Disclaimer: I have purchased this product with my own money and have NO affiliate partnership with this company or product.
Over the years I have bought quite a few different products to try for either the use on my therapy patients or for personal use. I often get people asking what I think about the various therapy and exercise products on the market. Ultimately, I decided I would go ahead and start doing some online reviews of each product. Follow along for further insight on these products.
Recently I have been seeing the Blaze Pod ads popping up across my social media pages frequently. Over the past couple years I have contemplated buying them. However, I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the money at the time. BlazePods are marketed for soccer, basketball, martial arts, tennis, fitness training and physical therapy ultimately encompassing every individual. They have even shown how F1 driver Max Verstappen uses them before races for reaction training
At the beginning of 2024 Blaze Pods was having a new years sale on their products so I decided to finally buy a bundle to use both personally and with my therapy patients. I decided to go with their PT Clinic Bundle. The PT Clinic Bundle includes: 6 pods, 1 charging base, 1 BlazePod case for 6 pods, 6 PodBases, 6 wall mounts, 6 functional mounts, 6 BlazePod straps, & 6 suction cups.
What Are BlazePods?
Blazepods are lightweight, portable devices that you can incorporate with fitness training, sport specific training and therapy to help improve reaction time and agility. Essentially it is like the arcade game “Whack a Mole” but with lights. A great way to add a fun element to training and therapy exercises.
The pods connect to an app on your phone or tablet via Bluetooth and allows you to set various parameters for your specific exercise. A great tool you can use with all ages and varying physical abilities. There are 2 different memberships available for the app. They have BlazePod Go which is free and BlazePod Pro which is a monthly paid subscription.
BlazePod Go App
The BlazePod Go app has over 200 preprogrammed activities that you can utilize with your pods. It is a very easy way to instantly start using your pods. Each activity has a video of the exercise being performed and shows a diagram of how your pods should be set up. Below the pictures are a description of the activity along with the parameters that have been set. You are able to customize the colors that you would like for the exercise. For the preprogrammed activities you can even compare yourself to benchmark data they have found comparing yourself to the community average.
BlazePod Pro App
You have unlimited capabilities in programming if you opt for the paid BlazePod Pro. It allows you to specifically customize each parameter and make your own activities to save for the future. With the Pro app you are also able to save the in-depth analytics from each person’s session in order to track progress over time.
Unpackaging The Product
First Impressions
Living in California, I opted for the free shipping option. It took exactly 1 week to receive my order which shipped from the east coast. Upon first opening the shipping box everything was neatly packed inside with very clean branded boxes. The pods, charger and carrying case were nicely packaged together in a padded box. Each pair of pod bases, wall mounts and functional mounts were nicely packaged together. The packaging was simple and clean looking. Very easy to put products back in the boxes if needed to store as well. Not that I would recommend using the original packaging for storage as the boxes are quite bulky overall.
Quality
The pods themselves are sturdy but lightweight. Each one stacks nicely on top of each other for easy storage and charging. The company website states that the charging base has a safety mechanism built-in to prevent over charging. The pods come in a sleek hard protective case with a handle for easy storage and transportation. It fits all 6 of the pods, the charging base and USB charging cord.
My bundle also came with a variety of pod mounts. Each pod base is made of a durable rubber in the brands bright blue color. They are not necessary but do help keep the pods in place and from easily tipping over. The wall mounts come with a durable plastic bracket and hardware so that you can have more permanent wall mounts in your facility. In all honesty I have not used these yet, because I’m not 100% sure where I want to set up a reaction wall. The functional mounts also came in my bundle and consist of durable plastic mounts for each pod. Each mount has a suction cup that can be attached or a nylon strap that can be wrapped around various objects. This allows for unlimited options to use each pod.
If I were to change anything to my order it would have been to not get the wall mounts. They aren’t as functional because you have to dedicate a wall to keep them set up on. The other mounts are all very functional and portable.
BlazePod Ease Of Use
Getting Connected
I was eager to set up my app and connect my pods to see for myself what all the hype is about. The app is super easy to download and is supported by both android and apple. Once in the app you will set up your personal account. Don’t worry this is all free! I’ve opted to start with the BlazePod Go Free membership to see how user friendly it really is. I anticipate as I use the product more with my physical therapy clients I will want to upgrade to the Pro.
