Supernatural's Rebirth Reinvigorates VR Fitness Community: 'Coaches Were The Super Glue'

A community rallies around coaches returning this fall to Supernatural Health.

When I started Good Virtual Reality in January after more than a decade at UploadVR I wrote “the only thing that’s real about VR is the people. That is my focus and always will be.”

Fans of Supernatural VR fitness share that in common.

Many in the community of more than 110,000 on the official Facebook group for Supernatural had become despondent, seeking solace in other services like FitXR and FunFitLand, after Meta laid off the coaches in January. Yesterday’s announcement that the fitness service is relaunching later this year as an independent startup ,and bringing the coaches back, is turning that sentiment around.

“I’m literally walking around my neighborhood while I read comments and bawl my eyes out,” replied coach Raneir Pollard to a crying fan. “You’re not alone fam!”

Coaches call subscribers to the fitness service “athletes” and deliver positive reinforcement throughout the workouts and beyond.

“We are building something beautiful and we’re doing it with you,” said Leanne Pedante on the new sign-up page for the service. “Get on board lets ride till these wheels fall off.”

I posted to the Facebook group in search of reactions both to the layoffs in January and unexpected news of its rebirth in June.

“I was heartbroken when they left, and I canceled to send a message to Meta that I was not okay with this,” wrote one user. “I started working out and running and doing more organically from home, but I missed Supernatural... my mother passed away yesterday, so hearing this news has been like a life preserver, and I am feeling such blessings right now, and hopeful and happy”

Below are five Supernatural fitness stories I received over email from people who have used the VR fitness service over the last five years, bolding added:

Therese Martin

I have NEVER like to exercise, not in high school, not in the Army and certainly not in my adult life. Supernatural changed that for me. It wasn’t overnight. It took me about a year to realize that this exercise was fun, required minimal coordination, and no gym bod required. I started using Supernatural in 2022 but didn’t get serious until 2023. I had a 192 week streak going until early in 2026 when I missed a couple of weeks. I work out 4 days a week. Every week. I have NEVER stuck with an exercise routine for longer than a month until I started Supernatural. Now, I am lighter, stronger and happier than when I started.

I started for the movement and the music. I have stayed for the coaches and the way they make me feel supported, important, powerful. We have never met in person, but I spend time with them 4 days a week and it doesn’t feel virtual to me. I feel so much more confident! I have so much more belief in myself. I feel better and when I am not working out, I don’t feel great. These coaches have inspired me so much. I hear, “You can do hard things!” in the middle of some hard workouts and I believe it. I believe it so much I got a tattoo that reads “ICDHT”. I can do hard things.

I cried all day when it was announced that Meta had pulled the plug on Supernatural. I felt betrayed. I was angry. These people, the choreographers, the VR folks, had all put their heart and soul into this program and this community. I felt betrayed for them as well. I thought about dropping my subscription but then I remembered how much joy I get from working out in the Supernatural world. I remembered how much everyone worked to create this program and make it special. I decided to ride or die with Supernatural. And, if I am truly honest, I know that if I quit Supernatural, I would not bother to find a replacement. I would slowly just go back to not moving.

Today, I am glad that I kept doing my Supernatural thing because now I know there is something better waiting for me down the road. I am grateful for the powers in the universe that made this happen.

Supernatural since January 2022

Leela Sinha

I don’t have a big fancy Surgery to Superathlete story, just the regular kind we see so many of in the community. I’ve tried all my life to exercise, but for two reasons, it’s always been hard: one, I have some medical issues that make it hard for me to be far from home if something goes wrong. The other is just that I get BORED. Weight lifting: boring. Running: boring. Everything else: also boring. Sports: why does this matter?

I discovered way back in the days of the XBox Kinect and the PS...gosh what was it called? that computer games were one way to get me moving, but the tech really just wasn’t there, and then there wasn’t enough game development for those platforms. Then I realized what I love is adventure sports: kayaking, rock climbing, hiking--but due to the aforementioned medical situation, all the pieces of the puzzle have to be perfect for me to get to do those things, and then really, for safety, I should have someone else along. Then I got another medical situation that also makes outdoor sports tricky.

And bored. Did I mention I got bored SO EASILY? (I’m an intensive--we are intense personality type people, I wrote a book about us--and getting us to exercise is a real challenge). I wanted intense and fun but low actual risk because I can’t afford to be getting injured.

When I found SN it was before its transfer to Meta and I was DELIGHTED. I used it so much I got my second sports injury ever (shoulder problems) but couldn’t find a PT who understood the game, so they couldn’t really help me fix it. That sidelined me, and I was so upset. I’ve never been upset about not exercising before--first time for everything, I guess--and then I recovered, and then I reinjured myself and for the first time in my life I understood why athletes aren’t just relieved they don’t have to play their sport for a few months while they heal.

I was just coming back from my second hiatus when the shutdown was announced...and I was so disheartened I couldn’t get in the headset at all. All the cardio fitness (I discovered I could run by accident after I’d been doing SN for about six months the first time) and strength and flexibility I’d built slowly ebbed away, and my doctor put his Disappointed face on, but I just couldn’t make myself. It was like going to a graveyard.

