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Review of Body Combat Release 47

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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?

Review of Body Balance Release 52 – yet another stand out class

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Due to a very busy period of teaching Body Combat and Body Balance during the BC46 and BB51 period, combined with  more Hatha and Power Yoga and day job excursions, I neither reviewed those releases and have allowed myself to get almost 6 weeks into the latest set (BC47 and BB52) before putting words on paper and screen.

Review of Body Balance Release 52

For me Body Balance is a revelation at the moment with Jackie Mills continuing to turn out excellent moves choreographed almost lovingly to well selected music. Also the programme is very popular in Edinburgh and my classes are consistently full with waiting lists which just adds to the great feeling Body Balance evokes in me.

Tai Chi (Airplanes): Unexpected music this. A quiet piano introduction, followed by a modern pop chorus then moves into the sort of rap verse we rarely hear in Body Balance. The two moves are very simple and effectively repeated verse chorus verse chorus. It’s only just over three minutes long and is a short sharp introduction. Nevertheless this is the track I have received most requests to change and the feedback is that it is too repetitive. Personally I feel it is too short to be repetitive but sometimes there is a groundswell of opinion so I am changing this one soon.

Sun Salutations (Daylight): I was just starting out as a Body Balance participant the first time this exact same piece of music appeared as a Sun Salutation in BB18 (though for the detail geeks out there this time the track has been edited so that it is about a minute shorter). The moves are refreshing with a complete departure from the usual Sun Salutation sequence with Child’s Pose, Striking Cobra, Warriors One and Two and Three Legged Dog all making an appearance. The sequence is very quick as the track is quite up beat and as such it is very challenging for new people. But the flow of the moves is so different that this stands out amongst Sun Salutation tracks. I assume that the music was edited for timing reasons which is a shame I would have been tempted to try and use the earlier, longer version and maybe increased the number of salutations from 4 to 6.

Standing Strength (Give Love): The flow into track 3 is achieved by repeating the first part of the sun salutation sequence and this sets up the standing poses well and also provides a well needed couple of rests as the track progresses. Again quite a number of quick changes but by the end of each side the lead leg is burning and screaming for a break. Once again, as in recent releases, Jackie has overlaid subtle modifications to the Yoga poses that form the basis of the track and this adds to the interest. By the time we are in wide legged intense pose just waiting for the music to finish our legs are just about done in. Don’t let people come upright until they can’t hear the music at all.

Balance (If I could Turn Back the Hands of Time): So just what we need after a tough standing strength is a tough balance track and this really does challenge us to the extreme. The slower music helps to lower the heart rate, and the natural flow from pose to pose helps disguise the intensity of what is going on but by the end there is an epidemic of wobbling going on. I always tell my people that wobbling is good – in this track I’m not sure they believe me. The Tree to Half Moon to Warrior 3 is a great sequence.

Hips (Set the Fire to the Third Bar): Now the pace slows right down as we sink to the floor for the hips track. I love hip tracks that allow you to teach breathing and you need to breathe deep to get into these exquistive poses. For people who work their legs hard by running or in cardio classes this deep Swan Pose is perfect. With forehead on the floor it feels deep – and I almost want the track to be longer so we can stay down and enjoy it even more.

Core Abs (Love Generation): Well this abs track was already quite well known even before I launched it. We had all heard the rumours that it was nine and a half minutes long and had been winding the classes up about this on coming storm. I think they were disappointed when it turned out to be only slight less than 9 minutes.

Some have critisised this for being two fragmented, others have said it doesn’t really work the abs. Well once to “hear” the music changes the flow is actually quite good. And even though you do have to work hard to keep the effort in your abs rather than your legs – if you can it is a tough one. The knee to elbow cycling works well. I started counting my class down on the final 8, then cunningly adding another 4 on at the end (i.e. starting to count down the final 12 if you know what I mean) – and this has turned into a game over the weeks. You know you have them when you start to count down the final 8 (or so they think) then add another 12 then a final 4. They never do any more that the choreography says – but it works on getting them focussed.

Others have critisised the Lola Pose. It is difficult but you have to teach it in a fun way. And once people get over the preconception that it is all about arm strength – then they can achieve lift off.

Review of Body Balance Release 52

Back (Crossfire): Holding Camel pose in this track for long periods makes up for the rapidly changing sequences earlier. In fact I can’t remember ever being given the chance to explore Camel in as mucg depth before, let alone have time to demonstrate 2 other varients. The Cat, Child’s Pose and Striking cobra is a nice flowing contrast to the initial static poses and by the time we finish in Bow Pose everyone is ready to have their strings cut so that they can flop back to the ground.

Twists (This Ain’t a Love Song): Very quirky music and a necessarily quick series of twists. We are in and out of this one before we have time to think.

