Maybe the Man of Steel has abs of steel because of all that soaring and leaping tall buildings at a single bound. At least that's the promise of a new piece of exercise equipment that combines a core workout with the virtual reality experience of flying through the air like Superman. It will be offered by the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities.
What is it? The $9,000 machine, a German invention called Icaros, will be the first of its kind available for public use in the country when it's installed in the new YMCA at Gaviidae in downtown Minneapolis next year.
How does it work? Users put on virtual reality goggles with a smartphone insert, then lie in a plank-like position on a sleek metal frame that pitches forward and back and rolls from side to side depending on how you shift your weight. That tilting and rolling control your flight in virtual reality.
In the "Flight" mode of the machine, you're swooshing over a landscape of mountains, glaciers and narrow ravines. Tilt down on the platform, and you virtually dive nose first toward the ground. Roll to the right, and you're banking around a bend in a ravine.
Other experience modes are available. In "Deep," you're underwater, scuba diving past shipwrecks while chasing sea creatures. In "Gravity," you sky-dive from outer space and land on an aircraft carrier while falling past helicopters and drones, which you have to shoot down.
What's it like? Nathan Maehren, senior vice president of digital for the Y, has used the machine about 100 times. When he's going fast on the machine, he grunts like a weightlifter as he quickly shifts his body, slaloming around virtual obstacles without crashing. A video display of what he's seeing as he flies through a narrow ravine looks a little like the view Luke Skywalker had hurtling down the trench on the Death Star.
"I almost don't realize I'm working out," he said. "You're having fun."
Trial run: At first, it was hard to control where I was going in the virtual space, but it quickly became more intuitive. You adjust your speed with a handheld button, although it's hard to tell how fast you're moving unless you look down at the speedometer display. I found myself bracing for impact whenever I seemed to be flying headfirst into a cliff.
