Diving into virtual worlds while exercising might help to reduce pain and allow people to sustain workouts for a longer period of time, a new study shows.
The research, led by Maria Matsangidou, a Ph.D. candidate at the Kent University School of Engineering and Digital Arts in the U.K., set out to determine whether the subjective component of pain could be minimized if the brain were busy elsewhere in a virtual setting.
The study analyzed 80 people—21 men and 59 women with an average age of 23 years—as they performed isometric bicep exercises. First, they were asked to stand with their backs straight against the wall, with their elbows and wrist joints at a 180-degree angle. They were then asked to bicep curl a dumbbell through a full range of motion. Weight was added until the participant was no longer able to perform a the full rotation.
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