All posts by roger

What is Body Combat – it’s the fitness class that thinks it’s a fight movie?

Fitness and Yoga, , , , , , , , ,

Body Combat is the only fitness class that lifts you out of the real world and sets you down inside a blockbuster fight movie. Who do you want to be? It might be the martial arts king Bruce Lee, or modern tough guy Jason Bourne. It could be Captain Jack Sparrow, James Bond or the fighters from the recent Warrior film.

That’s why I like teaching Body Combat so much. It really does offer you an escape from the day to day routine and gets you fit in a fun and challenging way. If you are an instructor you will already know this. If you are thinking of giving the class a try I hope I can convince you with this review.

What is Body Combat fitness class fight movie

Choreographed to music, Body Combat is from New Zealand fitness class experts Les Mills. They describe the class as follows.

“The fiercely energetic martial arts workout where you are totally unleashed and empowered.”

It uses authentic moves from many different martial arts. Boxing provides jabs, hooks and upper cuts and intensely aerobic training moves. Karate and Taekwondo bring precise kicks. Kick boxing and Muay Thai unleash an arsenals of knee and elbow strikes. Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art introduces a flowing dancing style that’s tough on the legs and conditions the muscles.

All the while in the background the music drives your motivation. You’ll hear current top 40 hits, older chart toppers and of course those block buster movie themes. As with all Les Mills classes, they bring out new music and new moves every three months.

What is Body Combat fitness class fight movie

So here’s what to expect in an hour of Body Combat.

Lower Body Warm Up: You’ll try out basic boxing moves and become comfortable with simple punches and perhaps mix in some shuffles to increase the heart rate. The music is always uplifting maybe even sing along.

Lower Body Warm Up: Here we set up and try single kicks such as the roundhouse kick and side kicks along with knee strikes and other leg toning moves. Now we are ready for the work out to increase in intensity.

Combat 1: In Combat tracks you will mix punches with kicks. To provide you with an elements continuity so that you can get used to the moves from class to class, certain moves occur in certain tracks. So you can always expect the roundhouse kick in this section. The music here is often modern rock.

Power 1: Just punching and usually inspired purely by boxing training this section is usually choreographed to fast beat dance anthems. The beat drives the moves and pushes up the heart rates as the sweat starts to pour.

Combat 2: Side kicks make an appearance now but the signature move in this track is the jump front kick. Once mastered it provides great aerobic intensity. Musically expect chart hits, rock or more pounding dance grooves.

Power 2: More upper body focus, this section usually provides a physical peak. Like most power tracks the music tends to be driving beats from dance favourites, though we have heard modern takes on old school hits like Johnny Be Good, and Proud Mary.

Combat 3: The focus move in this segment is the back kick. Combat track number three often includes more intense leg conditioning moves especially from Caporeira. These tracks can be quite cinematic. Who could ever forget the awesome moves choreographed to an up beat version of The Pirates of the Caribbean theme?

Muay Thai: Here comes the cardio-peak of the class. Fast and often endless knee and elbow work set to either driving rock or hard core house and dance sounds. You’ll be breathless and sweaty and approaching fatigue by now.

Power 3: This might be a long one. Possibly up to 8 minutes of punching to condition and shape the shoulders. Always uplifting dance music which carries you towards the finishing line.

Conditioning: Despite having finished off the shoulders, expect press ups, sit ups, crunches, C-curls, hovers and planks. Expect your core muscles to be tested to burning point? See hints of Les Mills core strength class, CXWorx, reflected in these exercises.

Cool down: Finally the pace slows down and a slower chart hit or rock ballad accompany stretches and kata moves often taken from Tai Chi. You’ll be tired, dripping with sweat, but you will feel fulfilled, energetic and proud.

What is Body Combat fitness class fight movie

So if you want some fun whilst getting fit. Or if you’ve had a bad day at work and you want to let off some steam. If you want to get out of the real world and unleash your inner Jason Statham, give Body Combat a try. It’s addictive and always has you coming back for more.

It’s the only fitness class that takes you out of the real world and puts you into a block buster movie.

Over to you: Are you thinking of trying a Body Combat class? Have I convinced you to give it a try? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

First impressions of Body Balance Release 57 after Dunfermline quarterly workshop

Fitness and Yoga, , , , , ,

Body Balance Release 57 brought a little sunshine to Scotland today. A good job because as I drove over the Forth Bridge on the way to the Dunfermline quarterly workshop, the rain was torrential and the clouds so low it was like driving through fog.

body balance release 57 dunfermline quarterly workshop

Our trainer was Giovanni Sacco (who also took my Body Combat Quarterly in Glasgow last week – I’m not a stalker honest) and he delivered a polished class. Les Mills are always telling us to script our classes and not to simply reproduce what’s said on the DVD. I’ve seen some trainers who are almost word perfect to the DVD script, so great to hear Gio’s own words. I picked up some great cues today.

So what is Body Balance Release 57 like? Here are my initial impressions.

  • Great music. A real cross section of styles including a rockier feel in the core abs track.
  • One of the songs used to be the theme music for Top of The Pops a long time ago.
  • The Tai Chi warm up is stunning. Beautiful flowing moves and a lovely song by SleepThief.
  • The Sun Salutation has a very long sequence with varied elements. It isn’t what we are used to. This will take a lot of remembering as well as teaching.
  • The balance track feels very balletic.
  • Gate Pose appears in the hips track. We haven’t had this one in Body Balance before but I love to teach it in Yoga.
  • The abs and back tracks are hard core tough. It was like turning a tap on. Sweat was pouring out of my head by the end of these.

