Is BlazePod Here to Stay [Physical & Cognitive Workouts]

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Exercise fads may come and go, but when it comes to working out, there’s one constant – the training rut. Even the biggest gym rats and fitness junkies occasionally hit the mental and physical wall. Sometimes you simply plateau and can’t seem to make any progress with your routine. Or worse, you simply lose your motivation.

Suddenly slogging out that five-mile run, jumping on the exercise bike or picking up a weight fills you with a combination of boredom and dread.

The answer to this exercise ennui? For some, it’s technology. In recent years we’ve seen the rise of tech-based fitness systems like Liteboxer and Peloton that combine both equipment and apps to push your workout to the next level. But perhaps one of the most streamlined approaches to shaking up your routine with a little tech is BlazePod.

This series of Bluetooth-connected pods and the accompanying app give you a myriad of ways to train reaction times, strength, speed, agility and more. Blazepod also allows you to work out alone, with a partner or even in a group. But is it for you?

We’re going to fill you in on the details of this training system, including how it works, how much it costs and some of its potential benefits.

Let’s dive and help you decide if BlazePod is what you need to light up your training sessions. Continue reading our full BlazePod review.

What Is BlazePod?

BlazePod is touted as a “flash reflex training system.” So what’s that? To put it simply, it’s a series of Bluetooth-connected pods that light up and give you a visual cue to do exercises and drills to improve your agility, strength, balance, reaction time, cognitive abilities and more.

These touch-sensitive devices can be tapped, slapped, punched and kicked. And they work in combination with a free app that gives you tons of activities to choose from. With Blazepod, you can work out solo, with a buddy or even with a team.

The app also allows you to tailor your workout according to what you want to work on (like balance, speed, strength, etc.) and keeps track of your progress. And if you practice a specific sport such as swimming, tennis, boxing, martial arts, bouldering or just about anything else, the app can give you exercises that relate to your particular interests.

But because sometimes the best explanation is no explanation at all, here are a couple of videos to give you the idea:

What Does BlazePod Cost?

Now that you know how it works, let’s talk about price. The BlazePod standard kit starts at $299 and includes:

4 pods
A charging base
A carrying case for 4 pods
The free app with hundreds of exercises

The kit also comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee in case you’re not satisfied, a 1-year warranty and 24/7 customer support.

And for about another $10 to $30, depending on their offers, you can also get 4 suction cups, 4 adapters and 4 straps for attaching the pods to mirrors, windows, poles and trees.

They also offer a trainer kit for $399 with six pods. But again, you’ll have to upgrade and pay a little more to get the straps, suction cups and adapters.

If you’re a professional trainer, they offer a 2x Standard Kit with 8pods for about $581 and a Trainer Pro Kit with12 pods for $779. Again, you’ll have to pay extra if you want the added accessories.

As you can see, these little pods don’t come cheap. It’s also important to note that while the pods are splashproof, they cannot be submerged in water. But they are perfectly fine for use on wet grass, for example.

The upside is that there’s no monthly fee to use the app and access the hundreds of workouts they offer.

But is Blazepod really worth the price? Let’s talk about a few more details before we conclude.

Getting Started with BlazePod

When your BlazePod arrives, you’ll find a quick start guide inside of the box. First, you’ll want to charge the pods, which you do by using the USB cable to connect the included charger to a power outlet.

Then you can stack the pods on top of one another and charge them all at once. The pods blink red while charging and green when fully charged. Each pod also blinks individually so that you can be sure they’re all charging.

Meanwhile, you can download the BlazePod app. First, you’ll need to create a profile by entering information like your name, nickname, height, weight, gender and the favorite default color for your pods.

After your profile is complete, you can take a tour of how to navigate the app and then connect your pods by enabling Bluetooth. Once they’re connected, the app will show a list of available pods along with their remaining battery life.

And now you’re ready to choose your exercises and drills!

The BlazePod App

BlazePod offers hundreds of different activities depending on your interests and training goals. Under the Discover tab, you can choose from a huge range of categories, including things like general fitness, bodyweight sports, martial arts, racquet sports, basketball, soccer, and neurological therapy, just to name a few.

Each of these umbrella categories then presents you with various pre-loaded exercises to choose from. You can also filter your activities by the number of players and the accessories needed.

Once you choose a specific activity, the app will tell you how to set up the pods, what to do and where to start. One slight drawback is that the app only includes written descriptions of the activities instead of how-to videos.

