ViPR Class Review

Since I started school in September I’ve had access to the rec center. They have all kinds of awesome classes, so a few weeks ago I decided to check out one that was new to me – ViPR (pronounced viper). I had a lot of fun and thought that it was about time that I shared my thoughts on it. If you’re like me and had never heard of it before, here’s a video that gives you a run down of the different kinds of movements you do. If you’re interested in similar posts, check out my Fitness page.

If you notice in the video, there’s a couple different colors of ViPRs. That’s because they come in different weights. During the class I went to I used the lightest one that weighed in at just under 9 pounds. I know it might not sound like much, but I definitely worked hard even at that weight. When you’re doing the different movements it felt a lot heavier. The teacher encouraged us to start with a lighter one and work up to a higher weight ViPR. You can also see that there’s two sets of handles, one on each side. There are two on one side about a third of the way in on each end, and on the other side there one in the middle.

As with any class, as we came in the teacher asked about any injuries. She then took us through a warm up while explaining what ViPR stood for (vitality, performance, and reconditioning). Once that was done we started doing intervals. We started with 40 seconds of work followed by 40 seconds of rest, then a 30/30 split, and finally a 20/20 split between work and rest. Needless to say, I’m very glad we started with the longest work sets right off the bat. It was a tough workout and by the end of it I was exhausted. During the rest breaks the instructor kept reminding us that we needed to stay active during our recovery. That meant walking around a bit instead of standing still or leaning against the wall. After a five minute cool down the fifty minute class was over.

I really liked the intervals. I felt like I gave the work periods 100% of my effort, but I was still able to let my heart rate and breathing slow down a bit in between so I was ready to give it my all when it was time to start over again. The class seemed to fly by. Not only was it a lot of work, it also felt a little bit like I was playing instead of working out. I appreciated that the movements were fairly simple. I didn’t have any trouble figuring anything out, and once I’d done two or three reps I felt like I knew what I was doing. All the different moves were repeated in each section of the class (in the forty, thirty, and twenty second parts). So while there was some repetition, there was also quite a bit of variety so I didn’t get bored. There were also a few times throughout the class where we teamed up with a partner.

All in all I was really happy I took a chance and tried out a ViPR class. My legs and arms were sore of a day or two after the class. I know I’ll be back soon.

To find out more about ViPR, you can check out their website here.