Jumpstart January: An Interview with Leanne Pedante, Head of Fitness at ‘Supernatural’

The new year’s a time of resolutions and fresh starts, when many of us look to set new goals to work out, get into shape, and improve our health. But it can be hard to stick with your goals so you don’t slide back into old habits. That’s why we’re kicking off a new weekly wellness series to help you Jumpstart January.

Meta Quest has a wide range of fitness experiences that are great for getting you moving and helping you achieve your goals, whether you’re just hoping to get a little more movement into your life or you’ve got a specific milestone in mind like running a 5K. Virtual and mixed reality are awesome motivators to help you get off the couch, providing experiences that can give you guidance, transport you to faraway locations, and, most importantly, make starting and sticking with a workout routine fun rather than formidable.

One of the most popular fitness apps on Quest is Supernatural, which includes a bunch of workouts set to popular music across a variety of genres. Supernatural’s routines run the gamut from high-intensity to stress-relieving, with activities like boxing, flow, and meditation, all with a great soundtrack. The team’s always adding new music and workouts to its expansive repertoire. The latest addition, Jane Fonda x Supernatural, sees the fitness icon make the leap from VHS to VR.

The add-on brings four new high-energy workouts to Supernatural. There’s Flow with Jane Fonda, which will take you back to the ’80s; Box with Jane Fonda & Ludacris, where you can feel the burn as you punch through a hip-hop setlist from the ’90s and 2000s; Jane Fonda: Team Workout, a Supernatural Together workout that is specifically designed for groups of up to three people; and Jane Fonda: Stretch, a one-on-one stretching routine for your post-workout cooldown.

For our inaugural Jumpstart January series entry, we sat down with Supernatural’s Head of Fitness Leanne Pedante to talk about where VR/MR workouts fit in the broader fitness ecosystem, what benefits immersive technologies can offer as a supplement to or replacement for other workout offerings, and how Supernatural offers workouts to people with a range of abilities.

Leanne Pedante: The response from the Supernatural community has remained pretty consistent, which is impressive considering that the community has grown now to more than 110,000 people [in the Official Supernatural Community on Facebook]. People find their way to Supernatural for a variety of reasons—some sought us out when looking for a home workout solution, others found us after picking up their kid’s Quest, others were fitness fanatics who needed something they could customize when coming back from an injury. The response remains the same: They’re shocked by how much they enjoy working out and by the benefits they feel beyond the workouts. We have posts constantly where our athletes share new milestones they’ve hit outside of the headset—whether that’s completing a hike with their grandkids, running a 5K, or finding the confidence to start a new job. The response is overwhelmingly clear that people are finding something that really benefits them.

LP: We’ve always said, “The best workout is the one that you actually do,” and I think one of the things that makes it valuable as part of a broader home workout setup is the fact that it’s fun and puts you in a state of flow, while getting a great workout.

We ran a study with the University of Victoria that found Supernatural workouts to be the equivalent of cycling or jogging, so for lots of people, Supernatural is their home cardio workout.

I think the mental health benefits of having an immersive home workout option are often overlooked. Even though I have multiple gym memberships and a smattering of home gym equipment, Supernatural is what I turn to over and over again. It’s often the only time in my day when I’m not distracted by my phone or emails and can truly get lost in the present moment. So it serves as not just a workout, but a mental health break, too.

LP: I first played a beta version of the app before we released it in 2019. I was skeptical about whether VR fitness would be anything I was interested in. But as soon as I took the Quest off, I said, “Oh my gosh, that was so fun! And I love that there are no mirrors!” From there, I was hooked.

As a trainer, I worked with folks who were exiting out of eating disorder treatment. They often requested that we work out in facilities that didn’t have mirrors, and it was very challenging to find those spaces. There’s something very different and very valuable when you workout without staring at yourself or at other people. You’re forced to use your awareness and pay attention to how you feel as opposed to how you look.

Even after five years, I still find myself working harder than I “planned” in Supernatural because the immersive environment and the focus on the music encourage you to be swept away. It’s such a valuable and stark contrast to the feeling of being on a treadmill and feeling time stand still as you watch the clock.

LP: I think working out at home is one of the toughest versions of working out. Most people already find it challenging to drum up the motivation to work out, and I think that’s made exponentially harder when you try to do it while surrounded by all of the things competing for your time like your laundry, your to-do list, and your emails. That’s why the immersive qualities of VR/MR are so perfectly suited to working out.

I’m also really excited by all of the ways that VR/MR workouts allow easy and quick customization so that workouts can be adapted for a variety of needs. In Supernatural, you can take our library of more than 3,000 workouts and convert them to be seated if you’re in a wheelchair, convert them to use only one of your arms, or adjust them so that you can use them in a small space like a hotel room. Even the best home workout solutions still lack in their ability to be adaptive, and that’s one of the places I think VR/MR can—and should—really shine.

Supernatural is available on the Meta Horizon Store with a 14-day free trial. After that, you can subscribe for just $9.99 USD a month / $99.99 USD a year. You can also pick up a Meta Quest 3 or 3S Fitness Pack and get a 1-year subscription to Supernatural for $49.99 USD.