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Review of Body Combat release 52

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My main memory of Body Combat release 52 from the Quarterly Workshop was that it was fast and it hurt my shoulders. Now I have been teaching it for a few weeks it is still fast and hurts my shoulders. It makes me breathless and it makes me sweat. But is it too repetitive? Some participants seem to think so but they still keep coming back so perhaps they like sore shoulders more than they dislike repetition.

review of body combat release 52

Upper body warm up (Rain Over Me): It’s a sing-a-long catchy tune, we hit the ground running with a warm up track that makes you feel like you’ve done the majority of the class in the first five minutes. There’s no gradual build you are into it straight away.

But what are the “Shoot Lunges” doing here? They do not appear in a later track so it seems a little daft to invest the time to cue, coach and preview for them to vanish without trace after the warm up. Maybe a double hook and jacks round after the double upper cuts and jacks round would have been less jarring. Great apart from this anomaly.

Lower Body Warm Up (Sexy and I know it): Nice to see a variation in the order of kicks in this one and a number of performance opportunities make this a fun kick track. Sneaky putting those back kicks in after the roundhouse. Don’t wiggle? Why not?

Combat 1 (Crazy Train): I know rock isn’t to everybody’s taste but this one works perfectly for me. I love the karate double block and punch beginning set to the build up of drums, then heavy guitar, then the full ensemble. No pulses between the repetitions makes it quite intense. I got confused by the travelling block forward and back at the quarterly workshop but mastered it pretty afterwards. Needs careful cueing though. One of my favourite T2s for a while. Going off the rails (in a controlled way) to me is what Body Combat is all about.

Power 1 (When I Close my Eyes): Nice simple and fast with another upbeat sing-a-long track. Love the second combo. Head tummy head (or would that be “head knackers head”?)

review of body combat release 52
Photo from the filming of this release from http://nzglen.wordpress.com/

Combat 2 (Bring Me to Life): Lovely kata to begin this cover of one of my favourite ever Body Balance standing strength tracks . You can get really down deep into this and the arm lines are powerful. Dan screams that there are 234 kicks in this track so I’m assuming that he also included the knee strikes. Even though I’m a Virgo I haven’t tried counting them up. This one gets the heart racing and is a good showcase for the jump front kick. Watch out for the few tricky pauses between moves though. Timing is difficult.

Power 2 (Passenger): Easy combos to learn. Cheesy music and the slow build up to the jab cross hook combo that repeats many times until your hook shoulder starts to burn. Pity the track is not slightly longer to give us 8 of the advancing quadruple jabs instead of 4. That might have broken it up a little.

Combat 3 (Ring the Alarm): Rachael calls this the mother of all track 6s. I think there have been harder ones, but it is a good flow from start to finish and the body never stops moving. The ginga step pattern can confuse the newcomer until it suddenly clicks. This does for the glutes what Passenger does for the shoulders – aren’t those lunging knees intense?

Muay Thai (Seek and Destroy): Okay so when people say that this release is very repetitive what they really mean is that this track is very repetitive. Maybe after the capoeira sequence we need something that doesn’t tax the brain. If you go hard with the descending elbows, fast with those running man knees, then this should have you gasping for air.

The first time I tried to coach the freestyle section though, I got blank looks and people just stopped (this happened on the Quarterly Workshop as well). Since then I’ve been doing speedballs or getting the class to face an opponent to make it more real.

Yes it is repetitious and therefore needs coaching well. It works from a fitness point of view but this will be the first track to get mixed out.

review of body combat release 52

Power 3 (Falling): Another long track but this time with plenty of variety. I like the way we revisit the travelling jab sequence from the warm up. By now the shoulders really are suffering. The hook in T5, the descending elbow in T7 and finally another hook in this one culminate in real shoulder fatigue. A great climax.

Conditioning (First of the Year): Like many recent conditioning tracks the exercises betray Dan’s involvement in CXWorx. It might feel like you are doing press ups but this is all core work. The walking hovers are savage. The pikes at the end are agony evidenced by the groans as people collapse at the end.

The music is definitely different. I describe it as the inner workings of a scary electronic machine. The genre is “dubstep” so I believe. Strangely it works. Best conditioning track for a while.

