If you’ve ever felt like escaping to another world while going through the same tired motions in the gym, the future is looking a little brighter with the Icaros home gym, designed and created by German design lab HYVE. While only a concept product, the Icaros offers an appealing alternative in that, when paired with a virtual reality headset, the user could be doing anything from exploring deep space, flying over rainforests, or diving in a coral reef in their mind, while the Icaros allows you to control your flight path and maintain balance with body movements. In addition to the VR goggles, a smartphone is attached to the rig to measure the pitch and angle of your movements, which is then relayed to a PC app to generate the VR graphics. Icaros developer Johannes Scholl calls this new form of workout “bodytainment,” saying that “while doing your left/right and up/down moves, you train primarily shoulders and back. Also, your abs and your lateral abdominal muscles are trained intensively.” With a crowdfunding campaign in the works for this summer, the future of the virtual reality home gym is closer than you think. Author: Gavin Yeung