The fitness industry is big business – it is valued at nearly $100 billion. We live in a time when work can often be sedentary, with endless hours in front of a computer screen or meetings in boardrooms. Because of this we long to get up, get moving, and break a sweat. The fitness industry recognizes this very human need and is constantly changing and innovating to keep up with demand.
We see a clear evolution in the offerings coming from the fitness industry in the past few decades. We had the popular fitness videotapes of the 1980s, and now have sophisticated workout apps that allow people to customize their workouts.
In order to stand out in the fitness industry, you need to be innovative. Consumers are always on the lookout for fun and trendy ways to get fit. According to Forbes, “technology development in fitness is growing and consumers are driving that growth.” And in relatively new light-based fitness devices like BlazePod and FitLight, consumers may have found the fitness products that tick all the right boxes.
BlazePod and FitLight are competitors in the ‘light-based fitness device’ industry. This is a term that may be unfamiliar to some, so let’s dive into what this new kind of workout device is, and what some of its features are.
What are Light-based Fitness Devices?
Light-based fitness devices are workout devices that employ the use of different colored lights to get you moving. They involve a number of pods the size of coasters that emit different colored lights at different intervals.
These pods can be programmed to emit different colored lights at different intervals. You can space them out around you physically and formulate a workout accordingly. For example, you can start by tapping on the pods each time one of them changes color. (You’ll soon find yourself running around the room just to keep up.) Or you can decide to tap on the pods with different parts of your body, such as your hands or knees. This adds an extra element of functionality to your workouts.
In other words, light-based fitness devices function like coach calls, without the need for a coach to be physically present. “Coach calls” are when your coach or instructor tells you which move to make, without telling you in advance. For example, a coach might ask you to run, then do a push-up, and then do a sprint – you simply have to listen to his voice and respond to it.
The benefit of having a “coach calls” system of workout is that it forces your body to react fast. Because you don’t know what workout your coach will ask you to do next, you’re always kept guessing. This keeps your body on high alert. The benefits of these kinds of high-intensity workouts are well-documented, including burning calories fast and gaining muscle.
Light-based fitness devices like BlazePod and FitLight function in the same way. Because you can adjust the setting of the pods to change color at different speeds, you’re forced to stay alert to respond effectively. This adds a level of suspense to your workout. Ultimately, your heart rate goes up and you get fitter faster.
Another great design benefit of light-based fitness devices like BlazePod and FitLight is that they also have corresponding apps on your phone or tablet that allow you to control the settings of these devices and review your workout statistics.
The concept behind light-based fitness devices may seem simple enough, but they do open up a whole host of workout possibilities that are unique to this technology. You could argue that the possibilities here are endless – you can use these pods as imaginatively as you want and still get a good workout from it. Let’s look at a few ways that this technology can help you reach your fitness goals.
What Are The Benefits of Light-Based Fitness Devices?
A Coaching Experience (Without A Coach)
As home-based workouts gain in popularity, people are craving to experience fun, interesting, and high-intensity workouts from their own homes. Of course, standard home workout equipment like treadmills and yoga mats will always be in demand. However, people want to replicate the sense of having a personal coach overseeing their workout, without having a coach physically present.
Well, what options are available? Peloton bikes have become hugely popular. Peloton bikes are stationary bikes that each come with a screen. You can watch an instructor teach a cycling class which you can follow along to at home. It allows you to feel connected to the wider audience of Peloton users, all from the comfort of your own home. A New York Times review says, “…if you buy a Peloton for the love of the ride or competition, plus the convenience of having the bike right in your living room, you’ll probably love it.”
It is the desire for flexibility (the ability to decide when you want to workout) and good coaching (someone experienced guiding and fuelling your workout) that has fueled innovation in the fitness industry. People are warm to the idea of working out at home – as long as there is some sense of external instruction or motivation. What could be the solution?
