Body4Me

It’s May,so it is time for the quarterly BodyPump workshops. We just had ours this morning. Once again, massive room, heaps of people and a concert style sound system. I so wish we had the same sound system at our gym. 20,000 watts worth of Bass would make a fair difference to the atmosphere :)

First Impressions of BodyPump 66… Wow! If i didn’t know better, you’d think we’d gone back to the mid 40’s in terms of huge workout intensity. This one is massive! The squat track is huge, the chest track hurts, the lunges burn and the shoulder track brings a world of pain. Yay :)

The theme for release 66 is: Heroes Made Here. The focus for this release is on tough sequences of work combined with functional innovations. There are lots of body weight exercises that target the main muscle groups as well as hitting the smaller stabiliser muscles.
As always, the official rundown by Les Mills Program Choreographer Glen Ostergaard can be found here.

If you just want to look at the tracklist for this release, please have a quick look around in Google. There are plenty of sites by now that have it. Like I mentioned in my previous post, Less Mills would prefer us to not post the track list until the release has been launched around the world, so i’m going to give you this preview without spoiling the fun :).

**Edit 09/07/2008: Now that the quarterlies are well and truly over, here is the tracklist for BodyPump 66:

01. Rain Down Love - Freemasons Feat. Siedah Garrett
02. Cisko Disco (DJ Radio Mix) - Rico Bass v.s Deejay Bonito
03. Get Up - Technotronic
04. What Hurts The Most - Cascada
05. Time After Time - Quietdrive
06. On Your Way To The Disco - Rogue Traders
07. Show Me Heaven - Micky Modelle vs Jessy
08. Where Are You 2007 - Paffendorf vs The Real Booty Babes Club Mix Paffendorf
09. Extreme Ways Bourne’s Ultimatum - Moby
10. Always On Your Side - Sheryl Crow

Here is a track-by-track preview of what you can expect from BodyPump 66:

Warmup: As usual, the theme of the song centers around ‘Love’. That’s ok though, because you’ll love this track as much as I do. Here we have a happy track with a good beat, good lyrics and a good range of exercises. Definite toe-tapper. By the time you’re finished here, you’re definitely in the mood for an awesome workout. This one is also really good for beginners as we do an introduction to quite a few of the moves in the 4/4 slow-motion mode.

Legs (Squats): You know this one. As the sizzler mentions, a lot of instructors may yell ‘Oooooh.. we’re half way there…’ way too many times :). It’s a great remix with a huge beat! Lots of slow work and lots of singles. I love the setup from the 3/1’s to the Singles. Energy ! Energy! Energy! By the time you’re finished with the bottom halves, it’s straight into the next round. If this one doesn’t make your legs burn by the end, I don’t know what will.

Chest: Oh my goodness.. The never ending Chest Track. Don’t worry, it does end eventually after about 5 and a half minutes, but if feels like forever because we’ve gone a bit heavier on the weights. This one feels straight out of the mid 40’s. Even the song is appropriate for an old-school workout. Funky beat and lots of work. We get familiar with the normal power moves and then we hit a new little innovation that will totally overload your muscles. The extra time under tension we get in this track will make a huge difference. Best of all, once you think you couldn’t possible lift another round, it’s time for push ups. Not just normal push ups either.. Evil Push ups ;)

Back: Peak Time! As usual, Cascada does not disappoint. Big track with a massive beat. All the moves you would normally expect, and at nearly 6 minutes long, you’ll know you’ve done some hard work by the end. This track is so long, in fact, that there is room for another round of Clean & Presses. That means your break is pretty much smack bang in the middle! Lots of rows too, normal and wide.

Triceps: I love this song! It’s a remix of the old Cindy Lauper - Time after Time song. The song fits the movements perfectly. We split our time between the bench and dips, so you can really afford to go a little heavier on the bar than you normally would. You’ll be too busy humming along to the music to notice the pain anyway :) We have a great new pull-over combo move that will really put some load into the triceps. A couple of rounds of presses, extensions and combos and we’re ready for the dips. You remember them from release 64, right ? How many this time ? Too many to count.. Well over 20.. Ouch!

Biceps: Rogue Traders hit us once again with a tough workout. It’s only 4 minutes long, but you’ll feel every second. The track is designed to keep your arms pretty much under constant tension the whole time. Good variety of moves including plenty of bottom halves with a short break towards the end. Watch out for the final round though. We finish it off with some real burners!

Lunges: Another remix. Huuuuge techno beat that kicks in as soon as we’re done with the stretches. We start off with some wicked backward stepping lunges off the bench and finish the log off with a nice long set of normal weighted lunges. Shake, rinse, repeat on the other leg :) Once again, we have the option of using the single pate to really utilise the core muscles. The lyrics work really well on this one. You just can’t help but smile during this track. It’s just a fun, uplifting song.

