LazRfit: A Cardio Class Hybrid of Laser Tag and Parkour

At this moment there is only one place in the world to experience LazRfit and that is in Los Angeles. So I was L.A. bound early Saturday morning to get to the class on time. Upon arrival I met Lucie and Tarzan, owners of this very unique facility. This is way more than laser tag with a heavy focus on fitness.

I got to go in with a class of eight players.

The first thing we did was get an aerobic workout taught by Lucie on the exercise mats. It really is like a gym experience!

Then we got some further instruction from Tarzan about the equipment and the game. LazRfit has their own design of laser tag equipment that is different from other tag systems in a couple of ways. The vest is very lightweight and the sensors are on the front and shoulder straps. There is no sensor on the back.

There is no traditional phaser. Instead you use a hand grip and the “triggering” (which is not really the right word because you can keep your thumb on it the entire game) is done when your thumb presses against the blue lit button.

Then you can target a very narrow point triangulated between three red points emitted by the hand grip.

You aim the red beams at an opponent’s sensor and try to hold your hand steady while running around (and yes, safe running is encouraged). You will know if you made the tag (which is MUCH harder to do than with a traditional phaser) when their sensor that starts off and neutral lights up red. It’s the reverse of traditional and more in line with tactical tag in principle. Now, while most tradition laser tag will reactivate a player automatically after a few seconds this is not the case with LazRfit. In this game you must be active to reset. If you stay still you will stay red and will not be activated for the game again until the equipment registers that you are moving around…so you MUST run away or at least get your body moving.

There’s plenty of space in the well lit wooden arena to move around and find cover.

And after our first eight minute round (seriously it was so intense I could not believe it was only eight minutes!) We learned how to bounce off the walls parkour style. Unlike in most arenas, here it is encouraged that you run AND bounce off the walls. There is some grip to the wall that helps you get some height while using your lower body strength to push against them.

It is not permitted to climb, but you can use the hand NOT holding the equipment to pivot yourself over a wall. None of us mastered the skill, but Tarzan demonstrated what could be done with time and experience.

And at the end of the game you not only see how you rank on points, but also calories burned, steps taken and efficiency of your workout.

As you can imagine you really work up a sweat with this workout. But Tarzan showed me that the fabric case around the equipment can be removed for laundering so you always have a fresh experience. GENIUS! Let’s incorporate this into other forms of laser tag please!