Christmas is almost here. In my Body Combat classes I’m dusting down old classic favourites and we’re having great fun as everyone winds down for the holidays.
But Les Mills Body Combat release 62 is out, and I’ve started learning it for a January launch. It’s certainly going to kick-start 2015 with a bang.
Check out those Side Kicks.
Here are my first impressions.
If you enjoyed the last few releases, you’d love this. It’s similar in feel and intensity.
The Upper Body Warm up demos the basic punches in simple fashion. It may be the first ever Upper Body Warm Up not to feature shuffling in any direction at all.
Track 3 is shorter than normal but packs power. You’ll be sweating like a tap by now.
I can’t believe how many kicks and knee strikes there are in Track 4. Cool Kata at the start too.
More Capoeira in Track 6 and that means more muscle burning leg conditioning. Like the “slow motion front kick”.
I love the music for the Muay Thai. It’s almost upbeat progressive rock.
An abs only conditioning is going to hurt.
Look out for Les Mills Body Combat release 62 coming to a club near you in the New Year. Until then, as programme directors Dan and Rach always say, “Keep it real and stay with the fight.”
Now it’s your turn:
Did you go to the Quarterly Workshops? What do you think of Les Mills Body Combat release 62? Please leave a comment below or a link to your review.
Weighing in at over 8 minutes the upper and lower body warm-ups are a challenge in themselves. We try punches, upper cuts and hooks before dropping into the legs for “shoot lunges”. Roundhouse kicks follow, then a barrage of endless back kicks and an arsenal of Muay Thai knees.
This shows how the programme has evolved over the years. Early warm-up tracks were just that. An easy way into the class before the work started properly in track 2. Now the warm ups are immediately intense. We’re straight into the hard work.
And two uplifting techno tracks as well. Body Combat release 61 is a beautiful monster.
Track 2 is a surprise. Rather than the usual rock music, roundhouse kicks and strikes we face a slower leg conditioning experience. And it hurts.
Watch the DVD and think, “That looks easy and short.”
Try it and you’ll say, “Ouch I’m glad it’s a short track.”
From the balancing front kicks, to the “toe tap” squats, to the knees and side kicks a fire ignites in your supporting leg until the muscles scream for a rest by the end. Awesome leg conditioning.
Fast travelling jabs
Power training 1 – Every Breath You Take – Praying Hunk
Every kick you take. Every fist you make. Every slip you fake. A techno update of an ancient song by The Police. We experience the theme of Body Combat release 61 here. Explosive speed. I love the fast travelling jabs and upper cuts section and the one simple combo that bookends it. Go hard here and you get breathless fast.
Combat 2 – So What! (M Edit) – Independence Days
“So What” first appeared in release 27 as a Muay Thai track (the first to feature the Street Brawl Downward Punch in fact). Almost the same mix it’s therefore familiar but different. Building up to the jump kick raises our heart rates. The sharp, powerful karate punches continue the explosive speed theme. More jump kicks at the end of each section bring us close to fatigue.
Great lyrics to hook into as well. “You know karate and kick me in the eye!”
Not an update of Led Zepplin’s classic, “Stairway to Heaven” feels like we’re climbing to another exhausting peak. After two long rounds of upper cuts and the hook cross hook combo we finish with a flurry of jabs that feel they should belong in the last power track and not at the halfway point of the class.
Breathless again and we transition into another leg conditioning track. Yes more tough leg action this time based on capoeira moves. Switch lunges, esquiva and those agonising low “shoot lunges”. You need to grit your teeth during this one. And like track 2 aren’t we relieved its short?
Before our legs can recover the Muay Thai track hits us like a runaway locomotive. I’m not usually a fan of heavy rock Muay Thai tracks but “Are You Ready” hits the spot for me. A couple of fast combinations, relentless knee strikes and a breathless finale with double knees and an optional leap to the ceiling jump knee guarantee to take you to your cardio peak.
After the guitar solo and before the last chorus we revisit the “Superman Punch”. Controlled and powerful we do the punch using explosive speed. It’s still taking time to perfect the footwork that accompanies this punch but al least we get to work up through the levels here.
A finale that feels like there’s no end in sight. Your shoulders and upper arms will burn after only a few minutes of this hard-core upper body blaster.
