Tag Archives: fitness

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

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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

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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.

First impressions of Body Combat Release 52 after Glasgow quarterly workshop

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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:

 

6 modern yoga styles by entrepreneurial teachers you must check out

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I’ve written about the difference between traditional yoga styles, such as Hatha and Ashtanga, and modern interpretations on this blog before. Modern yoga styles often appeal to people simply looking for the exercise benefits yoga can bring. The traditional types appeal to those looking for the wider, perhaps more spiritual and meditative experience.

There are modern takes on yoga that have been developed by entrepreneurial yoga teachers. What I mean is they have created yoga brands and business models around their own unique interpretation of yoga. Perhaps the most famous of these is Bikram Choudray who created Bikram Yoga which is now well known throughout the world as a sequence of 26 poses taught in a very hot room.

There are others that are well worth checking out. Here are 6 modern interpretations of yoga developed by such entrepreneurial teachers, all of which have touched me to different degrees on my own journey to be a yoga teacher.

modern yoga styles entrepreneurial teachers

Baron Baptiste hails from the US and promotes a style called Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga. It’s quite a challenging class taught in a very motivational style focussing on physical achievement. Traditional yoga trappings are kept to a minimum though there are nods to the Sanskrit names and the power of meditation.

Baptiste describes himself as follows:

“… not a spiritual, moral or religious teacher of any kind, nor is he a guru or spiritual master of any sort; he makes no claim to having any special brand of wisdom or enlightened knowledge. Baron is inspired by sharing his experience and contributing to others by teaching from the body of principles and distinctions that make up Baptiste Yoga and from his own upbringing and training in yoga and transformational practices.”

His book “Journey into Power” is well worth tracking down on Amazon.

modern yoga styles

David Farmar a graduate of the Baptiste school and teaches in Denver Colorado. I’ve included him here for two reasons. First his teaching style is amongst the best I’ve ever seen, perhaps a little loud for some, but motivational with very clear instruction. He also injects humour into his teaching which won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but I think it makes for a unique experience.

Secondly he publishes regular audio podcasts of his classes on iTunes? They show case his style of teaching and are a great source of good teaching points for teachers. The instruction is so precise you could do a whole class without needing to see him. I find this quite remarkable.

modern yoga styles

Sadie Nardini positions herself as a wellness expert and her own style of yoga is called Core Vinyasa. Check out her videos and the great articles she writes on wellness topics. Her innovation is the ability to have a consultation with her via Skype.

She describes her approach:

“My intention is to make yoga and centering simple, fun, engaging and clear, so everyone  can take charge of their own future, by getting back to living honestly, and fully, right here in the present moment.”

modern yoga styles

Shiva Rea is probably the most graceful yoga presenter I have ever seen and she has a great name. Again a prolific producer of videos, her yoga brand is called Prana Flow. And flow it does. Her sequences of poses melt together to create beautiful intricate and sometimes challenging patterns.

Shiva sums it up as follows:

“Vinyasa is a natural sequence unfolding with creative intelligence – a conscious evolution connecting each moment with unifying breath.”

modern yoga styles

A well known entrepreneur in the UK fitness market for over a decade, Jayne Nicholls introduced her brand Freestyle Fitness Yoga (FFY) specifically for people looking only for yoga’s exercise benefits. It is unique that it uses no yoga terminology at all. You won’t hear words like Warrior Two in an FFY class, nor will you have to learn Sanskrit pose names.

Jayne’s focus is on the physical benefit of the exercise. You’ll know why you are doing each pose, which muscles it works, and what effect it will have on you.

She explains her approach:

“FFY concentrates on movement, breathing, transitions from one posture to another and progression. There is no dogma, chanting or use of Sanskrit terms as postures are prescribed from a modern fitness perspective.”

modern yoga styles

Finally Yoga Today is a lovely website run by a team of American Yoga teachers. They regularly release whole classes on video in various traditional and modern styles, sometimes mixing the two. You can buy an hour long class for a couple of quid, amazing value for such quality instruction. Some of the films were shot outdoors in simply stunning locations. Yoga against a backdrop of such breathtaking scenery adds an extra special element to these lovely videos.

My favourite teacher is Adi Amar. Her precise instruction shows her deep love for what she does. Watch her teach the traditional Ashtanga Primary Series, or a modern Power Yoga sequence. She is addictive.

I have learned so much from these inspirational people, who thanks to the Internet, have been able to take their brands and teaching expertise to a worldwide audience.

Over to you: What do you think of these websites and modern yoga styles? Have you come across any other yoga styles and brands developed by entrepreneurial teachers? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.