This is a fantastic release which is going down extremely well with clients. It creates moans and groans in the leg conditioning track 6 and the abs track 9, shouts and screams in the fun tracks and gritted determination in the endless last power track.

I love it too but when I first heard the music I was disappointed. Due to traveling with work I just couldn’t get to a quarterly workshop and I think this release more than any proves that you have to have the “masterclass” experience rather than seeing it for the first time in your living room.

I thought, “Oh no – two songs were in the previous release of Balance, that remix of an awesome Scooter song that has been used in the warm up to BC16 is bland, and T6 is dull hip hop”. Then you do it and you realise in this release that the moves carry the music.

1) Warm Up (More/Rolling In The Deep): Good fun upbeat Upper body – nothing out of the ordinary but like the build up from combat stance only, double jab to jab cross jab – that works nicely. The lower body is fine as well – if not pretty similar to the last two. That’s three lower body warm ups in a row that have been very similar in construction – something different would next time would be nice.

2) Combat 1 (Frozen): This is the highlight of the release for me and in my opinion the best T2 since BC35. The double block gets you deep into the legs and the addition of the elbow and the roundhouse is powerful. Sound effects make the kicks even stronger – nice to see this nod to the past in the 50th. Sound effects are cheesy for some and joy for others. These are quite far back in the mix so they keep the latter happy without annoying the former. Then we have sword strikes – again with steel clashing with steel sound effects. Takes me back to BC10 and the cheesiest cool down ever – Funniculi Funnicula. The sword section raises the heart rate – this doesn’t feel like a T2 – it’s a cardio burner. The middle combo is good as well with its knees and double front kicks. Simply a cracker.

3) Power 1 (What’s Up): Simple stuff. Two separate combos that eventually merge into one heart pumping face puncher. Great uplifting song with many vocal hooks (big big hill, brotherhood, what’s going on!). Sometimes T3s blur into one – this one will be brought back.

4) Combat 2 (Let it Die): The new advancing side kick is a great addition especially in the faster section towards the end, though I understand why we need the slower demo at the start. The rest of the track feels a little “bitty”. It doesn’t seem to do much but at the end you have a sore butt so I guess it does its work subtly.

5) Power 2 (Nessaja): Continuing a trend for excellent shoulder wasting T5s – this is as relentless as it is fun. Love the block feeling to the choreography and the full on 30 second blasts. I often use the previous version of this track – a bonus warm up from BC16 – so I was delighted when my class sang along with “It must be Dave who’s on the train”. And we get the Alvin and the Chipmunks sing-a-long in the middle as well – that was missing from the BC16 version. The fact the final combo (Jab, hook upper) was the exact reverse of the choreography from the last release does mess with the head a little.

6) Combat 3 (Gimme Dat): Ouch. In my last mix I did “Not Gonna Get us” from BC18 – a T9 with squats and lunges just like here – but this goes on for three times as long. Esquiva, lunges, gingas, front kicks. This is very hard. Very good. And as Dan says will lead to lean lean legs. Hardest one to learn as well there is a great deal going on (with a bit of lopsided choreography).

7) Muay Tai (Eye of The Tiger): The cardio burn returns with a roar as the tempo goes into overdrive. The transitions are quick, cueing is difficult, but the work out is intense – especially if you manage all those running man knees. Once more we have an orgy of downward punches – which aren’t really Muay Tai moves. I know they get the heart rate sky high but I would like to see a break from these. The Tiger growls are a gift for cheese merchants like me.

8) Power 3 (You’re the feeling): Long and tough this is a major endurance test. I love the power of the body hook to the kidneys. However, when was the last time we had a T8 that didn’t finish with millions of jabs in front stance? Okay so it finishes the main workout on a blistering high – but it’s getting predictable.

9) Conditioning (Pause): This is short, sharp and savage with a great piece of music, great core strengthening moves and guaranteed deep sighs from everyone. It’s really a taster for some CXWORX isn’t it – like all conditioning tracks in Combat and Balance over the last 12 months we have been getting hints at this great new programme. People feel they have achieved something after this track. “Look at that girl she’s like, OUCH!”

10) Cool down (ISHFWILF): Good to have a heavier, rockier cool down. This creates a good musical contrast. A pretty epic way to finish.

When I look over what I have written in my review of Body Combat release 50 I notice a few niggles – but the release has gone down better than many that at first glance I might have given a better score to. What I think works here is a perfect balance. This release has a bit of everything that has made combat what it is over 50 releases. An old school T2 with fun sound effects and swords which don’t detract from the intensity; sing along but intense power tracks; a lifetime achievement award hard core leg track, the sharpest conditioning track for ages and an overall workout that can break even the fittest.

So it is a perfect celebration of 50 releases of Body Combat.

Over to You: Are you a Body Combat Instructor? What did you think of release 50? Was it the milestone class you wanted it to be? Are you a participant? Have you enjoyed number 50?

I’m very late with this review of Body Combat release 47 – so late in fact that I have started to mix in preparation for the next release in a few weeks time. But I stayed with the full 47 line up for quite a few weeks due to popularity of this workout. Whilst it might not be as focused on leg conditioning as its immediate predecessors, it more than makes up for it in the upper body department, delivering a blistering cardio burnout and an absolute guarantee of sore shoulders.