However, the app does give you the flexibility to tailor the activity to your needs by increasing or decreasing the activity time, adding a player for a competition, and assigning a color for each player.

Under the Create tab, you can even invent your own activities by giving them a name, choosing a lighting sequence, the duration of the activity, the number of players and more. If you’re not too tech-savvy, you may want to stick to the pre-loaded activities until you get a good feel for the app.

Finally, under the Analytics tab, you can track your results and those of any other players.

Training with BlazePod

As we mentioned, there are a number of different ways you can train with Blazepod to shake up your workout sessions.

If you’re doing a solo workout, there are plenty of exercises that you can do on your own, including things like the plank challenge, different types of squats, crunches, balance exercises and hundreds of other activities that all integrate the pods.

And because all of your results will be logged in the Analytics section of the app, you can repeat the exercise while trying to improve your score each time. A great way to motivate yourself when you’re working out solo.

But the fun factor of BlazePod is definitely upped when you add a partner. You’ll find lots of pre-loaded competitions under the Discover tab that you can do with one or more workout buddies to help push each other to the next level.

Take a look at this activity called the Color Catch. Each player starts in the middle of the circle and has to sprint to tap the pod with their assigned color. The player with the most taps and the end of the round wins.

Of course, the more players you add, the more space you’ll need. The good part is that the pods have a sensitivity range of up to 40 meters, allowing you to spread out.

If you want to compete but have a little less space, you can always use the solo activities to have a competition. First, one person does the activity and views their score. Then the second person has to try to better the score.

Remember, a little friendly competition can be a great fat burner!

The Benefits of Flash Reflex Training

Now that you’re familiar with BlazePod and how it works, let’s talk in more detail about the benefits of Flash Reflex Training or FRX.

Reaction training lights may be fairly new to general consumers, but coaches have been using them to train professional athletes for years. So what do they know about the benefits that we don’t?

Here are some of the ways they help to improve an athlete’s performance.

Physical Power

Whether you’re a professional athlete or fitness enthusiast, we all want to be stronger, faster and have more endurance. With FRX, you have the added motivation of wanting to react to the lights as quickly as possible, whether you’re jumping, sprinting, shuffling, turning or performing any other type of action.

This, in turn, helps you to develop speed, agility, explosive power, balance and more. And those are all crucial factors for becoming a better athlete.

Technique

With FRX activities, you’ll be repeating motions over and over again. That alone helps to develop techniques. But FRX brings an added element of unpredictability because you’re constantly reacting to the training lights.

This unpredictability eventually teaches us to perform the actions without having to think about technique until they become completely instinctive. Something that’s highly important when it comes to practicing any sport.

Cognitive Benefits

Cognitive training helps to synchronize our bodies with our brains and make quick decisions when playing a sport. The visual cues provided by the lights in FRX training help us to process information more quickly and make better decisions.

And this is an ability that can benefit you not only when you’re playing a sport but in everyday life.

Pros and Cons of BlazePod

To summarize our overview of BlazePod, let’s break it down into pros and cons.

Pros

Ups the fun factor of your workouts
Hundreds of different activities give you lots of variety
Can be used alone or with a workout buddy or group
Can be used indoors and outdoors
Has a 40-meter pod to device range
Tracks your progress
Improves both physical and cognitive abilities
Carrying case makes the system very portable and easy to take anywhere

Cons

Pricey
Pods are water resistant but not waterproof
No demonstration videos for activities (only written descriptions)
A bit of a learning curve to master the app

The Upshot

So is BlazePod here to stay? With its myriad of activities and physical and cognitive benefits, we say yes. After all, there’s a reason why professional fitness trainers have been using light reaction training for years. But is it for you?

Of course, that all depends. Suppose you have the bucks and are looking for a way to take your performance to the next level. In that case, BlazePod may be well worth the investment, especially if you find yourself plateauing or suffering from a case of workout boredom and burnout.

The variety of activities and the fact that you can use BlazePod with a partner or group brings an element of fun and motivation that could be key to improving your performance, avoiding the dreaded workout rut, and taking the decision-making out of your workout routine.

If you’re not tech-savvy or worried about the upfront cost, remember that BlazePod does come back with a 14-day money-back guarantee, which should give you more than enough time to figure out if FRX is for you.

In other words, when it comes to BlazePod, you probably have a lot more to gain than to lose.

You might also be interested in: Amazon’s 7 Best Yoga Mats [For Channeling Your Inner Yogi]

Posted in Health & Wellness category