With the LED lights and fun scoring metrics, the Liteboxer may look like some smart dancing machine at first. And although it kind of is, it's really a full-body boxing machine that lets you work out from the comfort of your home.

If you've heard of Peloton, then you can think of a Liteboxer as Peloton for boxing. If you haven't heard of Peloton, then you won't get that reference. But just like the Peloton motivates you with trainer-led courses to get the most out of your stationary bike, the Liteboxer motivates you with trainer-led boxing courses.

There are a few different packages you can order, but if you go with the Liteboxer Starter Package, it'll cost you $1,695. You don't have to pay upfront; instead, you could finance it with Affirm over a few different time periods. The Starter Package comes with the Liteboxer (of course), a pair of gloves, a pair of wraps, free shipping, and a free 30-day membership trial. After the free trial, a membership costs $29.99 per month.

This is a huge amount of money, but after speaking with a representative from Liteboxer, he assured me that if you're not happy within 30 days, you can get your money back. The company requires a phone call to process a refund just to make sure there are no misconceptions or errors they could resolve before starting the return process. But they really want you to be happy with your Liteboxer and experience it fully before deciding to keep it or return it, which is why they offer a free month of their premium subscription.

To help you decide if it's worth it,  we spent some time using it. Here's what we found.

Setting It Up: A Breeze (Because I Didn't Have to Do It)

When the Liteboxer is delivered, it comes in two large, heavy boxes. Luckily, my test Liteboxer came with white glove service so I didn't have to set it up myself. And the two men who lugged the two boxes upstairs and set up my new boxing machine were extremely skilled. This wasn't their first rodeo (with setting up Liteboxers, in particular), so they were done in under an hour.

If you don't pay for white glove service, there are simple instructions to follow. You'll just need to make sure you have at least two people to move the boxes and set up the machine. Oh, and make sure you have plenty of space for the Liteboxer because this thing is big. Like, really big.

When assembled, a Liteboxer measures 37.6-inches by 55.5-inches (or just over 3-feet by 5-feet). On top of needing at least that much space for the machine itself, the company also recommends leaving about one foot of space in front and on the sides. Though for some workouts, you need extra floor space to perform off-platform exercises like squats, yoga poses, and more.

The Liteboxer is so heavy because a lot of its construction is made of metal, which makes it pretty sturdy. When you stand on the base, it feels like pretty solid ground under your feet. If you take a look below, you can see that the base is covered with a gym floor material, perfectly resistant with a little bit of bounce.

When you stand on the base, you're providing the necessary counterweight for the punches you throw at the top portion. If you find that the top portion, also known as the punching shield, is too high or low for your height, that's easily adjustable. Making sure the height is just right is important for getting the most out of your workout.

Then, there are a few other accessories that come with a Liteboxer purchase. With my test unit, I received two pairs of wrist straps, a pair of small gloves, and a pair of large gloves. Each pair of gloves comes with a convenient storage bag.

Because I have such small hands, I found the large gloves to be way too big. My husband's hands are a lot larger than mine, so I had him try out the small gloves versus the large gloves; he preferred the fit of the small gloves as well.

Pairing It: Easy, but with a Few Hiccups

A traditional Bluetooth connection goes through your device and your device remembers that connection for future use. Liteboxer's Bluetooth connection with your phone goes through the app instead, requiring you to pair your device each time you work out. Although this may seem a bit tedious, there are reasons for it.

If you have multiple people in your home using the Liteboxer with their own smartphone or tablet, a unique connection through the Liteboxer app is beneficial for a few reasons. First, it syncs up your specific profile and personalized settings. Second, the machine won't automatically connect to someone else's phone via Bluetooth and prevent you from connecting until the other person disconnects or is kicked off.

To pair your phone, you tap the Liteboxer logo in the top right corner of the app. From there, you're presented with a picture of the punching shield with one pad highlighted; you have to punch that specific pad to start the pairing process.

I thought that it was a bit annoying at first to have to pair my phone every single time I wanted to work out, but it only takes a few seconds. It makes it easy for someone else to quickly use the machine after you. Plus, if you have multiple Liteboxers in your home, it helps you pair quickly to the correct one.

When I mentioned to a Liteboxer representative that I was really having to put a lot of oomph behind my punches just to pair my phone, he gave me a useful tip that improved my experience tenfold. In the settings of the app, you can toggle on punch sensitivity by going to Settings > Preferences > Increase Punch Sensitivity. This helps the machine pick up even the lightest touch and it made a world of difference for me. (Read: I'm not the strongest person.)

The display stand for your tablet or smartphone is underneath the punching shield and can be secured with a strap. (You'll definitely want to use the strap because your device will 100% fall off if it's not strapped in.)

You might be thinking it seems weird that your device is below eye level while you're working out. But it was specifically designed that way to help you zone in more on the punching shield and not be as distracted by a video while you're working out.

Multiple Workout Options: It's Hard to Get Bored

One of the things I loved most about my time with the Liteboxer was getting to try out a variety of different workouts. On top of being able to work out different parts of my body, the diversity of workout styles made the overall experience a lot more fun for me.

When you first open up the app, you're met with some introductory material on the home screen. If you're new to boxing, you'll definitely want to check out these tutorial videos. You'll learn what the trainers mean when they throw out numbers and boxing terms, as well as what your Liteboxer is capable of.

