Exercising Can Be Fun with Beat Saber


I have been using Beat Saber on my Oculus Quest for the past few months to both exercise and have fun doing it. I mostly use it to achieve more muscle tone in my arms but it has also helped me lose some weight. It can be a fun at-home workout to get lost in slashing blocks and moving to the beat of an endless amount of songs. I want to share my story and give you my guide to working out with Beat Saber.

Beat Saber Workout Guide


Oculus Quest and VR Beat Saber Helped Me Get Started with My Fitness Goals


I purchased the brand new VR headset, the Oculus Quest, right when it was released back in May 2019. I bought it because I did not have an expensive, powerful, gaming PC that could handle other VR headsets that need those to run. The Oculus Quest does not need to connect to a PC to work. It runs all of the virtual reality games and apps through the headset itself. There are no wires required so it gives you a lot more freedom to move around the room. The Oculus Quest is by far the easiest to setup and use VR headset on the market in 2019. That is why I bought it and it has been well worth the price of $399.
The very first VR game that I downloaded was Beat Saber. I have absolutely loved rhythm video games, such as Guitar Hero, so I knew that I would enjoy playing Beat Saber. I fell in love with moving my arms and hitting the colored blocks to the beat. I put so many hours into Beat Saber and eventually got to the point where I could master Expert songs. Expert+ songs still give me some trouble but it allows me some room to improve and hopefully be able to complete the highest difficulty songs in the future. It brought me back to my days in high school playing Guitar Hero, but with virtual reality I was even more immersed into the rhythm game. If you want to know of other VR games or apps you can download that are rhythm games similar to Beat Saber you can check out my article, The Top Rhythm Games and Accessories in 2019.

While playing Beat Saber I realized that just after a few Expert songs my arms were feeling tired. This is when I realized that I could play Beat Saber with the dual purpose of having fun and exercising. I wanted to challenge myself with harder songs and consistently play Beat Saber to lose weight and gain muscle tone in my arms and shoulders. I created a Beat Saber workout guide and I want to share with you what that is so you can start working out with your VR headset at home.


Beat Saber Workout Guide


Beat Saber Title Screen


Exercising While Playing Beat Saber Consistently

I started my Beat Saber fitness journey by putting in my calendar my daily Beat Saber sessions. With the constant reminder in my calendar, along with the consistency, I will become used to working out with Beat Saber and I would form a habit. This is important for anything that you want to do that takes discipline. I played Beat Saber every day at 4:30 PM for at least 30 minutes. I would set a timer on my microwave for 30 minutes to make sure that I played for that long without taking any breaks.
   
By playing for 30 minutes daily I would be sweating like crazy by the end of the Beat Saber workout session. My arms and shoulders would feel sore but in a way where it felt they were getting a good workout. Though, I wanted to up the ante. What could I do to help make playing Beat Saber even more of an extreme at-home workout? I decided to use weights.


The Absolute Best Wrist Weights Sets to Use for an Intense Beat Saber Workout

Use weights while playing VR at your own risk! It has been shown that it can cause harm to your arms and shoulders. I have not had any issues but be careful if you do play with wrist weights to not exert too much force in your arms when swinging while playing Beat Saber and take plenty of breaks.

 I’ve done the research into what weights work the best for playing Beat Saber so that you don’t have to. See, it is not just as easy as using and arm or wrist weights and then playing Beat Saber. I owned a set of weights that wrap around your wrists like a wristband so I gave those a try while playing Beat Saber. Flailing my arms while playing Beat Saber made these wrist weights slide up and down my arm, making it super uncomfortable to play for any amount of time. At one point the weights even came undone because of moving my arms to the beat and they flew across the room almost making a hole in the wall. I needed to find a better wrist weight set.

I looked on Amazon for a bit and found my solution. SPRI WristWeights Thumb-lock Arm Weights Set. These weights are made of a soft material that lock into your thumb so that it does not shift on your arm while you move your arms around. I have been using the 2lb set while I play Beat Saber and it is an amazing workout for my arms and shoulders. Even with songs that do not have you move your arms too much it makes my arms feel sore in a way that feels like I’m exercising them really well. Make sure to wear the wrist bands on the controller so that you do not accidentally throw the controller out of your hand because these weights make holding the controller a bit tougher with the slippery material of the weights near your thumbs and also a part of the weights extending from your wrist and making hard to fully grasp the controllers. I have had no complaints with these wrist weights and they worked for me to exercise my arms more while playing Beat Saber.




The reviews on Amazon are pretty good for this product which is why I initially bought them. Some more recent reviews have been poor because the reviewer states that the wrist weights are not high quality and if you sweat on them for a long time they start to rust and look worn. Maybe I do not sweat enough or I have not used them for long enough time(only 3 months), but my wrist weights still look and feel great and have not rusted. But I was looking into testing out another set of weights that were reviewed well to see how they compared.


Another Promising Option Weight Set to Workout with Beat Saber

The other set of weights I was planning on buying are Gymenist Weighted Gloves. These are more similar to gloves which wraps around your hand so I would assume that it makes it harder to grasp the controllers while playing Beat Saber. I want to try them out because they seem to be of great quality that will last and they would not shift on my wrist at all. I will buy them and update you on how well they work while playing Beat Saber. The reviews and the pictures of the product make me feel optimistic that they will be a great option as well.

What Beat Saber Songs Give the Best Arm and Shoulder Workout?

Any song at or above the Expert difficulty will give you a great workout, especially with the wrist weights on. There are a few custom songs that I want to highlight as they will have you moving your arms for an intense exercising session. Custom songs can be modded into most versions of Beat Saber which can give you an endless amount of songs to play. If you want to learn how to add custom songs use Bsaber.com tutorials to help.

Beast Saber Custom Songs


Wake Me Up WhenSeptember Ends – Green Day mapped by DownyCat. This song is not too difficult on expert so it is a good song to warm up with. It is a fantastic arm workout because it will have you move your arms up and down to the beat constantly.

Bangarang – Skrillex mappedby tmoss94. This song again is not too hard and the blocks come at you pretty quickly but the great part about this song for working out is that there are a lot of obstacle blocks to avoid so you will have to move your feet and head to one side and then the other and sometimes squat to get under a block.

Every Time We Touch –Cascada mapped by Purphoros. Play this one with your wrist weights on and you will get one of the best shoulder workouts of your life. A classic song with an amazing beat map to keep your arms moving.

Megalovania mapped bysinlord. Another song where you will be moving from side to side and ducking to avoid all the obstacles coming at you. This is a difficult song also so your arms will also be sore and you will be sweating by the time you are done.

Camellia – Nuclear Starmapped by Hexagonial. This song will make you feel like your arms are going to fall off. Only play this song if you are extremely skilled at Beat Saber as there are an unbelievable amount of notes coming at you at fast speeds. If you can handle it then this song will give you a great workout.  


Lose Weight with Beat Saber

I have lost weight just in the few months that I have been playing Beat Saber for 30 minutes a day. Try it and see if it will work for you. You can lose weight, build muscle tone, and have fun doing it all without going to the gym. I hope you enjoyed my Beat Saber workout guide. Comment below any of your favorite custom songs to play on Beat Saber so I can try them out!