Hamstrings (Stop Crying your Heart Out): Another Leona Lewis track and another one of her songs that provides an almost cinematic build up to the finale quite similar to “Run” which was used in BB46. Gorilla Pose is give room to breathe and extend before the music gets louder and we finish in a flowing return to the Tai Chi moves from the opening track. Great climax – but not quite the end…

Relaxation (Eternal OM):  Using this first, short, relaxation track to keep people in a wide leg forward bend to stretch their hamstrings for a little longer is a subtle way of scuppering the plans of people who usually dive for the door before the relaxation starts.

Relaxation/Meditation (Lux Mundi): The music is a little bland, but after that climax we don’t want anything complex.

So yet another great Body Balance release with some real differences. The Sun Salutation and the Abs track are almost experimental in their use of different exercises and I am certainly in favour of this. If the quality of Balance releases continues on this path then classes will remain full and waiting lists will grow even longer.

Over to you: I hope you enjoyed this review of Body Balance release 52. What did you think of this class? What about that 9 minute core abs track? Let me know your thoughts. Please leave a comment.

 

Review of Body Balance Release 50 – a milestone for a great fitness class

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The last release of Body Balance, No 49, was so near to perfection that nothing could exceed the standard it set, even if it was a landmark like the 50th class.

So for my review of Body Balance release 50 I have decided to re-base my opinions and consider number 50 purely on its own merits and not as something that lives in the shadow of what has gone before. I really like this class, and from the feedback I have got from the people, they do too. Body Balance is very popular in Edinburgh at the moment, with most classes full with long waiting lists. This is a credit to the consistent quality Jackie given us over the last few years (and hopefully our teaching as instructors).

Review of Body Balance Release 50

Tai Chi (Soldier of Love): A very simple warm up arm wraps, a soft arm push and block and effectively a long series of arm circles and squats. Deceptively hard on the legs and if you encourage the participants to go deep then this can get sore before we even start. The outro into the second set of arm wraps just requires silence.

Sun Salutations (Won’t Give Up): An extended sun salutation with extra flat back extends and forward folds which stretch the legs nicely after the warm up punished them so much. The music is pleasant and the little breaks in between each sequence are welcome. The knee down and hands raised up after the lunge feels a little awkward. I actually feel this works better if you rise from low lunge to high lunge off the knee. Also the bent knee back bend feels a but strained as well. Straight legs feels fine.

Standing Strength (Breakeven): A standout track. Ann-See definitely “takes people places” in the DVD and you can take your participants deeper every time. I always like it when Jackie (and now Diana I suppose) introduce variations on traditional yoga poses, and the knee hugging Warrior One and the Side Bend Warrior One are innovative challenging and in the case of the side bend feel fantastic. Then it’s on to more traditional Warrior 2, Sun Warrior, Extended Warrior and then that lengthy drop into the deepest most challenging Intense pose of them all. Always elicits gasps from people at the end.

Balance (I see You (Theme from Avatar)): In the intro sequence in the Yoga Ballet Open Attitude Pose I have a strong urge to do something silly. I want rise up on tip toes and then start turning in a circle like a doll on a music box. Many lady participants are not Avatar fans so you shouldn’t over use the Avatar links – but the star fighter pilot in my likes to use the Aeroplane Pose to really dive down deep. Fire those lasers! Can’t really argue with a balance track with Dancer’s Pose in it.

Hips (Wanted): Lovely and simple hips track which really allows you to focus on the breathing to get deep down into that swan pose. The snoring references seem to make people comment about kicking their hubbies during the night – but the point here is to get the class focusing on breath. And lets face it in our busy lives most of us are breathing far too shallow anyway!

Abs (Sweet and Amazing): Apart from the music being sickly sweet and sugary like a great big cloud of candy floss – this track hits you with a sweet and amazing move that really works the “six-pack” muscles. Simple but effective. Two days after doing this track for the first time I found myself complaining of stomach ache. I started wondering what I had eaten until I realised it wasn’t food that had created the tenderness. It was Sweet and Amazing that did it.

Back (Hey Soul Sister): What a catchy bubbly feel-good song. You cannot help singing along however out of tune you are. Simple but challenging moves and no rest or respite for the full track. So good I want to do it twice.

Twists (Please Don’t Stop the Rain): This is a fairly standard twist track. Nothing wrong with the moves and they flow quite nicely. By this time most people, however well you try to co-ordinate the room are probably facing in different directions so from this track onwards I find it is all about “front leg” and “back leg”. Left and right just doesn’t cut it. Like the twisted down dogs and the child’s pose twist.

Hamstrings 1 (Vanilla Twilight): Lovely blissful calf stretches in the down dog and a different take on Triangle make this one flow along in the blink of an eye. Good music if a little difficult to find the “blocks” to match with the moves.

Hamstrings 2 (Here I confess): Another lovely Sleepthief song, Hindi Squats and a seated hamstring stretch sequence which some people would probably prefer to do with a yoga band. Quite challenging for the less flexible and means the class doesn’t finish with us lying on our backs – more sort of reclined.

Relaxation (Hundred Thousand Angels): I cannot remember the last time they used a proper song in the relaxation as opposed to an instrumental. This is a beautiful song and you cannot, repeat cannot talk over it. Let the people relax deeply and let them absorb the lyrics and the melody. I have had many people come up afterwards asking for the name of the song and the artist.

