ViPR Is Coming For You!

“Movement is the necessary antidote against disease and decay. Moving with external load creates strong bodies that can function with optimum effectiveness.”

– Michol Dalcourt, ViPR creator.

By now, you’ve seen my face plastered around the gym holding that strange-looking tube thing. I get asked all of the time, “what is that thing?” Well, that thing is the ViPR, and it’s becoming a bit of an obsession among my clients.

What Exactly is ViPR?

ViPR is short for Vitality, Performance, and Reconditioning. Vitality refers to movement, while performance means that you perform at your maximum effort. Reconditioning is about strengthening – reconditioning your muscles to perform better.

ViPR is a type of loaded movement training. When performing this type of training, every time you move, you are integrating every muscle in every movement you do, which makes ViPR different from weight training. When you work with something like a dumbbell, you target an individual muscle or a small group of muscles with each movement. So what I’m saying here is if you’re looking for big results in a small period of time, look no further. The ViPR may be just the thing to add to your current training regimen to take you out of a plateau and see major changes quickly.

Three in One

I’m sure you are all familiar with resistance or strength training, stability/core training, and agility/cardio training. And you probably know that Resistance training is typically done with weights or machines, whereas Core training employs a stability ball, TRX, Bosu, Step, etc. As for Agility training, it can be done in several ways, including lateral jumps, ice skaters, mountain climbers, and plank jacks. What’s great about ViPR is that it incorporates all three of these types of training into one. It was developed based on good old-fashioned manual labor, like working on a farm or shoveling snow. Admittedly, those hard things are not generally considered to be fun. So Michol Dalcourt, the creator of ViPR, looked for a way to replicate that type of workout in an enjoyable, safe, and controlled environment. Thus, the ViPR tube was born.

What To Expect

During my 45-50 min ViPR session, you will begin with the Vitality portion. During the first 10-12 minutes, you will move with the ViPR, executing each movement to the best of your ability in 10-15 rep sets. Here we work on improving form and function with little regard to the speed of the movements. During the next 12 minutes, we hit the Performance stage. In this stage, you are looking for the most output in the shortest time – in other words, your best performance. Each movement is done for 30 seconds at your max effort, with a 30-second rest in between movements. This is an intense 12 minute HIIT style workout that will leave you breathless. After a short rest, we move onto the reconditioning stage. Here we perform specific movements to build muscle, like ViPR deadlifts, chest presses, curls, etc. We finish with a long stretch, which also incorporates the ViPR tube to hit a deeper stretch with each movement. You’ll leave each session feeling AMAZING.

One of my favorite things about ViPR training is that it offers something for every person at every fitness level. It’s a challenging form of training used in professional sports for even the most elite athletes, but it can easily be modified for beginners and people returning from an injury. There are differently weighted ViPRs, and the range of motion can be modified for each movement to accommodate different fitness levels.

While ViPR has quickly become a favorite workout of mine, I still like to mix it up with cycle and the rest of the great classes that we offer at Fitness Incentive. And, of course, nothing beats a great weight lifting session. However, if you’re looking for something to amp up your workout routine and see a change in your body, ViPR training may be just what you need. I offer limited enrollment classes every Thursday at 7 am and every Friday at 5:15 am. You can sign up for one session or buy a four-pack of sessions to use at your convenience. I also offer private one-on-one ViPR training, partner ViPR, and small group (3-4 people).

Why not step out of your comfort zone and try something different? You won’t regret it. My only warning about this class is that it may soon become an obsession!