Upper Warm Up (Dynamite): An uplifting song with catchy lyrics that participants can sing along to, this is a brief but enjoyable warm up for the upper body keeping the moves nice and simple as you would expect. The mid-track kata is necessitated by the structure of the song rather than by the need to offer a rest so early on, but it does give the opportunity to learn a move which will crop up in various guises in four tracks in this release.

Lower Warm Up (Love the Way You Lie): A good track to coach the basic kicks and knee strikes with the welcome return of the hip roll (or outer leg block as it doesn’t seem to be called anymore). The music is pretty dull however with the rap verses really hogging more than their fair share of airtime. And the final travelling sequence with roundhouse kicks lasts for ages inviting looks from the participants along the lines of “will this ever end?” This track might have been mixed out earlier had the upper body warm up it is fixed too not been as uplifting.

Combat 1 (Let me Hear You Scream): This is a great combat track with almost every line of lyric useable to create atmosphere. “Let me hear you scream like you want it” – Do they really want it? How much do they want it? And for all those people who come to Body Combat to excise a bad day in the office here you have the opportunity to “Push them right back in their place” and “Wipe the smile right from their face”. Nice simple combos allow the people to master the kicks without pressure so that they are well prepared for the final section where the exertions increase with the travelling sequence added in. Best Track 2 for me for quite a while.

Power 1 (Make You Mine): A very solid power track which begins the annihilation of the shoulders early on and is relentless with almost no break for nearly 7 minutes. It is a massive combination of punches which benefits from the build up in each layer until everyone is absolutely bursting to power up the full sequence. One slight niggle – the music in the track contains some missing drum beats – and this took a while to get used to and sometimes knocked me off pace.

Combat 2 (Fire): The return of Scooter – Body Combat’s most prolific artist, and a return for a piece of music first used in release 7. Now sadly I can remember the original – it was a power track – and it’s easy to do the maths – 40 releases ago means it was 10 years ago. Great combo with the jumping knee in the guitar chorus, the double knee and side kick butt blaster, and of course the step over kick. Now this step over kick was extremely challenging to teach. For some reason this track comes with the built in ability to mess with people’s heads. Despite demoing it first, despite cueing it to death this took weeks for people to get it. Perhaps it is because they are so used to doing front kicks with their lead legs. Ask them to step on the lead leg and kick with the back leg turns the brain into liquid and seems to introduce endless confusion. And once the main crowd gets it you then have the new people next time who go through the same long learning process. Despite this rather hilarious issue, this is a fantastic combat track and the standout of the release for me.

Power 2 (The Warrior’s Code): Internet gossip had already pretty much written this off as the worst track 5 ever before I even went on the quarterly workshop. Okay it is very simple, but I just turned the music up very very loud and went for it and actually it isn’t bad at all. Not the worst track 5 but in fairness not the best. The speedball running sequence is exhausting if you really push the participants. This was the first track to be mixed out though, not because the participants complained – simply because I replaced it with “Crashed the Wedding” from BC22 to celebrate the Royal Wedding in the UK – and it proved to be so popular that it stayed.

Combat 3 (Feels Like a Prayer): A track that people cannot avoid singing along to. And another with lyrics that can be used to maximum effect. “When YOU call THEIR name – THEY say a little prayer!” But seriously do we all want to sound like “Angels sighing?” – certainly not we are fighters we want to roar not sigh. Great combos and the power of that back kick. If they stand behind you – “Heaven Help Them”.

Muay Thai (You’re Going Down): As Dan says in the video short and deadly. This one can have the participants exhausted if they push things really hard and the downward punches in just the right spot. In one class I noticed one lady hitting her imaginary opponent so hard, with such a look of hate on her face, that I was genuinely scared. She obviously knew who she was pummeling.

Power 3 (Release Me): I felt like changing the title of this track to Beast Me because that is what it does to the shoulders. The first few teaches brought out grimaces that revealed that it was working the shoulders into final oblivion. A relentless track with a surprising amount of variety for a track 8 and this certainly wins my support.

Conditioning (Beautiful Monster): A massively tough conditioning track that was a huge challenge for everyone. It was gratifying to see people go from doing only one rep up on their toes in week one to almost all of them as the weeks went by. Perhaps the most difficult moves we have had for a while – but a request fo Dan and Rach. Can we have a conditioning track like the one from BC22 (Let’s get it Started) – with lying down kicks. That was vicious as well and we haven’t had one like that since.

Cooldown (Just The Way You Are): An innocuous, if a little bland, cooldown which is probably just as well because by this strange those who have given it their all probably just wanted to collapse into the huge puddle of seat that had collected around their feet. Lovely tune and a breezy finish to an excellent release. Had the lower body warm up music been more uplifting and had track 5 not had to deal with death by internet gossip this might have been a 10 out of 10.

Over to You: Are you a Body Combat Instructor? What did you think of release 47? Are you a participant? Have you enjoyed number 47?