After we finished the class with it’s chilled final phase there was a education session looking at “feeling” the yoga elements of Body Balance. How do you do this? Hold a pose for 5 long endless minutes, in this case downward facing dog. A simple and effective method of getting us to feel the moves. So more moans and groans from the room full of instructors who all committed to trying this with a pose a week from now on.

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record it looks like we have yet another amazing release continuing an unbroken run of top quality since way back at number 39. I’m going to really enjoy learning and teaching this one.

Watch out for a full review of the class once I have learned it and taught it a few times.

Over to you: Are you a Body Balance instructor? What were your first impressions of release 57. Please leave a comment by clicking below, I’d love to know what you think.

Where can you find raw product design talent and exciting marketing development ideas?

Marketing, , , ,

Isn’t it a shame how good creative ideas for products or marketing campaigns are often smothered by the politics and bureaucracy in big companies? If I’m ever worn down by an never ending conveyor belt of IT, Compliance and Risk people who have an endless list of “Why Nots”, I look to the graduating students in product design at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) for inspiration.

For the last few years I have been a judge (for Service Design Network UK)  looking at the top four projects that the finalists have created. We select a winner based upon their 10 minute presentation (makes me feel like a Dragon in the Den) and their business and marketing plans.

This is raw product design talent. It is a hot-house of creative marketing development ideas. I am always overwhelmed by their enthusiasm and drive.

This year I saw:

Lizzie and her Tempting Tastebuds. Lizzie made a remarkable leap to reach her idea. Having seen a Marks and Spencer competition to design a special picnic – she came across an article entitled “Chemotherapy is no picnic”. Further research revealed such treatment suppresses people’s appetite.  So it prompted her to design a range of highly nutritious meals that could be eaten in small amounts. She researched the recipes and designed a whole selection of packaging and a marketing campaign to go with it.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

Daniel and his Hermitage luxury portable hotel rooms. Daniel had spotted a trend for increasingly high end luxury hotels. But what happens if the remote lake you want to visit does not have any accommodation? Hermitage is an idea for a portable luxury unit that is helicoptered into the desired location. I was particularly impressed with his self produced TV advert which in my opinion was of broadcast quality.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

Fi and her Make/Work matchmaking service for suppliers and producers. Fi had identified a problem faced by people who make things (clothes or just about any product you can think of) being able to easily source local raw materials without hours of Google trawling. Her Make/Work website brings the two together very easily. And Fi has personally created a huge network of contacts. The idea is highly franchise-able.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

Phoebe, Flora, John and Luke and their Dementia Dog. The team built upon the principle of guide dogs for the blind and developed the dementia dog to help bring routine into the lives of Alzheimer’s sufferers. Not only have they created a Dementia Dog Website and a full business plan but have even secured investment funding to trial their idea for real.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

It was a close call but we awarded the prize to the Dementia Dog project. Talking to the graduates afterwards over a beer, I was again taken by their creativity and passion. I wish them all well deserved success in their careers.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

Me and Dr Gordon Hush with the finalists

When they encounter their own never ending conveyor belt of IT, Compliance and Risk people who have an endless list of “why nots”, I hope that their ideas and ambitions prevail.

Over to you: What’s the best new idea you’ve heard about for a new product or service? Or have you got any funny stories about how you have persevered against the “why nots”? Please leave a comment and share your experiences.

First impressions of Body Combat Release 52 after Glasgow quarterly workshop

Fitness and Yoga, , , , , ,

So what is the new Body Combat release like?

Another three months has passed for Les Mills instructors and it is time for the new releases of each of the classes. I drove along to Broadwood Stadium on Sunday for the Glasgow quarterly workshop for Body Combat Release 52. Having spent the morning teaching my normal classes I was already quite tired so this very energetic and extremely cardio based class really hit me hard. That’s a good sign though isn’t it?

There were probably 50 Scottish Instructors in the room (only three of us were males) and the atmosphere was amazing. Giovanni Sacco, the National Trainer, was his motivational best, combining good visual teaching cues as well as the verbal stuff.

It was a blur of sweat, shouting and trying to breath – but here are the highlights of what I remember.

Body Combat Release 52 Glasgow quarterly workshop

  • The melody in the warm up song is so catchy that I was humming it all the following day
  • I couldn’t believe how many kicks there are in track 4
  • My shoulders were painfully on fire after another sing-along second power track
  • Capoeira creates the same burn in the glutes and you’ll even hear a siren as the flames lick higher
  • The muay thai section is very long, quite repetitious, but I guess it works because I was breathless at the end
  • In the education session Gio asked, “What is the hardest thing about teaching Body Combat?” The immediate reply from an instructor was, “Breathing!”

So here we go again. The learning begins and clubs will be launching the new classes over the next month or so. Take a deep breath everyone, you are going to need it.

Watch out for a full review of the class once I have learned it and taught it a few times.

Over to you: Are you a Body Combat instructor? What were your first impressions of release 52. Please leave a comment by clicking below, I’d love to know what you think.

If you enjoyed this post, here are some reviews of older Body Combat releases: