Testing AR Glasses as a Treadmill Companion

I’ve always found treadmill walking to be exceptionally boring. If I’m outside, on a park trail, a greenway, or any kind of walking path, I can walk for hours without thinking about it. The time just disappears. Put me on a treadmill indoors, staring forward at the same wall or the same row of machines, and suddenly even twenty minutes feels long.

Right now, though, walking outside isn’t really an option. The weather is cold, the wind is unpleasant, and I am not motivated enough to bundle up just to be uncomfortable the entire time. So I’m stuck indoors with the treadmill, trying to find something that makes it feel less monotonous. That was the mindset I was in when I decided to try using my Xreal display glasses while walking.

The idea was simple. If treadmill walking is boring because there is nothing to look at and no sense of movement through space, maybe I could fake that feeling. Not perfectly replicate walking outdoors, but at least add some variety and visual interest so it does not feel like I am just walking in place.

I found that there is a whole category of YouTube videos that are just someone walking while filming. No narration, no edits, just long, continuous footage of moving through an environment. These videos are usually around an hour long, so during my walk I managed to get through two of them.

The first was a nature walk along a waterfront, with mountains, waterfalls, and a bit of light hiking. The second was a fully CGI walk set in the Harry Potter universe, starting at the train station and ending at Hogwarts. That one could have easily felt cheesy, but it was actually surprisingly engaging while walking.

What caught me off guard was how well the illusion worked. Making the virtual screen as large as possible turned out to be important. Even though the screen did not fit entirely in my field of view, I could move my head slightly to look at different parts of the scene, which made it feel less like watching a video and more like being present in the space.

Audio, unfortunately, was where things fell apart a bit. Normally when I walk, I am listening to music or a podcast. With this setup, at least on iOS, that was not really possible. As far as I can tell, the system only allows one audio source at a time, so if you are playing a YouTube video, you cannot also play music in the background.

I assumed I could just mute the video, but the YouTube app does not actually have a mute option. The only way to silence it is to turn the system volume all the way down, which also kills your music. I tried watching in the browser so I could mute the tab, but then I could not full-screen the video. So I had to choose between full screen with audio I did not want, or muted audio with a worse visual experience.

It is frustrating, because the ideal setup would be to mute the walking video entirely and listen to a podcast while visually moving through these environments. Maybe Android handles this better. I honestly do not know. And maybe this kind of thing improves if Apple ever releases their own display glasses with tighter OS-level integration. For now, it is a real limitation.

Even so, the walk was still more enjoyable than a normal treadmill session. Instead of music, I ended up listening to the ambient sounds from the videos. Footsteps, gravel, water, and background noise. It was not what I planned, but it turned out to be oddly calming, and the time passed much faster than usual.

After I finished the walking videos, I tried watching an episode of Friends while still walking. That worked well too, but in a different way. For the walking videos, I wanted the screen to feel huge and immersive. For a TV show, a smaller screen was clearly better. Being able to see the entire frame at once matters more for traditionally shot content.

I also experimented with display modes. For treadmill walking, anchor mode was clearly the right choice. With anchor mode, the video stays fixed in space, so you can look around within it. That made the walking videos feel much more natural, especially since my own movement lined up reasonably well with what I was seeing.

Follow mode just felt off. Since the screen moves with your head, it is hard to focus on any one part of the image. As soon as you try to look at something off to the side, the whole display shifts. For this kind of use, anchor mode is not just better. It is basically required.

Comfort and safety were things I paid close attention to. I did not feel motion sick at all, and I never felt unsteady. That is a big reason I would not try this with a fully immersive VR headset like a Quest 3 or Vision Pro. With the Xreal glasses, you still have a clear view of the real world, especially in your peripheral vision. You are never completely cut off from your surroundings, which makes walking on a treadmill feel much safer.

There was one visual issue worth mentioning. During one of the walking videos, the scene moved indoors and became fairly dark. I was in a brightly lit gym, and in that situation I started noticing reflections in the display. Specifically, I could see reflections of my legs and feet moving below me. I think that is due to the angled nature of the display reflecting whatever is directly underneath it. As soon as the video returned to a brighter outdoor scene, the problem disappeared. Still, it is something to be aware of if you are watching dark content in a bright room.

Overall, I would do this again without hesitation. I went into it just trying to make treadmill walking less miserable, and I ended up with something that genuinely made the experience more engaging. It did not replace walking outdoors, but it did a decent job of capturing some of that feeling. Movement, variety, and the sense that you are actually going somewhere instead of just counting down the minutes.