Virtual Active

      With all the love I’ve been showing for The Sufferfest, I’ve neglected my other spinning love: Virtual Active.  (Here is their website. You can watch clips of all their workouts as well as purchase DVD's or downloads.) VA is a series of DVD’s filmed in gorgeous locations around the world (current titles include New Zealand, the Swiss Alps, Italy, Australia and California), meant to be used with a treadmill, elliptical, indoor bike, etc. For each workout you have the option of selecting a “basic” workout or a “guided” workout. The basic workout is just the scenery while in the guided workout, the instructor appears (in a small box so as to not block your view) every so often to tell you about the location you’re in or to tell you to increase/decrease your speed or resistance. The instructions always match the terrain—for example, you increase your resistance when you’re going uphill and you decrease your resistance but increase your speed when going downhill.   

     Here's two images from the Northern Italy workout, one of my favourites. It really does feel like you're there. 

 
     There’s a music on/off option and you also have the option of turning subtitles on/off. So if you wanted to listen to you own music but still wanted a guided tour, you could turn off the music and turn on the subtitles.  

     The Virtual Active DVD’s are divided into three categories:

     Hike—the Hike workouts move the slowest—they’re filmed at speeds between 3-6 miles per hour. Even though the hiking workouts are geared towards someone on a treadmill, I have a lot of the hiking workouts and find them easy enough to adapt to my spin bike.  My favourite hike DVD’s are California Central Coast, New Zealand and Northern Italy.  The Hike workouts are 35 minutes long (each DVD comes with two 35-minute workouts, the guided and unguided).

     Run—the Run  DVD’s are filmed at 8-12 miles per hour so the scenery goes by faster than in the hike workouts. Like the hiking workouts, the run workouts are easy to adapt to a spin bike. My favourite of the Run series are American Southwest 2, Sydney and Alberta Rockies. Again, the Run DVD’s come with two 35-minute workouts.

     Bike—up until this year, the bike DVD’s were released under the ICG (Indoor Cycling Group) label. Jim Karanas developed and instructed the workouts. Sadly, Jim passed away last summer so now the biking DVD’s are just called “Bike” and each has a different instructor.  The older ICG DVD’s contained 2 totally different 35 minute workouts (again, with a guided/unguided option, so really you get 4 35-minute workouts) and my favourite of these is the Northern Italy ride. The newer Bike DVD’s also contain 2 different workouts (also with the guided/unguided option) but one is 35 minutes long and the other is 55 minutes long, so it’s fantastic value for your money. Of the new Bike DVD’s, my favourites are New Zealand and British Columbia.
 
       I don’t find VA workouts as tough as The Sufferfest and that’s OK. I don’t need to kill myself every workout. (For what it’s worth, the biking workouts are more difficult than the hike/runs.) What’s nice about VA workouts is that you really have the option to push yourself as hard as you want to—for an easier workout, choose “unguided” and just enjoy the scenery as you go for an easy ride. 

 
      I just love doing these workouts. They’re beautiful to look at, so much fun and my workout time seems to fly when I’m doing them. Virtual Active plans to release new workouts this year, including those filmed in Hawaii, France and Costa Rica :)
 
      (Virtual Active also has an app. The app is free and there’s a free run sample you can try, with the option to pay for full downloads. There’s also a VA/BitGym app. The app itself is free but I got a free lifetime membership through KickStarter so I’m not sure what the cost for workouts is. The app is cool in that the footage speeds up/slows down with you, depending on your speed).