Relaxation/Meditation (Tally’s Lullaby): This is a lovely piano based outro to ease everyone back to the moment.

So a good strong release. Some quite simple tracks which hide within them some quite challenging outcomes. The DVD looks lovely as well with all the colourful costumes and the lightly is especially pretty with the “star-filters” used on the cameras. But I did just wonder whether the team were off afterwards to take part in a local production of Mamma Mia – it did look very ABBA. A great start to the fifties then.

Over to You: Are you a Body Balance Instructor? What did you think of release 50? Was it celebrating a milestone as you expected? Are you a participant? Have you enjoyed number 50?

Review of Body Balance Release 49 – a truly sensational class

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I feel like I am beginning to sound like a stuck record. There have been so many excellent Body Balance releases in the 40s that I approach each now one with a little trepidation. There has got to be a dud before too long hasn’t there?

Well you will see from my review of Body Balance release 49 that it isn’t this one. In fact for my this is almost perfect. There isn’t really a track I don’t like musically. There isn’t a track where the moves don’t fit.

Review of Body Balance Release 49

Tai Chi (Extraordinary Way): One of the few Conjure One tracks from their (his?) first two albums that has yet to appear in Balance this is a beautiful song. The choreography starts with the slow arm circles and justmbuilds and builds as the song progresses. But as upbeat and enlightening as the music is, the flow is just so gentle and smooth. The return of the archer arms sequence is welcome and adds icing on the cake to what is for me one of the best Tai Chi tracks ever. Conjure One are rumoured to have a third album ready for imminent release. Can’t wait.

Sun Salutations (Send Me An Angel): Already responsible for the spine-chillingly beautiful track Eurydice – that was track 2 in BB42 – Sleepthief is a musical project on a par with Conjure One and once again provides superlative music for a sun salutations track. It has an epic yet gentle feel and the slightly longer sequence to accomodate the song structure means that we can enjoy the lunge twist early in this release.

Standing Strength (Live Like We’re Dying): Watching the sheer joy that Jackie shows teaching this track on the DVD, and the infectious enthusiasm that floods out of the screen means you love this track before you have even tried it. Teaching it with similar gusto and cheer ellicits a similar reaction from the particpants. They love it too and they love you teaching it. I particularly like the bit early on when you squeeze your arms apart and sink deep into the squat. It’s quirky, the transitions are actually quite fast. You don’t realise how tough this one is because you are enjoying it so much. Until the music fades and reality sets in – and your legs are shaking. A big highlight this one.

Balances (To Love Again): Musically my least favourite track of the release but actually that’s being picky. Eagle Pose, Dancer’s (always a favourite) and the final star/halfmoon mix are lovely.

Hips (Fireflies): Never heard this song before. The notes say that it has been very successful in many markets and in many chart rundowns. Again a perfect Balance piece of music. Quirky start, perhaps a little too quick with its transitions before a lengthy stint in the bloke-unfriendly tackle crushing cow-faced pose. But the variety and progression works even for the guys, and the final twist version is bordering on painful. Can’t do the turtle pose justice – but plenty of my participants achieve the turtle washed up on a beach in Hawaii look. Thanks for that cue Doctor Dave.

Abs (Doesn’t Mean Anything): The longest ever abs track. Yes it is repetitive (though only the legs arms raised, open legs, hands to feet sequence) – I think the side planks are just perfect – with the side-plank table top arms bit a particular highlight. I have slipped almost over the edge into my Combat instructor persona in this track and I think a little Body Balance Bootcamp is the encouragement people need to really blitz themselves here. And just when you think it is over you have those cycle knee to elbow moves at the end to completely finish you off.

Back (Just Say Yes): Effectlively one huge build up to the full back bend. Lots of variety. Nice to see an up-dog in a track other than the sun salutations. Full back bend is perhaps one of the hardest moves in Balance – I have managed to master the other tricky ones with practice (ankle cross lift, Bird etc) – but this one eludes my as yet. Still bridge is an ample option.

Twists (Happy): Lovely to start on the floor with the easy gravity defined twist. Fits well with the Leona Lewis music and the title of the song sums up how we are all feeling by the end of it.

Forward bends hamstrings (White Flag): Starting with a gentle return to the Tai Chi arm circles from track one – this track seduces the heart rate down, settles the mind and slows down the breath. Pyramid is one of those stretches that balances precariously on the threshold between pleasure and pain – and you can’t help wanting to go just a little further. Then we are down on the floor with an extended sequence of seated stretches that finishes us off nicely so that we need to relaxation.

Relaxation/Meditation (Gift of Light): Lovely music and a very calm period following a fun but tough Balance release.

I really should go back over my reviews of BB to check that I haven’t said this before (I think I have and if I have then what I am about to say over-rides the first time I said it. I struggle to find any fault musically or choreographically. This release is as near perfection as I think we can get.

Over to You: Are you a Body Balance Instructor? What did you think of release 49? Are you a participant? Have you enjoyed number 49?