So I’m incredibly excited to be anticipating the reboot. When indie companies are bought out I never begrudge them their exit (I consult with small businesses which are often partly or all the way software companies--I know how much work it is, and they deserve their flowers) but so often the values get lost in the money-only-value that a takeover involves. I can’t wait to see the values of community and support and fitness and access to athletics for all return to the app and those of us who love it.

Tammi Strong

On June 12, 2023, I put on a VR headset and started Supernatural for the very first time.

At the time, I had no idea it would completely change the way I viewed exercise.

For all my life, I hated even the thought of working out. It was something I knew was good for me but that wasn’t enough reason to actually do it.

Supernatural changed all of that. Somehow, exercise became fun. It became something I wanted to do, not something I forced myself to do.

But it wasn’t just the workouts.

The magic of Supernatural was always the people behind it.

The coaches weren’t just faces that appeared in a headset. They were real people who genuinely connected with the athletes. They celebrated wins, encouraged us through struggles, and built a community that felt surprisingly personal for a virtual platform. Over time, I even became close with one of the coaches and would chat with each other about things outside of Supernatural.

So when the changes started happening and then the coaches being laid off, something shifted for me.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at first, but the excitement I used to feel every time I put on the headset started to fade. The workouts were still there, but the heart of what made Supernatural special felt different. To me, the coaches were the super glue that held everything together. Losing them felt personal because they had become such a meaningful part of the experience.

Today, everything changed again.

When I heard the announcement that the coaches and some of the original staff would be launching their own version this fall, I instantly felt something I hadn’t felt in a while: excitement.

Real excitement.

The kind that makes you smile before you’ve even finished reading the announcement.

The kind that makes you immediately want to put the headset back on.

For the first time in a long time, I felt that spark come back.

It’s funny how sometimes it isn’t the technology, the workouts, or the features that keep us coming back. It’s the people. It’s the community. It’s feeling connected to something bigger than yourself.

June 12, 2023, was the day I fell in love with fitness.

And today feels a little like getting that feeling back.

Fall can’t come soon enough!

Sherer Minor

My name is Sherer Minor, and I am very much a SN fan. I’d call myself a devotee, but I’ll admit I’ve wandered over to FitXR recently in an attempt to find an alternative, as I assumed SN had been put out to pasture.

I’ve been a SN athlete for a few years off and on, and just like most people, life got in the way of me sticking to it. I lost track of my fitness goals for a few years when work and my child’s schedule obligations started monopolizing my time. The weight crept on and I chose to be blind to it. It just wasn’t a convenient time for me to put myself first.

Then, in November 2024, my Mother was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Since I live the closest (about an hour away), I was her caretaker. At first, she was independent, and in her brave and stoic way, took it all, considered it just a temporary setback, in and was determined to beat it. She elected to try chemo. I took her every two weeks, and during that time, watched as her health declined. She’d lose weight rapidly, and I’d seem to find it just as rapidly.

When she passed in June of 2025, I was mentally and physically broken. I was 230 lbs, and my emotional health was as destroyed as my physical health. So in July, I went to my doctor, and told her that something had to change. Her response was to provide prescriptions for anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds, as well as Zepbound to help kick start my weight loss. Surprisingly, insurance covered it, and I tried my first dose that weekend. Boy, did that ever suck. The nausea was REAL.

Despite the side effects, I kept taking it, and within a few weeks at a small dose, started to see my weight drop a little. Once I saw the scale move, I got motivated to keep going, and see what else I could do. I started walking around my small neighborhood, and that got boring fast. I joined a gym and tried the treadmill and weight machines. Hated that too! One day, I looked at my Quest 2 collecting dust, and muttered out loud but to no one in particular “meh, why the hell not?”

I was sucked in from that moment on. From the first wind chime-like sounds of the opening intro, to the final swings I took during my low intensity quick hits workout, I felt like I was “home”. Sweat was dripping into my eyes and mouth, but I couldn’t stop smiling. It felt like the first time I had smiled in a month. To be honest, it probably WAS.

I put the headset on almost every day. I built a VR gym area in my basement, and also picked up some equipment to start strength training. I stopped taking the antidepressants, and only use the anti-anxiety meds when I absolutely need them. I’m still taking the Zepbound, because it helps with the “food noise”.

When the announcement was made that the SN app was being sunset, and the coaches let go, I felt like I had been sucker-punched in the gut. It took me a second to remember to breathe. All I could think was “Oh shit, what am I going to do now?” I felt abandoned. I kept using the app, but honestly it wasn’t the same. It felt hollow. I then wandered over to other apps: Funfitland, Les Mills Bodycombat, and FitXR. I hated the first two, but despite the music being abysmal, FitXR had different options that I liked, such as the daily challenges, and the “ghost” multiplayers with the leaderboards in each session, which spoke to the competitive nature that I didn’t know I had. So I started using FitXR first as my warm up, then SN for my main workout.

