeisenStark13 the goal in a game is to get better at the game and win. That's fun to me so I'm not going to nerf myself for cardios sake when I can play other games that include both

[@Stacesvfx]

beat saber is a rhythm game. It shouldn't be a source for general exercise or cardio, though it can always be a great way to get up and just have some general movement throughout the day. you should play it to have fun and working on your skill to improve. treating it like a chore, can ruin the whole point on why you decided to play.