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I Can Change – Review of Les Mills Body Balance Release 71

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What do you think about the Tai Chi Warm Up in Body Balance?

I’m not asking about the one in the latest release. I mean the “concept” of the Tai Chi Warm Up.

I love it. Always have. A great way to start a mind and body workout with slow flowing moves, deep breaths and gentle abdominal rotations.

In the last few releases however I felt that the choreographers had lost that genuine Tai Chi feel replacing it with more of an aerobic warm up. I missed the  arm circles and the flow.

Would Body Balance release 71 continue this or return to the true essence of Tai Chi?

Let’s have a look at the tracks.

Review of Les Mills Body Balance Release 71

Tai Chi Warm up 1 – Ain’t No Sunshine – Bill Withers
Tai Chi Warm Up 2 –  Ain’t No Sunshine (Lido Remix) – Bill Withers

Well I’m happy. The Tai Chi moves do indeed return to the graceful arm circles of old. Slow sweeping moves that encourage movement and breath to merge.

Except this return to form only lasts for about one minute and thirty seconds.

The “Side Bend Squat and Heel Raise” that follows is perhaps the clunkiest sequence we’ve seen in Body Balance. Awkward, it makes you step off your mat and the side bend is at odds with the leg squat. No amount of coaching and cueing can get participants to keep both legs bent equally. Everyone favours the side that bends. I practiced this endlessly in the run up to launch, and even after teaching the track for 5 weeks, it’s taken this long to do it justice.

Fortunately the “Head Arm Circle” and the return to the sweeping arm circles redeem the track.

Great music (apart from the water drips sound effects).

Best and worst of Body Balance Tai Chi all in the space of 5 minutes.

Sun Salutations – Afreen – A.R. Rahman Nakash Aziz & KM Sufi Ensemble

A different Sun Salutations sequence than usual with Child’s Pose and Striking Cobra added in. After the awkward Tai Chi opener this could also have felt wrong but the moves do flow well and the driving beat of the Indian style music keeps us moving.

In the first few weeks of teaching I found I finished before the track ended. I  realised I’d missed out the “look over left/right shoulder after the cobra pose. Can’t remember this in a Sun Salutation before and it’s easy to forget.

Standing Strength 1 – Walk – Kwabs

Apart from the Intense Pose interlude in the middle of this track we effectively cycle between Standing Lunge and Warrior 2 poses. The feel is from power yoga or vinyasa yoga where you move constantly from one pose to another. Whilst we see this in the Sun Salutations we don’t see it often in Standing Strength.

A welcome change but who else noticed blisters on the balls of their feet from the swivel between  poses?

Standing Strength 2 – Chandelier (Four Tet Remix) – Sia

A more traditional standing strength track, we hold the poses for longer. A combination of Extended Warrior, Triangle and Half Moon pose offers challenges. The latter is one of my favourite yoga poses and of course is as much about balance as it is about strength. Another strong song selection from Sia who is becoming a Body Balance regular artist now.

Balance – Hide And Seek – Imogen Heap

A strange disjointed vocal lends a similar feel to these balances. Individually the poses work but I find the transitions awkward again. Standing Camel pose needs careful coaching otherwise participants just squat. Even when performed correctly again something doesn’t feel quite right.

Probably the first track I’ll mix out.

Hip Openers – Everybody’s Free – TALA

A long hips track with delicious intense stretches we hold for long enough to really feel them. Always good to see Swan pose with a quad stretch, and the welcome return of Frog pose, held for an eternity, provokes moans from participants. We are so close to the line between pleasure and pain here.

Listening to the music I reckon from the moans of the singer during the outro she must have also been in frog pose whilst recording this song.

Core Abs –  I Can Change – Brandon Flowers

How long did it take you to work out which 1980s classic song Brandon Flowers samples in this track. I teased my participants with this one,the riff is so familiar and yet buried deep in the memory. iIt is of course Small Town Boy by Bronksi Beat.

I don’t often choose the core abs track as the stand out, but the driving beat and the moves focused on the core muscles give a tough work out. The class wakes up here and realises it’s in a boot camp.

