Learn the benefits of this unique strength training tool and how to use the equipment to improve daily functioning and athleticism.
Do More With is a series highlighting equipment around the Club that can help you reach your fitness goals. In this installment, we highlight the ViPR PRO, available on the Club floor and in Group Fitness classes.
A native Canadian, strength coach Michol Dalcourt spent the early days of his career training plenty of hockey players. Through conversations with coaches and athletes, he realized that the best players — the ones who were “toughest on the puck” — all had highly functional strength developed outside of the weight room. “It was almost cliché to say, but the rural kids, the kids that grew up on the farm, were always the ones that typically won the situations battling for a position on the play or the puck,” Dalcourt says.
That’s when Dalcourt and his colleagues began pondering the idea of creating a tool that “brings a bale of hay into the gym without the mess” to improve athletic performance, he says. In 2010, Dalcourt and co-creator Simon Bennett launched the ViPR, a multi-purpose free weight that was later updated and renamed the ViPR PRO. “The ViPR and the new ViPR PRO design were really born out of the genesis of that thought process, which was, ‘How do we get a little bit of farm strong in the gym?’” he adds.
Here, Dalcourt explains the value of training with the ViPR PRO and shares advice on how to incorporate it into your training regimen for peak performance.
Why train with the ViPR PRO
Dumbbells, kettlebells, and barbells have their place in a strength training routine. But the ViPR PRO stands out by enabling athletes and fitness seekers to build strength and gain control of their body in all planes of movement, says Dalcourt.
Available in three different sizes and eight different loads, the log-shaped free weight is made from durable rubber rather than iron, so you’re able to flip it, drag it, throw it, and even use it in the pool without causing damage. (Case in point: Equinox is holding ViPR PRO pool classes in the Hamptons throughout July.) You’re able to load it on your body (as in a back squat), lift it (as in a bent-over row), and shift it through the field of gravity (as in woodchops), he notes.
You can also practice odd-position strength work, training with an uneven distribution of load either by gripping onto just one end of the ViPR’s handles or holding the weight outside of your traditional alignment. Imagine yourself digging a hole in the ground: There’s never an equal amount of weight on both ends of your shovel. “Life is always unbalanced, so what we would argue is if you expose yourself to that in your training session, not only are you burning more calories, but you're actually creating a capacity for the body that transfers into life and you're making yourself unbreakable,” says Dalcourt.
At its core, ViPR training is functional loaded movement. “There's not a lot of tools out there that are designed to be flipped, tilted, dragged, lifted, and shifted in accordance with functional outcomes,” says Dalcourt.
But strength work is just one of ViPR PRO’s many applications. The equipment can also be used during a warm-up program to activate the nervous system and improve mobility and stability, during a workout for metabolic conditioning and power training, and during a cool-down to enhance flexibility and recovery. Importantly, ViPR PRO can enhance athleticism by challenging your odd-position strength, muscular endurance, and power (think: how quickly and intensely you can move the weight). “Can I accelerate, decelerate — put on the brakes — and can I be springy like an elastic band? Those three things are housed under power,” says Dalcourt. “An athlete needs all of those three things most of the time.”
You can also use the tool to train the eyes, hips, feet, and thoracic spine for the game via sport-specific preparation drills, says Dalcourt. “We're getting our feet, our hips, and our spine strong in three dimensions,” he explains. “All those things factor into preparing an athlete so that they can move really well.”
How to use the ViPR PRO
Traditional free weight exercises are beneficial, but they can be pretty mechanistic — even if the end goal is to enable your body to move fluidly, says Dalcourt. That’s why when training with the ViPR PRO, Dalcourt recommends focusing on ways to get strong in all dimensions and patterns of movement.
The good news: You don’t need to overhaul your training routine to use the ViPR PRO effectively. Consider hitting what Dalcourt considers the five primal patterns of motion: squat, lunge, press, rotation, and “core.” Then, add some spice to these movements. Perform your reverse lunges with the weight in an odd position, such as by holding one of the weight’s handles above your head and the other out to your right side. Or, target your core with a plank pull-through exercise: Hold a high plank with the ViPR PRO lying horizontally on the floor beneath your chest, then shift your weight into one hand, pick up one end of the weight with your free hand, and drag it as far as you can before switching sides.
You can also make smaller tweaks to basic exercises, such as by adjusting your grip and adding some dynamic movement, says Carolann Valentino, a Group Fitness Instructor at Equinox East 85th Street in New York. You might try squatting with an offset grip, gripping onto one handle and the end of the ViPR, and shifting the weight from one hip to the opposite shoulder as you lower down and rise up to standing. Or, grasp both ends of the ViPR for a wide grip, hold the tool out in front of your chest, and raise it above your head with straight arms as you sumo squat. “You're having to really use your back muscles, core, glutes, and quads to lift the ViPR up over your head,” says Valentino. “This functional movement would mimic picking up a piece of furniture.”
For a dose of cardio, program four to five movements into one continuous circuit, which Valentino does in her ViPR-based classes. “When you combine these patterns of movement into non-stop flow, that not only increases your heart rate, but you have to stay mentally present in the moment to maintain this flow,” she explains. “Something magical happens when you put [a group of] people in that state — they're not in their own little world doing their dumbbells…It could be a form of meditation in motion.”