 

 

When it comes to getting a full-body workout, there are two different options. You can experiment with Trainer Classes or try out a more restorative video section, titled Build + Restore.

Trainer Classes, as the name implies, are classes led by well-trained athletes that can vary in length from around six or seven minutes to 30 minutes. Build + Restore videos focus more on conditioning, stretching, and strengthening your body instead of breaking a sweat.

Then, there are punch tracks that allow you to throw punches to the beat of your favorite song. Although the song library isn't huge right now, Liteboxer is constantly adding new songs and expanding genres of music offered. Each song has a difficulty level of easy, medium, or hard that you can play through; increasing the difficulty boosts the overall number of punches required and the difficulty of the combos during the song.

Although the workout courses are fun and certainly make me work up a sweat, my personal preference is the punch tracks. Listening to music is one of my favorite things to do while working out, so being able to punch to the beat of the music was pretty fun. Even though I had sweat dripping down my face after about four songs, I wanted to keep going because it's just fun.

Plus, as you add songs to your workout, you can see the total workout time at the bottom of the screen. This makes it incredibly easy to build a workout that's exactly how long you want it to be.

And if you like the workout style of punch tracks, but you don't want to go through the hassle of choosing songs, you can try out a sparring session class led by a Liteboxer trainer. In these sparring session videos, the trainers have chosen a few songs in a specific genre and they lead you through a few different combos in each song.

Using It: I Didn't Just Sweat, I Was Dripping

To preface this section, I want to say that I have never boxed before in my life. I've never even punched a punching bag at a gym. The closest I've ever been to this type of workout was kickboxing on the Wii.

That said, I was a bit nervous to try out the Liteboxer because it seemed like it was geared toward people who had previous boxing experience. When I tried out my first trainer class and they were throwing around words I had never heard before and going super fast, I was lost. After watching the introductory videos, I instantly had a better grip on what was happening.

The next time I tried a trainer class, I still got lost along the way, but not so much that I had to stop the video. I powered through and after a 10- to 15-minute trainer class, I was literally dripping. I promise I'm not exaggerating, I had sweat dripping off my face.

Granted, I live in Texas and the summer heat might have been contributing, but I still think it was a pretty intense workout. And like I said before, I don't work out as often as I should so I'm probably really out of shape, but I was able to get through the beginner's course.

 

 

Although the workout courses are great, I was more drawn to the punch tracks. Being able to listen to some of my favorite songs and punch to the beat was a more interactive workout that didn't make me feel like I was working out. I felt like I was playing Beat Saber, just with punches.

Plus, I'm a competitive person (especially with myself), so seeing a score at the end of every punch track just made me want to play the song over again to see if I could beat my streak or make 100% of the hits.

I tried to play Katy Perry's Roar on Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty (pictured above, left to right) and I could definitely tell the difference between each difficulty level. Playing the song in Easy mode felt like a nice warm-up pace and I was still sweating by the end of it. Medium mode challenged me a little more, adding new combos and about 50 more total punches to the song. Hard mode is incredibly fast-paced for me and added roughly 60 more total punches than in Medium mode.

As mentioned before, I had to turn my punch sensitivity on for the Liteboxer to register my punches a bit easier. I was consistently getting a force rating of 2/5 and really had to punch it to get up to a 3/5. When I toggled punch sensitivity off, I had to hit with a force of at least 3/5 for it to even register my punch.

Also, as I was working out, whether with punch tracks or a trainer-led course, the punching shield always scared me a little bit. I tried to punch the crap out of it and it never broke, but as I've mentioned a few times in this post, I'm not the strongest person. Although I don't know that anyone could break it by punching it, the punching shield got extremely wobbly at times and made me a little worried.

Conclusion: A Great Workout Machine If You Have the Money and Space

Overall, the Liteboxer is a great piece of workout equipment that's fun and easy to use. I'm not someone who works out a lot, especially when it comes to cardio or full-body workouts. So when the Liteboxer was first delivered to my house, I was intimidated. This was a hefty machine and I had to figure out how to use it.

But it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be to get the hang of it. And I love that the app has plenty of options for beginners, skilled boxers, and people somewhere in between. Just know that even if you're a beginner, doing easy punch tracks and beginner trainer-led classes, you're going to walk away thoroughly sweaty.

All that said, there are a few reasons a Liteboxer might not be the best option for you. The Liteboxer requires a lot of space and it's not super pretty to look at. It's more attractive than other workout equipment, sure, but it's very big. If you have a 3-foot by 5-foot rug in your house somewhere, you could use that as a reference if you're trying to figure out where you would put a Liteboxer.

The Liteboxer isn't cheap, either. For the Starter Package, it's $1,695; and while yes, you can pay this in installments over time, it's still an expensive investment. This is going to be true of many smart fitness machines, like the Peloton ($1,895) or a closer boxing alternative, FightCamp ($1,219).

You'll need to consider how much time you think you would actually spend on it, whether you think it would motivate you to work out more, and whether something less expensive (a punching bag, gloves, and some YouTube videos) could work just as well. Luckily, they have that nifty 30-day money-back guarantee if you try it and find out it's not the right fit for you.

All in all, I enjoyed my experience with the Liteboxer. It inspired me to get up and work out for one song; then that one song often turned into a few. It's beat-based and fun to dance to the music in between punches. Would I buy one myself? Probably not, but only because I'd rather spend the money elsewhere right now. Would I recommend it? Heck yeah.