Core Back – You Know You Like It – DJ Snake & AlunaGeorge

You can do the moves on your knees or on your toes. But the toes version is ten times harder. Again we need to coach the toes version because many participants stick their bums in the air and not trying to keep a flat back. Once you nail the moves on your toes you’ll sweat like a tap.

Actually too tough for some, I’ve suggested that people do round one on their knees and round two on their toes. Doing the lot on your toes is hard. Perhaps too hard.

How’s this one been for you?

Twists – That Girl  – Justin Timberlake

If you’ve just done the core back track on your toes this twist track comes as sweet relief. Supine Twists. A gentle time to recover your breathe. After that Kneeling Lunge twists complete the set.

And Justin Timberlake always goes down well.

Forwards Bends – Let It Go – James Bay

Another chilled sequence focussing on deep stretching. Seated forwards folds and seated forward bends almost take us straight into the relaxation. If we didn’t have to come up to our feet for the last standing forward folds and Yoga Squats then we’d probably nod off before the end.

I love the guitar riff in this one. It almost makes the sound of the muscles stretching.

Relaxation 1 – Bread Of Angels – Stanton Lanier
Relaxation 2 – Dreams In The Night – Stanton Lanier

Stanton Lanier features often in Body Balance relaxation tracks. It’s a shame that most participants won’t see the instructor learning video, because for this release the artist played these piano pieces live in the studio A lovely way to finish off the class.

So is Body Balance 71 the best release ever? No.

Is it the worst? Definitely not. The music is good. I’d still prefer to see some “different” sounds like the Conjure One and Sleepthief of old and not just current chart sounds. Body Balance often explored new types of mind and body music. Jackie and Diana seem to have abandoned this.

Moves are varied with some challenges but for me something, a wow factor, is missing. My participants are enjoying it which is the main thing.

A seven out of ten I think.

Now It’s Your Turn:

What do you think of my review of Les Mills Body Balance 71? Please leave a comment below. Or share it with your friends on social media and let them post their thoughts.

Don’t Look. Track list for Les Mills Body Balance Release 72

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Already?

Yes only two weeks into teaching Body Balance release 71, and before I’ve even written my review, here’s the track list for Les Mills Body Balance release 72. We’ll get to see this in April 2016.

If you don’t want spoiling DON’T READ any further. Otherwise have a look.

BB72Spoiler

Deliver Me first appeared way back in release 19 and is one of my favourite ever Balance songs.

Now it’s your turn:

What do you think of the Les Mills Body Balance release 72 track list? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Listen on Amazon:

If you want more spoilers you can click on the links above to see the music on Amazon. They won’t be exactly the same mixes because Les Mills often edit the tracks, and some are Les Mills cover versions and not available commercially. But it will give you a good feel for what’s on its way.

Fight For You – Review of Les Mills Body Balance release 70

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Tough on the legs and front-end loaded.

What I mean by front-end loaded is that the Standing Strength, Balance and Hip Openers are all long tracks taking up almost half the class with their intense strength and stretch work.

By contrast the last 4 tracks fly by in just 15 minutes.

Great feedback from participants about this class. People say it flows perfectly from one sequence to the other. Others give the long tracks a big thumbs up and enjoy the challenge.

Let’s have a look at the tracks (You can click on the links to listen to the tracks on Amazon).

Review of Les Mills Body Balance release 70

Tai Chi Warm Up – You & Me (Flume Remix) – Disclosure (feat. Eliza Doolittle)

A Tai Chi track of many contrasts. Slow, aweeping arm circles and soft synth music bookend more energetic move when the drums kick in. Surprisingly tough on the legs we keep low in the knees.

The so called “Wide Wu Chi Energy Ball Release” reminds me of playing volleyball on a sunny beach jumping into the air to hit the ball. I challenge anyone not to allow a huge beaming smile to spread across their face during this sequence.

Sun Salutations – Follow The Sun – Cool Lads

Gentle acoustic guitar and soft harmonica disguise the fact this Sun Salutations has a fast beat. Each 8 counts shoot by and you can struggle to keep up with the moves. It creates a strange sensation. Music calms you but the beat propels you. Appearing to speed up even more in the fourth round I think this is an illusion created by the vocalist singing more words. We add a lunge twist into the sequence but otherwise it’s a typical routine.

