Supernatural

 Supernatural is an exercise program that is available for the Oculus Quest Virtual Reality headset.  It is a little difficult to explain it with words, so here is a short video to show you how the workouts are done with the Oculus Quest.

The workouts are divided into 3 levels, low, medium, and high.  They have recently added a boxing component also.  The low-level workouts are slower and almost all of them stay within a 180-degree area, which I can easily reach in my wheelchair.  When I first started using Supernatural, all that was fine.  A low-level workout was plenty challenging for me.  After I had been working out for several months, I was ready for something more challenging.  I tried a few mid-level workouts, but they all had 360-degree rotation.  I tried to just ignore the targets that were coming at me from behind and wait for them to come back around to the front, but that meant I sat for half the workout at times.  I sent several email requests to the Supernatural team requesting at least a few higher-level workouts that were not 360-degrees.  Each time, I was told there all the lower-level workouts were limited to 180 - degrees or less (that wasn't even true.  There are lower-level workouts that were 360-degrees).  I even posted on their Facebook page requesting higher-level workouts that were not 360-degrees.  Each time I explained my reason for wanting this.

Finally, my request was addressed.  I got a Facebook message in the middle of December that the newest update had added Front Facing mode and they would like me to try it out and fill out a survey.  This was a setting in the settings menu that would turn every workout into front-facing only.   For the squats and lunges shown in the video above, you set your own height settings within the app.  They even tell you how to set it for seated, which is what you need to do when using it from a wheelchair.  This allows the game to take your specific height into consideration when sending the triangles for the squats.  It is a very individualized program.  They requested I do specific workouts and then fill out the survey.  There were 1 of each level of the "flow" workouts ( the flow workouts are the ones shown in the video above) and 1 of each level of the boxing workouts.  The workouts were all 10-13 minutes long.  I was able to do all of the flow workouts, even the high-intensity workouts.  You have to sometimes ignore the coach's instructions as they say so turn or move into a different position for the boxing stances.  They don't pertain to someone doing the workout in forward-facing mode, but there is no way to turn off the coach.  I wish there was.  Finally, I had the challenge I had been wanting for the last 6 months.  The low-intensity boxing was great, but I need a lot more practice with boxing before I do the boxing at higher levels routinely.  The movements are just different, so I need to practice more at it.  I was sure sweating a lot when I was finished and it definitely got my heart rate up.  I could feel it through my arms, shoulders, back, and core.  I was sore the next day.

Getting a good cardio workout from a wheelchair can be a challenge.  Generally, upper body-only workouts don't get your heart rate elevated very much.  Supernatural for the Oculus Quest is a really good total body workout for the able-bodied individual and a really good upper-body/core workout for those of us in wheelchairs.  There is a subscription fee for the program, but it is well worth it.  The subscription fee of $19/month or $179/year allows up to 4 users to use the program and have their own user profile so they can have their own settings since the workouts and stats are so individualized.  

Southside Market BBQ

 Southside Market BBQ is a BBQ restaurant in the central Texas area, with locations in Elgin, Bastrop, and Hutto, which are all small towns not far from Austin.  I believe they originated in Elgin.  Their sausages can be purchased in most of the HEB grocery stores in Austin and surrounding areas.

Parking - There is a lot of accessible parking and it is all right in front of the door.  In addition to the accessible parking, there is just a lot of parking in general.  I find this helpful to know also.  Since I have a wheelchair ramp, when I can't get a van-accessible parking spot, a nice big parking lot means I can park away from the main parking area so I can take up 2 spots so I have room to deploy my ramp.  People are less likely to be enraged by someone taking up 2 spots if they are doing it in a far-off spot.

Once inside, you get in line to order your food.  The line is made by the rope barricades to form a queue.  I frequently have trouble moving through those ropes because there usually isn't enough room, but not here.  There is plenty of room between the ropes to move through easily in a wheelchair all the way until I'm to the front of the line.  Once you order and they get your food together, you have to carry it on a tray into the dining room.  I had my husband with me, so he carried our tray.  Had I been alone, the tray was small enough it would have fit on my lap, even with my short legs, or I'm sure a staff member would have helped me to the table with the tray. 

Dining room: I was a bit nervous when I first went into the dining room.  The tables are picnic-style tables.  The first ones you come across have benches at them, with inadequate room at the ends for a wheelchair,  A wheelchair would block the aisle and access to the other tables.  However,  a few of the tables farther into the dining room had chairs at them rather than benches.  Drinks were self-serve fountain drinks.  The fountains were not too high and everything was within reaching distance.  The BBQ sauce was right on the table, so it was right within reach.

Bathrooms: The bathrooms were great.  I frequently have problems in bathrooms that the soap or the paper towels are difficult to reach, so there is a baby changer in the accessible stall.  This bathroom had none of that.  The accessible stall was nice and big and didn't have a baby changer in it.  The soap dispenser was easily reachable as were the paper towels.

Southside Market BBQ was one of the most accessible restaurants we have been to.  There wasn't a single thing I had difficulty with during our dinner there.  I could have easily eaten there by myself without any problems at all.  I wish more establishments were like this.