Today, when the announcement was made that the family is coming back together, my first reaction was pure joy. It was the best news I had heard in a while! I virtually SPRINTED to the sign-up page and became a founding member, then I shouted my jubilation from the Official Supernatural Community FB page rooftops! Once the initial excitement wore off, I was surprised to notice that I felt guilty. FitXR has become a staple of my routine, which means that I’m now a customer of their competition.

Well, damn. I’m cheating on my fitness family.

I realize that there’s room in my headset for both, as there has been these many months. However, I will likely drop FitXR when SN comes fully back online, especially if they take some of the features of FitXR, like the varied workouts (HIIT, Sculpt, Combat) and the competition aspect. I know where my true loyalties lie: to the app that saved me from myself.

DeeDee Henry

When the news hit in early January that Meta was putting Supernatural on life support, saying I was devastated would be an understatement. I was in tears, stunned into disbelief, and completely numb. I’m part of #TeamSunshine, myself, Sherry Dickson, Kelly Hines, and my mom, Darlene “Cookie” Norman, and we truly went through the stages of grief together. But when we reached anger, it lit a fire under us.

We reached out to every media source we could. We campaigned, wrote letters, made calls, sent emails, anything we thought might help. We heard a lot of discouragement and skepticism, with people telling us we were wasting our time, that Meta was too big, and that Meta didn’t care. But we refused to listen. Even with so much silence and rejection surrounding our cause, one source connected with us: Victoria Song of The Verge. Through that coverage, we were featured as a small representation of the Supernatural athletes fighting to keep our app alive, and that attention lasted for a couple of weeks, helping bring much-needed awareness to saving Supernatural and our coaches.

Although we haven’t had many other successes since then, we also haven’t stopped brainstorming or looking for new ways to keep fighting. I’ll admit, we were discouraged and unsure what our next move would be, but this morning, everything changed. THIS MORNING we got the news, and I was in shock. I had to verify it was real before I let myself believe it. We found out about ten minutes before our morning workout together, and we spent our morning rejoicing, laughing, crying, dancing, and singing together in our “together” workout. We celebrated. The only thing that could have made it better would have been doing it all in person.

I’ve been a Supernatural VR user since October 2020. I’ve participated in beta testing and user interviews to help improve the human side of the app. It’s hard to fully explain to someone else how deeply this fitness app and its community have impacted me. Like many others, I originally started using it to lose weight and get healthy, but it became so much more than that. It created a genuine community, a family offering support, human connection, and encouragement while helping us build healthy habits.

It became a transformative tool for both physical health and mental health. And by mental health, I don’t just mean the meditation and stretching sessions. I mean the community of people connecting through shared struggles, experiences, victories, losses, and vulnerabilities, you name it, we’ve shared it. I never imagined a VR app could have this kind of power, and I’m sure the creators of Supernatural never could have imagined the level of virtual intimacy it would help build among people from all over the world.

A huge part of that closeness and success is thanks to our human coaches: Leanne Pedante, Mark Harari, Antonio “Doc” Harrison, Raneir Pollard, Dwana Olsen, and Mindy Lai. They connected with us on a personal level. They shared their real-life stories, struggles, and lessons while we worked out with them. Even more importantly, they showed up every day in the Facebook community and interacted with us there too. We could message them privately, and they would show up for us there as well.

We have cried tears of triumph and loss in our headsets while listening to and genuinely connecting with our coaches. We’ve also shared some very personal losses as a community.

And that’s only part of it. The users themselves have built a community of love and support. There are workout groups, competitions, and “together” workouts that let us see each other’s avatars and move as a team toward shared goals. We meet, talk, bond, and form friendships. I have so many people I’ve never met in real life, yet I truly consider them friends. One of my favorite memories is the “coach roulette” days, when coaches would surprise us by popping into together workouts, and everyone would scramble to “catch a coach” and work out with them. Those were good times.

I’ve also built my own core circle, #teamsunshine including my 75-year-old mother, who lives five hours away. Supernatural is how we talk to each other five days a week. I even won my mom her headset through a Supernatural “write about a woman who inspires you” challenge. I was one of five people who won a free headset and subscription, and I gifted mine to her because I wrote about her as my inspiration. She is moving, staying healthy, getting stronger, and impressing her doctor with her progress.

I also met a beautiful Canadian, Sherry Dickson, in a random together workout, and we quickly bonded. I invited her to join my mom and me, and later I discovered she is actually a distant cousin. The same thing happened with our fourth member, Kelly Hines, in Ohio, she turned out to be a distant cousin too. That makes the world feel small, but wonderfully connected. And even before we knew we shared family lineage, these two beautiful people I met through Supernatural were already my family.

I know I’m not alone in this experience. If you look deeper, you’ll find many stories like mine.

I could go on for pages about the benefits of Supernatural, not just as a fitness app but as a life-changing, legacy-building, beautiful human experience. If it were gone, there would truly be nothing that could replace it.

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