It’s like the “Groundhog Day” of power tracks. Just when you think it might be over, we start the entire sequence again. And again. And again.
A great work out if a little too long and repetitive. It needs good coaching and motivation to get people all the way to the end.
Jaguar
Conditioning – Watch Out For This (Bumaye) – Since Ten
In my opinion this could be the strangest conditioning track in Body Combat history. Some say that “animal forms” are the future of training. The “Jaguar” moves certainly isolate the core in a way most people haven’t experienced before. It just takes ages to master it and I’ve found many frustrated people deciding they’ll stick to a hover instead.
I actually think the problem isn’t mastering the move. It just doesn’t work on most studio gym mats (in fact a Yoga mat might work better but most venues don’t have these in their main studios). The standard gym mat is too small to do the move properly and most people do not want to be “matless” and work on the wooden floor.
Sadly therefore this track has the most votes for an early mix out.
A catchy chorus and stretches we desperately need (including the Downward Facing Dog) brings this beautiful monster of a class to a swift end. As Body Combat release 61 is so long, at venues that don’t have a 5 minute gap between classes I have to cut the cooldown short. After that everyone staggers out of the room, T-Shirts dripping wet with sweat, exhausted smiles on their faces.
Now it’s your turn:
Do you agree with my review of Les Mills Body Combat release 61? What do you think of the Jaguar moves? Please leave a comment below or post a link to your own review.
Another blistering martial arts workout descends on Edinburgh after a very short summer.
It only seems a few weeks ago I was raving about the 15th Anniversary Body Combat release. And now here’s another one.
But is it a worthy follow-up to the intensity of that last one?
Yes I think it is.
In a packed out studio, instructors from across Scotland sweated, grunted, groaned and shouted their way through the masterclass and education.
So here are my thoughts on the tracks.
A couple of upbeat warm up tracks take our heart rates up high immediately. The Muay Tai knees section felt particularly intense for a warm up.
We fact two lower tempo leg conditioning tracks and again feel the burn of the “Switch Lunge”
The song “So What” from track 4 was originally in Body Combat release 27. In the notes programme directors Dan and Rachael acknowledge that “you might remember this music from way back”. I do remember it from way back and I remember paying for it. Whilst it’s a great piece of music I’m left a little grumpy at having to pay for it again. It’s not even a different mix.
More “Superman Punches” in another long heavy rock Muay Thai from Airbourne.
Track 8 is different from the usual format and all the better for it. A relentless mix of different punches which genuinely blasts the shoulders.
There are Jaguar’s (the animal not the car) in what is perhaps the weirdest ever conditioning track. I works though.
Les Mills Body Combat release 61 will exhaust you. Take plenty of water to the launch classes and for goodness sake don’t forget to breathe.
Now it’s your turn:
Are you a Body Combat instructor? What do you think of Les Mills Body Combat release 61? Please leave a comment or a link to your own thoughts.
Is this the most relentless Body Combat class so far?
Are programme directors Dan and Rachael celebrating 15 years of Body Combat with a super-fast intense workout? Les Mills Body Combat release 60 sets new standards.
After teaching a new release I usually develop “delayed onset muscle soreness” the day after. And then I get used to the moves and the aching subsides. Not this time. I am still developing DOMS even after 3 weeks of teaching.
On the masterclass DVD, after the conditioning track, Rachael says, “You’re going to wonder what we were on after you teach that.”
Not just the conditioning track though. I wonder what they were on whilst choreographing the whole class. It is relentless. Not a beat goes by without some challenge. You’ll be breathless and drowning in sweat.
A strong start with an apt song title. A dance remix of the famous Pat Benatar song. The usual introduction to upper cuts, jabs and hooks melts into a shuffle sequence featuring the “decoy switch” move we’ve not seen for many releases. The decoy sets the tone for leg conditioning almost from the start so it’s not a surprise to see that we also practice squats and ginga lunges within the first few minutes.
A packed lower body warm up with knee strikes, front kicks, shoot lunges, hip rolls, roundhouse, side and back kicks. You’ll feel muscle burn in your legs during this track to the extent you’ll think it feels like a Combat track. Together the two warm ups last nearly ten minutes, so we’re hot a ready to move into the harder work.