Shoulders: The first time I heard this song, I thought to myself…’This isn’t going to be pretty’. Let me assure you, I wasn’t wrong. There are virtually no lyrics. Just a big dance beat. It sounds almost robotic. Again, a workout straight from the early 40’s. Like any good shoulder track, we start with a big set of push ups before we step into a world of pain :). We hit some delt raises and then the real fun begins! You remember the Modified Arnold Press from a few releases ago ? Well, it’s back. With a vengeance. Not only do we do them both slow and fast, we also change the move slightly to get even deeper into the shoulders. Use your normal weights for this one and pray that you’ll make it to the end.

Abs: Beautiful, atmospheric sound by Moby. This one is not so much a normal Ab workout as a full-on oblique workout. The focus here is very much on giving you that nice V shape in your body. We’ve got a new move here, the Side Plank Roll. You may know this move from Body Balance. It’s basically like a side plank but then we thread the top arm under the bottom of the chest while keeping your hips in place. If it sounds hard, that’s because it is :) We finish the workout with nice modified oblique crunches. I really like this Ab workout. I think it’s it’s one of the best we’ve had in a while (with the exception of 65, which was also awesome).

Cooldown/Stretch: Nice slow duet by Sheryl Crow. The best part of this song is that the stretches really last a long time. We get plenty of time to relax and reward some tired muscles. Not much else to say about this one. It’s just a nice and relaxing song.

So, overall, another massive workout from the Les Mills team. Glen Ostergaard and the rest of the choreography team have done another great job. Once day i’ll have to make it over to New Zealand for a filming. The Bodypump 66 DVD looks simply amazing. These guys have built an absolute empire on fitness and it’s easy to see why. Solid workouts, fantastic music and constant innovation. Well Done!

Can’t wait to get into this release. With quality like this, I can’t wait for BodyPump 67. Bring it on!

The other big news is that starting with this release, Les Mills are introducing a new 30 minute ‘express’ class format. In this configuration, you do 6 tracks : Warmup, Squats, Chest, Back, Lunges or Shoulders and then Abs (Core). No cool down and we skip the Triceps and Biceps completely. The workout is focused on moving the major muscle groups and using the maximum calories possible for that class type. You will still need to cool down and stretch after the class yourself.

There has been growing demand for shorter classes that people can fit into their lunch breaks. I think these could also be fantastic as introductory classes or as a ‘warmup’ to an RPM/Attack/Combat class. By my way of thinking, anything that will get people in the gym to keep fit and healthy is a good thing. There is a good chance that a newcomer who has started with an express class will move up to the full classes. That has to be good. We still keep the 45 minute format as well though. This new class style is just another weapon in our arsenal against the growing ‘globesity’ problem.

Have an awesome workout. Let me know if you like it!

[…] **UPDATE**: I’ve got a preview/review of the new BodyPump 66 release right here  […]

[…] **UPDATE**: I’ve got a preview/review of the new BodyPump 66 release right here […]

Great review!

I’ve only been doing this for a month now and participated in three classes - but I’m soo hooked! Weight-training on my own is a bit tedious I think, so I haven’t been too keen on the gym for the last few years, but then my employer paid a full membership for me so I thought I have to try. After all I’m (like you) a programmer, 34 years of age and with a growing waistline, so there’s no questions about the need of doing something.

I’ve been doing some spinning before so I started there, but then I decided to try a bodypump class - and I’ll never regret it! The adrenaline and the energy I felt there was almost spiritual! We’ve been doing bp65 so far, and reading this review makes me look forward to this summer even more!

To me it feels ideal to combine a few spinning and bodypump classes a week to get a full body workout - anyone agree?

Again - thanks for your blogg - it’s very inspirational reading! (If I use some strange language, please remeber that english is not my first language.) :-)

Hi Peter.

Thank you very much for your feedback.
Your story sounds exactly like mine. I started going to the gym with a few friends and we trained together. After a few months, they all dropped off and going by myself became quite tedious. Out of curiosity, I walked into the Group Fitness room one day and I was instantly hooked :)
Mind you, the second class I tried was BodyCombat and I was that unfit that i walked out of the class half way through… I got that angry at myself that I decided I had to get fit enough to be as good as the instructor… Great motivation :)

I love the BodyPump program and what it allows you to do for yourself. You can challenge yourself to new levels at every class and you get a different focus with every release. I haven’t heard it referred to as ’spiritual’ before, but i know exactly what you mean :) There’s nothing quite like the adrenalin high you get when you know you’ve just pushed yourself beyond where you thought you could go. Nice work!

BTW, i’m also a Cycle instructor, so i can whole-heartedly recommend Cycle/Spin/RPM in combination with BodyPump. I actually think it’s the perfect combination since you get the massive calorie burn on the bike combined with the muscle building effects of BodyPump. A lot of people actually forget (or don’t know) that you need a resistance training (weight training) program to go along with any diet and high intensity cardio program to make sure you don’t just lose muscle mass.
The combination of the bike and Pump is what helped me shed my spare 30 kilos!

Again, thanks for the comment. Keep up the great work. Release 65 was awesome, i’m sure you’re going to enjoy 66 just as much!

Pat

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