Virtual sailing exercise enhances motor performance while maintaining stable mental and neurochemical profiles in healthy adults: a pilot study.

Objectives: While virtual exercise is emerging as a new approach for clinical application, little is known about its roles in mental health management and neuroplasticity. We conducted the first exploratory investigation evaluating the multimodal effects of a virtual sailing (VSail) program in healthy adults with the long-term goal of establishing its feasibility for mental health management. Methods: Here, we conducted a single-arm clinical trial in 24 healthy adults (18-64 years) who completed one 30-min VSail session weekly for 6 weeks using the VSail-Trainer Results: We found that the VSail program significantly enhanced grip strength in both dominant and non-dominant hands, and body balance. Hand inertial measurements across three axes showed no significant changes, indicating stable motor control and complexity. Mental health, clinical functioning, and neurometabolite levels remained stable, reflecting ceiling effects typical of healthy populations. Together, the results demonstrate that VSail effectively enhances motor performance while maintaining psychological and neurometabolic stability in healthy adults. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that virtual reality (VR)-based exercise, such as VSail, possesses strong potential as a safe, engaging, and scalable digital exercise strategy for future clinical applications, paving the way for understanding the role of virtual exercise in the muscle-brain axis.