Once you are all logged in to the app, it is time to connect the pods. I plugged my pods into the charger when I first opened them to make sure they had a charge. They instantly started lighting up. With the app open on my phone I also started seeing each pod connect to my device in the top right corner of the screen. After all the pods connected I was ready to try out my own reaction skills.
App Usability
The home screen of the app has a variety of preprogrammed exercises and activities to try instantly. At the top of the screen is also the option that says “Create & Save your own activities”. I started there since the vast amount of exercises was a little overwhelming at first. The most unfortunate part of using the free membership is that you are only able to create an activity that uses random light logic. Also, you can not ultimately save any of your own activities.
When you do go to create a random logic activity you have multiple variables that you get to control. The general setup lets you decide how many stations you want to have with the number of pods per station, along with the number of players at each station. Next you are able to choose the light colors and rules. Do you only want one color to show or multiple. The light rules let you decide if the lights go out by tapping the pod, a set time limit or whichever happens first. There is also the option to have a delay between when one pods light goes out until the next one turns on. Finally, before starting the activity you want to set the activities parameters for time and how many cycles you want to complete. Duration can be based off a set time, preset hit count or a combination of whichever comes first.
Activity Experience
First use of the product was seamless. Easily able to start the activity which I had set to start at first tap. This led to no time delay of having to mess with my phone to start the activity when using the product by yourself. Lights are bright with very vivid colors. Each pod easily registered the taps and provided a very fun and exciting experience. I can see why the BlazePods have become so popular.
At the end of the activity, I was able to see an in-depth analysis of my performance during the activity. Reaction time was recorded along with the amount of taps made. As I tried out the other various activities on the app outside of the custom random option it showed even more stats. For the activities that tried to distract you with other colors, it also recorded how many misses and strikes that you had. Preprogrammed activities had benchmark numbers so you could see where you ranked in the BlazePod community as well.
I’ve had the opportunity to try a variety of exercises and activities with the product. All were fun and engaging. I would highly recommend the use of the pod bases when using the pods with foot activities for sure. I initially did not use the bases when attempting various exercises mainly because I just wanted to get going as soon as possible. However, I had increased instances where I accidentally knocked over a pod or two from trying to move quickly. The pod bases allow for increased stability of each pod and decreased disruption during the activity.
Benefits Of Using BlazePods
The BlazePods offer a good array of benefits for various people. For the athlete it allows for a higher level of training and focus. The average fitness enthusiast may benefit from increased motivation for their exercise routines. Physical therapy patients would benefit from the cognitive and physical training as well which can help patients with improved balance and engagement with their exercises.
Reaction training is great for all ages and abilities. Think about the daily activities we encounter where our reaction rates come into play. When you are driving a car, you have to be alert at all times because you never know when somebody may run a light or cuts you off. Or maybe a pedestrian runs out into the middle of the road and you have to stop quickly. Your reaction rates all contribute to how quickly you are to recognize these situations.
Same thing goes for when we are out walking. The average person may take it for granted but think about when you are in a busy area walking and someone comes running up alongside of you quickly. If you have slow reaction rates you may not recognize it early enough and you could lose your balance and fall. Where as if you had better reaction rates you may have seen it coming a little quicker and been able to adapt and maintain your balance easier.
Check out some fun and exciting ways that I have found BlazePods being used with a variety of individuals:
Pros & Cons of BlazePods
Pros
Cons
- Lightweight and portable
- Simple to use
- Exciting way to step up your workouts
- Great way to improve neurological function and reaction times
- Relatively expensive
- Limited customization with free app
- Some preprogrammed activities are pretty challenging
Final Verdict
I have been impressed with the quality of the BlazePods and there functionality. For me they are worth the investment in order to help with neurological training and reaction training. I will be able to incorporate these with my physical therapy patients on a daily basis to further enhance their treatments. If you are a physical therapist, personal trainer, or coach I would highly recommend getting a set of Blazepods. You don’t need to get the accessories to start but the functional adapters will give you more variability in the long run. The base pods would also be beneficial to keep the pods from moving around but are not necessary.
If you are an individual contemplating getting these for your own personal use these are also a great investment. These would be great for daily treatment sessions for balance and neurological trainings to help with balance and cognitive function. For the athlete, the BlazePods can help improve speed, balance, agility and coordination. You can get started with a set of 4 pods for as low as $299.
The BlazePods are something that you will be able to use as you continue to age and help maintain a good quality of life.