Light-based fitness devices are an attempt to answer this need. While these devices do not feature a personal coach, they do function very much like one. Let’s say you’re doing sprinting exercises. You space out the pods at different corners of your room. Your goal is to sprint to tap a pod each time one lights up. When a pod to the left of the room lights up, you run to the left; you do the same for a pod that lights up to your right.
These lighted pods, therefore, give a similar experience as that of a coach being physically present and yelling out, “Sprint to the left! Sprint to the right!” In other words, it keeps you on your toes and forces you to respond to external cues. While not identical to having a personal coach, it is in many ways similar.
Increasing Sporting Performance
Light-based fitness devices provide for more than just a bit of sweaty fun at home. They can also have a serious benefit for athletes wanting to increase their sporting performance.
We like to categorize athletes according to their specialized sports. We think of Serena Williams with tennis and Michael Jordan with basketball. In our minds, when these players are not competing, they’re just practicing the sport that they are famous for playing. In other words, we imagine that tennis players just practice tennis when not in competition, and basketball players play basketball.
However, this isn’t the full picture. Athletes do so much more than just practicing their sport. To be at the very top of their game, athletes often do physical exercises that are not strictly related to the sport they play. Evidence has shown that strength training should be a mainstay of all athletes.
For example, tennis athletes might do sprinting and muscle-strengthening exercises to increase their stamina when on the court. Swimmers might spend nearly as much time in the gym as they do in the water.
This is where light-based devices like BlazePod and FitLight might prove useful. These devices provide athletes the ability to increase their sporting performance by providing a mixture of fitness programs to complement their existing sporting routines and increase game-day performance.
Let’s look at the sport of boxing, for example. Boxers often train by using punching bags and varying the direction and the intensity of their punches. With light-based fitness devices like Blazepod and FitLight, the pods can be attached to the punching bag at different angles. This allows the training boxer to punch the pods (they are shock-absorbent) to where they light up – if it lights up at the upper left, the boxer punches in that direction. The same goes for other directions.
The speed at which these pods light up can also be adjusted. If the boxer wants to increase the speed at which he throws his punches, he can simply adjust the speed at which the different pods light up. This means that he can practice throwing punches faster, and at various angles. This will eventually yield tremendous benefits in the boxing ring.
Let’s take a look at another popular sport – soccer. Soccer players must not only master the ability to kick a ball, but do so accurately, and with great agility. This means that in training, soccer players often use soccer cones to practice dribbling and learning to pass a ball accurately.
Light-based fitness devices add to the fun by being, in effect, soccer cones with lights. These pods can be scattered around a field, and soccer players can practice dribbling around the pods that light up. The players can then switch around based on which pods light up next. They can also practice sprinting by tapping on the pod that lights up or create miniature goals by aiming the ball in between two pods. With a few lighted pods, the possibilities for innovative training methods are truly endless.
Friendly Competition
When you think of working out, who do you imagine working out with? Are you a loner who enjoys working out alone? Or do you have ‘fitness buddies’ who you enjoy getting fit together with?
Many of us enjoy working out with our friends. This is because working out with others makes exercise less monotonous. We enjoy the company of our friends and love the casual conversations in between exercises.
Also, friends can inspire us to push ourselves to go further in our workouts. That is why competitive sports are so popular. In fact, a study has shown that “competition motivated participants to exercise overwhelmingly more than social support.” People who have picked up a sport in school, like basketball or soccer, often still continue playing those same sports into their adult years. There is nothing quite like breaking a sweat in the company of like-minded people who are also driven to be fit.
However, outside established competitive sports, it can be difficult to craft a workout routine that involves friendly competition. Many studio fitness classes involve attendees following and moving along to an instructor, with little meaningful interaction between members. Fitness becomes a totally personalized activity and the element of fun interaction is lost.
Light-based fitness devices like BlazePod and FitLight bring a creative solution to this problem. Because these pods can be programmed to light up in different colors, they create a whole world of possibilities when it comes to friendly competition in sports.
