With my lovely diverse range of clients there really is no one size fits all approach to my training. As part of that I try not to get too hung up or over reliant on one bit of kit – and a lot of the time ‘bodyweight’ is all we need for a great workout anyway. However, there is one bit of kit in my training toolbox that I am beginning to love a little bit more than the others (shhh don’t tell the kettlebells or Bosu they might not be able to cope) and that’s the ViPR.

If you are unfamiliar with the ViPR (which stands for Vitality. Performance. Reconditioning) it basically looks like a big plastic hollow tube with a few handles. And that’s exactly what it is. Stand a few of them up next to each other and it looks like a crazy oversized set of pan pipes. However, the beauty as with so many things in life is in their simplicity. The nature of the tube and the design of the handles means you can do endless variations of different types of loaded movement training. You can lift them, flip them, tilt them, swing and shift them, carry them and just generally throw them around. And for the mobile trainer like myself the ability to throw them in the back of the car and take them anywhere makes them a brilliant bit of kit. I currently carry around a 6kg and 10kg version.

Here’s a video of one of my lovely clients Vicky working with the ViPR in her sunny back garden, just to give you a little flavour of some of the things you can do with it. Let me just preface this by saying that Vicky is 67. Now I don’t say this to embarrass her (and she did tell me I could let you know her age!) but to give her a bit of a pat on the back as to how well she’s doing and how strong and well she’s looking. Vicky plays lots of golf, a bit of tennis and goes to yoga once a week. We work together on general quality of movement, feeling stronger and fitter, and getting in a condition to keep on bringing that golf handicap down…. Oh and we might have the odd discussion about bread, cakes and weight loss!

How great would it be if every 67yr old could move like this…..

Believe me this is just the start when it comes to the potential of the ViPR. Do a search for more on YouTube if you’re interested and you can find loads of examples of the exercises/training you can do with them. You might just be inspired…..