A new peer-reviewed study we did using FitXR found meaningful reductions in anxiety and increased physical activity over eight weeks. Here is what we found, why it matters, and what it means for you.
If you use FitXR regularly, you probably already know it feels different from conventional exercise. It is not boring to start! The question I spend my career trying to answer is whether movement also makes people feel good. I want to highlight a study we did recently with FitXR where we found it can help feelings of anxiety.
Before we start, my name is Brendon Stubbs. I am a Professor of Physical Activity and Health. I have published over 800 International papers and spend most of my time trying to put data and evidence on why movement can improve health.
Now let me tell you about our study and why this is important.
The sad reality is, we are in the middle of a physical activity crisis. Around 40% of adults globally do not meet the WHO recommendation of 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity per week. In adolescents, the figure is closer to 80%. Younger generations are less active than their predecessors, and conditions associated with inactivity are appearing at earlier ages.
Adolescence and early adulthood also happen to be the peak window for the onset of anxiety disorders, depression, and most other common mental health conditions. More than 75% of lifetime mental health difficulties emerge before age 25. So we have a population that is simultaneously at highest risk for poor mental health and least likely to be physically active, and for whom conventional exercise settings, gyms, structured sport, outdoor exercise, often do not work. Self-consciousness, cost, low confidence, and lack of appeal are all documented barriers, and they are compounded when someone is already anxious.
That is the gap VR has the potential to address. Whether it actually does is a question for research, not marketing. Here is what the data shows.
Eight Weeks with FitXR Results in Big Changes
The study, published in the journal Virtual Reality (Runswick et al., 2026), followed 20 insufficiently active young adults through an eight-week FitXR program using the Meta Quest 2 headset. It was a counterbalanced crossover design, basically half the participants started with four weeks of supervised lab sessions before transitioning to home-based exercise; the other half did the reverse. We measured anxiety, depression, stress, cardiovascular fitness, and physical activity at baseline, four weeks, and eight weeks, and collected enjoyment and mood data after every single session.
Across the full eight weeks, anxiety reduced with a medium effect size (Cohen's d = 0.53, 95% CI [-1.03, -0.02]). Leisure-time physical activity, exercise undertaken outside the study sessions, increased with a medium effect (d = 0.66). That second finding matters as much as the first. It suggests participants were not just feeling better while wearing the headset. They were becoming more active overall.
In the first four weeks, when people were most engaged, we also saw medium-sized improvements in cardiovascular fitness (VO2max, d = 0.57) and leisure-time activity (d = 0.60). These are meaningful changes in a short window, for people who started the study insufficiently active.
One of the more interesting findings was the people who started with the lowest fitness levels and the lowest confidence in their ability to exercise actually completed the most sessions. That is the reverse of what you often see. It suggests VR may act as a particular gateway for people who typically get left behind by conventional exercise settings.
The Broader Picture: What a Meta-Analysis of 11 Studies Shows
A single study can always be a fluke. That is why I put more weight on the meta-analysis my co-authors and I published simultaneously in Psychology and Health, which pooled data across 11 crossover randomised controlled trials involving 330 participants.
Compared to traditional exercise, immersive VR exercise produced:
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A large effect on enjoyment (SMD = 1.45). That is a very large effect by any standard in psychological research.
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A moderate effect on affective valence (SMD = 0.62), meaning people felt measurably more positive during and after VR exercise.
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Neither age, nor sex, nor how long the session lasted moderated these effects. The benefits held regardless of who was exercising or for how long.
What This Means If You Are Already Using FitXR
The evidence suggests you are doing something genuinely good for your mental health, not just your physical fitness. Every session where you chase a streak, beat a score, or find yourself absorbed in a virtual rooftop class rather than thinking about the stress in your day is consistent with what the science now shows.
A few practical notes from the research:
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Consistency in the first four weeks matters most for physical fitness gains. Try to protect that early window.
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Mixing home sessions and organised or social sessions improves long-term engagement. Use the community.
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If you are someone who finds the gym socially intimidating or has historically avoided exercise, this research suggests VR may be specifically well-suited to you. The data consistently showed the lowest-confidence participants got the most out of the program.