Picture, for example, a few of these pods scattered on a gym floor. These pods blink intermittently in two colors – red and blue. One person is assigned red and the other blue. The objective of the workout is to tap on the pods when it blinks in your color. This means that the person who is assigned red must tap the pod when it blinks in his color; the same goes for the person who is assigned blue. The person who can tap the most pods accurately within a certain timeframe wins.
This format might sound simple, but it is wildly entertaining, especially when there is an element of competition involved. Depending on how far apart these pods are placed and how often they change color, both players will be sprinting around pretty rapidly in order to keep up. This makes for a fast-paced, sweaty workout.
The best thing about these light-based fitness devices is that there can be so many variations of workouts in which they can be used. For example, instead of sprinting, the rules can be changed so that players have to do a push up in between each tap. Or the rules can be that each player needs to jump in between taps. Or it could be a combination of these moves. In other words, you can be as creative as you want and still have a great competitive workout.
The world of fun options that light-based fitness devices open up is really what innovation in technology should be all about. With just a simple idea – pods that change colors – people can create competitive workout routines that make for an adrenaline-filled fitness experience. No previous expertise in an established competitive sport is necessary – just imagination and a willingness to push yourself.
Functional training
One of the great features of light-based fitness devices is the functional aspect of the workouts. The Mayo Clinic defines functional fitness as exercises that are “designed to train and develop your muscles to make it easier and safer to perform everyday activities, such as carrying groceries or playing a game of basketball with your kids.”
It continues to say, “This type of training, properly applied, can make everyday activities easier, help reduce your risk of injury, and improve your quality of life.”
In other words, functional fitness is not about lifting heavy weights; it’s about simple, stretchy, cardio-based movements that get your heart rate pumping. Light-based fitness devices like BlazePod and FitLight are particularly well-designed for this purpose.
Due to the nature of the workouts being to tap the pods when they change color, these light-based fitness devices encourage a lot of functional movements like running forward and backward and moving from side to side. These kinds of functional movements allow you to stretch and have a full-body workout, building and strengthening your muscles.
The great thing about these light-based fitness devices is that you can still choose to incorporate weightlifting into your workouts if you want. However, at their most basic level, they encourage functional movements that provide benefits for your whole body.
Comparing BlazePod and FitLight
BlazePod and FitLight are two products that are very similar in how they work. The design of the FitLight devices is slightly more disc-shaped, while BlazePod devices resemble miniature stools.
A notable difference between the two products is their app setup. BlazePod has an app that allows you to track and customize your activities. Featuring a slick interface, it allows users to quickly review their results and achievements. Fitlight has two main fitness programs, ‘Trainer’ for adults and ‘Junior’ for younger athletes. Both programs also allow users to measure workouts and progress.
Both BlazePod and Fitlight represent really new innovations in fitness technology, so we can expect new and exciting updates in the years ahead. An independent review of BlazePod has given it 4 stars, concluding that, “…BlazePods are a bit of an investment, but they have a lot to offer. They work well, quickly connect to your phone, and the app offers hundreds of preloaded drills and workouts that will get your heart pumping as you increase your speed and agility. The workouts are fun, and there’s tons of variety offering something for everyone, including single-player activities, drills for specific sports, and multi-player competitions.”
The average review of FitLight on its Facebook page is 3.9 stars. An independent review of FitLight concludes that “The limited number of lights also puts a cap on how complex and challenging each drill will be… The nature of the lights also makes it much harder to emulate moving targets… All in all, the portability you get from the FitLight Trainer comes at a cost. While you can set it up anywhere, there is a ceiling to the level of complexity you can program in.”
What Are The Downsides of Light-Based Fitness Devices?
