Who says you have to grow up? If you're harboring a major Peter Pan complex or beginning to feel like you've tried everything the L.A. fitness scene has to offer—from taking dance lessons from the Clippers Spirit team to doing yoga atop a paddle board—there's a new workout in town: laser-tag cardio. For the fitness-adventurous and even just the casually curious, it's a surprisingly simple but effective way to burn calories while having fun. And oh yeah, you can do it with your friends.
When you walk into lazRfit's minimalist Downtown studio, you'll find a warm-up mat and a large mirror, plus restrooms sporting lockers. Just beyond all of these is the arena, where angular wooden obstacles and ramps—or hiding places, for those of us who play defensively—lay scattered about nearly 4,000 square feet to keep you dodging, ducking and darting. The lazRpark's design is integral to your burn: because you'll constantly be interacting with terrain built of various heights and shapes, all while keeping your heart rate up, you'll be partaking in high-intensity interval training without even realizing it. Of course, you'll be keeping your heart rate up by doing what every red-blooded child was taught to do: clobbering the competition in a game of laser tag.
We'll confess, we were skeptical at first. From an outsider's perspective, it all just looks like a normal game of laser tag in broad daylight, but the tech is really what sets lazRfit apart from a round or two at Ultrazone. When owners and founders Philippe and Lucie Robert strap on your vest ("holster") and hand you your specially designed laser gun ("handle"), well, that's where it gets fun. You won't be using the bulky, cumbersome laser-tag guns you probably remember from your childhood; here, you've got a sleek, lightweight shooter that only requires one hand to use. It tracks your score and displays the amounts of hits you've both taken and executed. Your vest looks like something straight out of a sci-fi film, but it's there to track your movement and provide two targets: your chest and the shoulder straps.
Your opponents can hit either of those, or the handle of your gun, to score points. Once you've been hit, you still have to wait to reload and get back in the game—much like the laser tag of our childhoods—but unlike those experiences, the one obnoxious kid in every game can't just stand there firing at you until your vest is back in action. That's because you'll be on the move. In order to reactivate, you have to jog, jump or do whatever it takes to get moving again (the display on your gun will notify you with a "MOVE" reading until you've fulfilled the requirement), and of course once the game is all over and your sweaty face is staring at the final rankings displayed on a TV, you can see your calories burned (over 130 in our case) and steps taken. For those who can't get enough of these workouts, there's even a smartphone app that logs your games and tracks your metrics to help you improve.
Individual guests can sign up for classes online or call and schedule a group class. (Tip: there's currently a special that waives your personal class fee if you bring in a group of eight or more.) A single, 12-minute freestyle session will set you back $15, while a 50-minute class with a coach, warm-ups, dynamic stretching and two rounds only costs $29. You can even enroll in five, 10 and 20-class increments, for those who can't get enough of this nostalgia-packed workout.
LazRfit is located at 400 West Pico Boulevard and offers sessions and classes from 3 to 10pm Monday through Friday, and 9am to 6pm on Saturdays.
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