Cool down (The fighter): Nice song (there go 25 (or however many there are in your class) fighters. Good use of T4s kata at the end. Obviously this song was included as a tribute to the sad loss of Hernan Lopez, a New Zealand master trainer. Although this is a fact lost on most participants I think it has been an emotional song for many instructors around the world. Even without that it is a great end to a great release.

Over to you: I hope you enjoyed this review of Body Combat release 52. Are you a Body Combat instructor? Please let me know what you think of this class.Participants what do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Review of Body Balance release 57

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In ten years of doing Body Balance and 6 years of teaching it, I’ve seen trends in the releases we get every quarter. Sometimes the moves become simpler perhaps to encourage new people. Then there will be a swing to harder routines perhaps to push people to progress. In my opinion Body Balance release 57 is one of the hardest ever. Funnily enough though I don’t think this extreme level of intensity will scare away new people. It is achievable and everyone can be proud of getting through it.

review of body balance release 57

Tai Chi (Just Say it): A beautiful song by electronic group Sleepthief. Back in release 42 this act supplied a stand out song called Eurydice. After hearing that track I went out and bought the Sleepthief album. I’ve loved Just Say It ever since and knew it would turn in Body Balance eventually. The moves flow perfectly and the palm push and back handed block make the arms feel like water. Powerful warrior blocks merge into daintier birds tail stretches before returning to the basic arm sweeps. Stunning.

Sun Salutations (Happy): If you go to a yoga class chances are that the sun salutation routine will always be exactly the same – especially in Ashtanga yoga. On occasion Jackie Mills will choreograph the standard yoga flow of poses but usually she adds variety. Here then is the first major challenge of class 57. Lots of full planks and side planks to get the sweat dripping. And evidence that although hard people are up for it. Despite offering the knees down option most people are doing full planks. The music is a bit weird but we probably need the driving beat to get us through it.

Standing Strength (Set Fire to the Rain): This is not the Adele version but the cover by a male artist is fine. It should be called set fire to the legs. Lots of changes of pose including one leg balances and pyramid pose don’t give you time to think about the intensity. Then the final section, the most extended of warrior poses with the option to bind the arms under the front leg and behind the back has never been seen in the class before but most people are getting it.

Balance (Shelter): The start reminds me of those musical boxes with a ballerina on the top. You can’t teach this one with anything other than a whisper. We are on one leg forever and the flow between poses never stops. It feels like it should be easy but the legs scream by the end. A hard track to learn and a tough one to teach but once it clicks into place this could be one of the best balance tracks ever.

Hips (F*kin’ Perfect): This opening foot and hip stretch takes people by surprise. We obviously don’t stretch our feet enough – I can tell by the looks on the participants faces. It hurts. I imagine years of wearing high heeled shoes doesn’t help either but fortunately I don’t wear them and haven’t been troubled by pose. I love the Gate Pose (though find I can’t avoid calling it the Gate Post) from yoga and it took me a little while to realise what was different here. In yoga we bend over the extended leg rather than away from it. Still nice to see a variation here though. Finally swan pose takes us deeper into the hips. Perfect indeed.

review of body balance release 57

Core abs (Whole Lotta Love): It was once the theme tune to Top of the Pops and this rock track tests the core muscles for four extremely intense minutes. Perhaps a little bitty, but the crunches, the walking planks and the hovers are relentless. I get loud groans when people realise they have to flip back to a hover for the second time.

Core back (Say Hey (I Love you)): Okay here’s the thing. In my opinion this is not only the hardest set of exercises we have ever done in Body Balance but it could be the hardest thing that we have ever done in any Les Mills programme. I sweated like a tap at the Quarterly Workshop and I continue to sweat like a tap after teaching it for a month. Planks, side planks, firefly knee onto elbow, leg raises – what is going on? This is hard core but its great that people are not immediately taking the easy option.

These two core tracks really betray the influence CXWorx is having.

Twists (Fly): With the heart pounding after that core pasting, and with sweat pouring we need a twist track that doesn’t tax the mind or the body. Just a simple progression of prayer twists is a gentle antidote to the maelstrom we have just experienced.

Forward bends and hamstrings (Song to the Siren): From a start in gorilla pose we are soon on the floor stretching the hamstrings with some single leg forward bends.I’m not sure what the seated twist version is doing here but after the power of earlier this feels like it ends the class on a whimper. Perhaps that was intentional.