Given this dance version of Katy Perry’s Roar is all about lions and tigers (and Champions) – I think the choreographers missed the opportunity to include the claw strike move.
Back Fist
Combat 1– Black or White (Combat Remix) – The Treat Ring
Not quite the shortest Combat track in Body Combat history but it makes up for its brevity with intensity. Apart from the 32 beats at the start there is not one beat in the track that isn’t attached to a punch, kick, plyo-push or back fist. And for us old-timers, if you listen carefully, there are a few sound effects and warning bells included in the music. In the early days of Body Combat (up to number 15) we had these bells to remind us of imminent choreography change.
Power 1 – Fly Away – Deer Between
We’ve heard this track before back in Body Combat release 29 and in my opinion that older version is better than this one. However the moves are fast and furious with a focus on repeated hooks. Feel your shoulders begin to burn. Here we also see the first example of the “interval within and interval”. For example on the repeating jabs section, go at it on level one for the first 32 punches. Then relish the opportunity to show a visible rise in intensity. I want to see it. I want you to feel it. We all want to hear it.
Ouch! Squats. Plyo-lunges, roundhouse knees and side kicks joined together into a long sequence without a break. It hurts and it works. I’m always impressed by how a track like this tricks you. Your kicking leg “seems” it’s doing all the work. But by the time we finish each half of the track your support leg is screaming for a rest. It doesn’t get one.
Timing is a little tricky in this one. I’ve found stepping back into the first plyo-lunge helps you keep on the beat before jumping the rest.
We need the shuffling forward section of this song to recover from “Emergency” before once again laying on the jabs thick. More opportunities to play with different levels of intensity. A very fast track and if you try to take your “hook, upper, hook combo” off the beat of the music, it feels faster and more authentic. The song itself is unremarkable but the moves carry it.
More decoy switches continue the onslaught on our legs. The “Head Tummy Head” punches build nicely to the eventual addition of three powerful front kicks. I can’t help smiling when I teach this song and remember a classic cue a friend of mine came up with for a similar combo. “Head Knackers Head,” he said. That won’t offend anyone will it?
Superman Punch
Muay Thai – Kryptonite – Proof Luke
Have we ever had a track as fast, relentless, intense and gruelling as this? Running man knees challenge stamina, and you might forget to breathe. I like the “Superman Punch”. However I had the benefit of a twenty-minute tutorial on the quarterly workshop. Putting across so much information in less than a minute is challenging.
But once you get it you can feel how powerful the move is.
In some ways I wish they hadn’t called it the “Superman Punch” because that conjures up an image of jumping high into the air – which we don’t do. The jump forward is low, imperceptible and sharp.
The last section of endless knee strikes – four on four, then two on two, then one on one will have you shaking and wanting to throw up.
Not much respite here either. A huge track 8 which burns the shoulders and continues to challenge stamina. It’s a good job there’s no shuffling about here because I’m not sure we could take it. Endless upper cuts encourage abdominal twists – like sit ups stood up.
Ab Attack
Conditioning – You’re the Best – Blazed Calm
In recent conditioning tracks we’ve seen hovers, planks, komodo dragons, Brazillian cross chokes and allsorts of CXWORX cast offs. Here is nothing other than good old-fashioned crunches and press ups. Interesting that given its simplicity it turns out it’s one of the most intense and painful conditioning tracks I can remember.
I challenge anyone not to sing along the chorus of this song at least once.
“You’re going to wonder what we were on,” said Rachael
“Now we are free”, originally from the Russell Crowe movie Gladiator, feels like cool breeze after a day of blazing sun. It’s mellow, chilled and slow. Just what we need after the last three relentless sweat fests!
Body Combat release 60 might be the most intense ever. In some ways it’s a shame it came out when it did. Due to the dates of the Quarterlies this time round, quarter three is very short. Most clubs will launch mid/end July and the next releases will be here in September. That combined with summer holidays means that many people might miss the full effects of this marvellous class.
Now it’s your turn:
Do you agree with my review of Les Mills Body Combat release 60? Is it the fastest most intense we’ve ever done? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Or post a link to your own review.