Standing Strength – Hold Back The River – James Bay

After a few 3 legged-dog knee to nose poses we move into extended warrior and stay for a longtime. Simple arm movements create almost an illusion of movement but our legs stay grounded all the time becoming fatigued as hold the pose. Only a brief shift into sun warrior breaks the flow but were still challenging our legs even then.

Standing Strength – Fight For You – Jason Derulo

A great pop track sampling some synth and lyrics from Toto’s 1980s hit “Africa”. Starting with a repeat of the 3 legged-dog knee to nose poses we move next into standing lunges and finally warrior one. The final squat comes when our legs are burning and screaming for a rest.

Balance – Nothing’s Forever – Paces feat. Kucka

The longest ever Balance track tires out our already fatigued legs. Plenty of time to set up, modify and perfect each pose. Flower pose, right angle pose and tree pose all held for many moments.

A challenging sequence but perhaps just a little two long for a Balance track. It’s the only one from this release so far that people have asked me to consider mixing out.

Hips – Do You Remember  – Jarryd James

Another long track and another sequence of slow poses with time to savour the deep stretches. Swan pose always takes people to the edge between pleasure and pain. Here we have a an optional splits pose as an extension from the kneeling lunge. Only a couple of people in each class can do this but everyone has increased their range as the weeks pass.

A great piece of music and a great set of moves. The best hips track for a long while.

Core Abs – Always Like This – Bombay Bicycle Club

If your class starts on the hour have a sneak peek at the clock as the Core Abs starts. Is it about twenty to the next hour? That’s how long the first five tracks are. From now on we motor through 4 shorter sequences but the intensity doesn’t let up.

Always Like This makes me smile. A stand out Core Abs track with a punishing set of crunches, cycles and leg extensions. Only 4 minutes long but listen to the sounds of groaning from the people with burning abdominals.

Core Back – Brother  – Need To Breathe

A clam start with a baby cobra (or up dog) gives way to a tough side plank and then the intense wild thing pose. Precise cueing required to get people into the correct position. Bridge pose gives us a rest in the middle unless you want to find the full back bend in which casethe pace never lets up.

Twists – Aerial Love  – Daniel Johns

Finally we start to chill out. Child’s pose thread needle twist. Standing to diver’s pose and forward fold twists then back to the floor. The end is in sight.

Hamstring Stretches – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – Hummingbird

A mellow, chilled out version of a Scottish classic pop song, it still took me a while on first listen to work out what it was. So slow compared to the Proclaimer’s original. Slow and delicious forward bends and hamstring stretches and we finish up in happy baby pose. Relaxing and calming after all the hard work.

I’m still tempted to replace this with the up tempo Proclaimer’s version one day to surprise my class. But I think it would ruin the calmness.

Relaxation and Meditation – Sileo – Rhian Sheehan

A lovely piece of music but short as we have little time left. Could have done with a longer relaxation given the intensity of the first half of the class but these 5 minutes certainly feel deserved.

Overall another solid and challenging release. I’d like to see a return of the more flowing Tai Chi Warm Ups but apart from that a great big thumbs up from me again.

Now it’s your turn:

Do you agree with my review of Les Mills Body Balance release 70? Why not comment below. And do please share using the social media buttons.

It’s Here: Tracklist for Les Mills Body Balance release 71

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It’s here. It’s out already.

I haven’t posted my review of the current Body Balance release yet. And here is the track list for Les Mills Body Balance release 71. We’ll get to see this in January 2016.

If you don’t want spoiling DON’T READ any further. Otherwise have a look.

Les Mills Body Balance release 71

Now it’s your turn:

What do you think of the Les Mills Body Balance release 71 track list? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Listen on Amazon:

If you want more spoilers you can click on the links above to see the music on Amazon. They won’t be exactly the same mixes because Les Mills often edit the tracks, and some are Les Mills cover versions and not available commercially. But it will give you a good feel for what’s on its way.