Liteboxer is Peloton, but for boxing

 Liteboxer is a new startup offering a Peloton-esque digital boxing trainer for at-home use, arriving at the perfect time. The hardware reimagines an old-timey standup punch ball as a digital game of Lights Out, harnessing rhythm to guide your punches. On the front of the machine is a flower with six punch zones that light up, directing where you should hit in a given program. 

Below it is a separate pad for body blows, and below that a stand to hold a tablet where you can stream classes and run workouts. Nestled inside are force sensors that can tell you how much power you’ve used for each strike, and how accurate each punch has been. The use of music and rhythm is crucial to the platform, and given the dopamine hit you get when playing a game like Beat Saber, should help ensure people keep coming back to Liteboxer. 

There’s a subscription element, naturally, to this Peloton-of-boxing setup, that offers trainer-led workouts as well as a prolonged training program. This is fronted by Leyon Azubuike, a former US heavyweight, kick-boxer Eliza Shirazi and fitness trainer Emily Collins. If you’re in a hurry, quick workouts can help you squeeze some bag time into your day, while challenges let you compete against your peers. 

Unfortunately, as with its rivals, there’s little accessible or affordable about Liteboxer’s business model, aimed squarely at those with buckets of disposable cash. The Liteboxer device itself will set you back $1,495.00, plus a monthly subscription of $29 a month (after your three-month trial expires). Then again, that figure is about the same you’d pay for a year’s worth of weekly boxing classes at a US gym. So if you’re serious about fitness, and feel like you’d use it more than once a week, it probably pays off.