They Are Pricey
These light-based fitness devices are not the best option if you’re looking for a cheap way to work out. Here are prices as listed on their websites:
The Basic Bundle for BlazePod retails at a price of $399.00. It comes with:
- 4× Pods, BlazePod Strap, BlazePod Suction Cup, Functional Adapter
- Charging Base
- BlazePod case for 4 pods
- BlazePod app (iOS and Android)
The FitLight basic bundle retails at $250.00 and comes with 12 Pods (or discs) with a case.
Both of these options come with additional accessories that can be purchased to enhance the workout.
The question you have to ask yourself is whether you think paying a few hundred dollars for a fitness device is worth it. Some people prefer to spend as little on fitness as possible – after all, a jog around the local park is free, and so are loads of YouTube fitness tutorial videos.
However, if you want to invest in something long-term, these light-based fitness devices may be worth your money. As we have seen earlier in this article, these devices are incredibly versatile, and they offer a world of fun if you use them consistently and creatively. They can even replace a traditional gym membership; you can take these devices with you and work out anywhere. A review of BlazePod concluded that “BlazePods are a bit of an investment, but they have a lot to offer.”
Like most technology, you can find copycat products for a much lower price, but they certainly do not offer all the benefits as these established brands. If you don’t mind investing a little bit of money for your long-term fitness goals, BlazePod or FitLight could be just the fitness accessories for you.
The Novelty Might Wear Off
The big question when it comes to technological innovation in any field is whether the new technology will eventually prove to be just a fad or become a staple in everyday life. Is it something that people become fascinated with for just a short period of time, or will it eventually be something that is so woven into the fabric of our lives that we simply cannot live without it?
Only time will tell. The fitness industry is filled with fads that garner intense interest for a short amount of time before fizzling out into obscurity. Just think of the numerous diet plans that were once proclaimed to be miraculous, only for them to lose popularity in a short period of time and be replaced by others with similarly outlandish claims. Review of Blazepod and FitLight
Fitness and exercise have been around since the first human beings roamed the earth. Fundamentally, there is nothing new when it comes to exercise – there are only new ways to do old things. It is human nature to want to innovate and switch things up to keep people interested and motivated.
This begs the question – are light-based fitness devices like BlazePod and FitLight a passing fad, or do they represent the future of fitness? It is simply too early to tell. On one hand, the concept of pods that light up and change color has the potential to give birth to an entirely new way of thinking about fitness. On the other hand, there really isn’t anything all that special about objects that light up – an app on a phone device can easily accomplish the same thing.
This brings us back to the question of whether light-based fitness devices have the longevity to stay in the market and expand its customer base. In a sense, whether or not a fitness device remains useful is a question of personal interest – after all, if it remains interesting to you, then you’ll want to continue using it. However, there is also a chance that you’ll get tired of the same routine and want to move on to the next new thing in fitness.
Of course, if enough people decide that this device is revolutionary enough to merit continued usage, then this product is likely to stay and gain in popularity. However, if the majority of first-time users stop using it after an initial trial period, this product will likely be resigned to being just another curious fitness offering that loses its shine after its 15 minutes of fame.
What Is The Final Verdict?
Let’s quickly review the various aspects of light-based fitness devices like BlazePod and FitLight that we have covered in this article. We have seen that these light-based fitness devices work by changing color and the objective is to respond to each color change by tapping onto the corresponding pods. There are a great many workouts that can be incorporated around this single concept, including running, push-ups, boxing, and more.
These light-based fitness devices give you the experience of having a fitness coach without one being personally present and also helps athletes to increase their sporting performance. They also allow you to conduct friendly competitive workouts with friends and are particularly good at strengthening functional training. The main drawbacks are that they are pricey and can be a novelty that becomes less exciting after a while.
Fitness is incredibly personal – what you need to do is to ask yourself what your goals are, and what you are willing to do to achieve them. Light-based fitness devices offer a great way for you to mix up your workouts; however, they need to be used consistently and correctly in order to achieve the best results. If you’re all in and don’t mind spending a little on an innovative new workout style, go ahead and give one a try – it might make all the difference.