Relaxation and Meditation (Guardian): A beautiful piece of music if a little over long. I find myself finishing up before the music ends.

So it’s a tough one, but a challenge most seem happy to rise to perhaps helped by the great music in this release. I’ve commented in the past that clubs often promote Body Balance as “the easy class”. No way. With that core section this is heavy duty stuff.

Over to you: I hope you enjoyed this review of body balance release 57. Are you a Body Balance instructor? Please let me know what you think of this class. Is that track 7 the hardest thing ever? Participants what do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

The world agrees that more men should try yoga

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My last yoga blog – Is yoga any good for men or should they stick to running and weight lifting?  – created quite a bit of debate on a LinkedIn yoga group. On the whole teachers from around the world agree that more men should try yoga. But they agree with me that there are barriers.

George from Denver said:

“Yoga was originally designed and done primarily almost exclusively by men. Unfortunately what has happened is classes have been designed around women’s needs. When I go to classes in the community it seems to become more of a athletic competition in Lulumon than yoga.”

men should try yoga

Julie from Baltimore has written similar thoughts:

“Here is an article I recently wrote about men and yoga which was inspired by a similar discussion in the Yoga Alliance Linked In group: Click here to read it. “

Debra, also from Denver, believes that the fitness industry is partly to blame for the way it portrays yoga:

“Since the word YOGA means union and balance of all aspects of life, the idea of it as gender specific to females is ludicrous. I am aware that in parts of the US  – the class population is generally female, and men may feel intimidated or that yoga practice is useless to their competitive nature. This notion is fuelled by the fitness industry, and it is our responsibility as teachers of spiritual practice to dispel this belief.”

Mike from Ottowa makes a really good point about the differences between what men and women get from yoga.

“Men tend to have tighter hips and stronger muscles, which can and will, over time, diminish range of motion and that overall feeling of “lightness” that we all love. The men in my class feel the immediate benefits as they get flexible fast… the women in my class get strong. Both are necessary and are part of the yin/yang balance that contribute to overall wellness.”

And finally Greg from the UK sums it up as follows:

“Try run a men only workshop so they can be introduced to yoga without worrying about being an inflexible man amongst a full class of women.”

Over to you: So my quest to get more men into yoga classes continues. What ideas have you had to get more men into your yoga classes. If you are a bloke who wants to take the plunge but feels that yoga is too fluffy, let me know your concerns and I’ll try and help. Leave a comment below.

Is yoga any good for men or should they stick to running and weight lifting?

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There are usually just two reasons why men will try a yoga class.

The first one is that they are dragged, usually kicking and scream, by their girlfriends or wives. These are the hardest for teachers like me to win over. They’ll stand there with a sullen look whilst I explain the basics, arms folded in defensive defiance.

And the second reason is that they are referred to class by their doctor or specialist because of an injury. I had one of these last night. His knee needed strengthening and the doctor told him that standing yoga poses would be of great therapeutic benefit. He didn’t look sullen nor were his arms crossed but he did look mildly worried.

yoga any good for men

Yoga has an image problem when it comes to men. Perhaps they think that it is something fluffy that just girls do. Or perhaps they think that it isn’t hard enough. Especially those who spend hours pumping weights or running until the treadmill is worn out.

The trouble is that all that pumping and all that running without an associated stretching regime can reduce flexibility and leave them prone to injury. Which is exactly why they should try yoga in the first place.

Despite their initial reluctance I find that once a bloke has been to a yoga class the chances are he will come back again. Because he will feel the benefits of the strengthening and the stretching and how it compliments his pumping and his running. He will see the improvement in his flexibility and his posture almost immediately. For single guys there’s also the added bonus that as a result of other men’s preconceptions there are rather a lot of girls in the class.

So is yoga any good for men? Absolutely. Yoga is great for men. The problem is getting them into the studio in the first place. So girlfriends and wives; please keep dragging them in kicking and screaming. Doctors and specialists; please keep on referring the injured.

I’ll keep on working on making them converts.

Over to you: Are you a guy who has been either dragged kicking and screaming into a yoga class or referred by a doctor? Or have you gone along because you heard about the benefits and how it would help with your other exercises? I’d love to hear your stories. Please leave a comment below and share your experiences.

If you think yoga is too easy – try Power Yoga. I bet you’ll sweat and find it really challenging.