This review comes a little later than normal, so late that infact the Body Combat 55 video sizzler has been posted with the workshops kicking off this month. Where to begin? We were given the Body Combat 54 sizzler video quite quickly and I liked what I saw even though there wasn’t much.
From Body Combat 50 the releases have been getting tougher and tougher and 54 takes it to a entirely new level. It’s been just over 9 weeks that I have been teaching this release and I have to say that from start to finish it’s another solid release. I would actually go a step further and say it’s one of my favourites to date and here are my reasons:
- Best track 2 I have ever done.
- Lots of hooks into the music across all tracks.
- “Feel good” music resulting in pushing harder and faster.
- The amount of calories burnt is off the scale.
- Easy to teach, to have fun with and encourage participants with technique correction or working levels.
The latest calorie count on the posters for a class is 737. After monitoring 12 classes on my polar watch my average consumption was 1075 hence once of my reasons being the amount of calories burnt. Like everything else it’s the matter of what you put in you get out.
Thoughts on tracks
Track 1a – What doesn’t kill you
We kick off with a feel good energising track “What doesn’t kill you” for the upper body warm up. Music really works well with the simple boxing combinations then throwing in a nice Karate kata to break the warmup down.
Track 1b – Blow
The lower body warm up comes at us with simple combinations, but what’s this, the shoot lunges are back again. Like the last couple of releases they’ve managed to squeeze alot into the warmup. Lower body done, time for our first fight.
Track 2 – Turbulence
This track throws you straight into the work out. From the knee and kick combination to the balance challenge. This has to be the best track 2 track I have ever done. I have found that directional cues with the arms help to bring together the side kick and the front kick of the 2nd half of the combination. Big thumbs up for this track…..
Track 3 – Gona love me
First power tracks throws in a normal combination of punches and upper cuts. Boxing training with simple, effective choreography to an uplifting, euphoric tune.
Track 4 – Paradise City
This track seems to go at full steam ahead. I have found that new participants didn’t take a liking of this track as quite alot of different moves to take in like the switch and the kata’s. Over the duration of doing this release a couple of times the track did eventually flow with participants. Short, Sharp, Sweet.
Track 5 – Invincible
The track that rocks the shoulders. Only half way through and by the end of this track the shoulders should be burning. From jabs, uppercuts to the hooks that bring the burn.
Track 6 – DOA
Like it’s counterpart (T4) this track goes full steam ahead. It’s not the hardest of lower body tracks but none the less still delivers a good punch with its back kick-knee combination followed by both the boxing and karate phase. It’s quite interesting to see how many people zone out during exercise esp when the combination goes to the blitz.
Track 7 – The Switch
By all means it’s not really the hardest T7 track we’ve had over the last couple of releases but lots of room for a bit of fun with the choreography and the music. It did take a couple of classes before participants were comfortable with the plyio push and then then push kick. I really do like the music to this track.
Track 8 – Dark Skies
Simple power training combination with the speedball thrown in. Not one of my top 10 track 8’s but everything about it allows you to push harder and harder. The jab, hook, cross jack combination really does test shoulder endurance. If you’ve been putting in what you want out then you should feel it working in all the right areas.
Track 9 – Internet Friends
The hip escape from BJJ. After a couple of times participants really needed to be encouraged to take the next option up. I do like this conditioning track due to the muscles worked, the nature of where the hip escape comes from and it’s adoption to group exercise.
Track 10 – Payphone
Nothing beats a cool down you can sing to or try to anyway while bringing the heart rate down and stretching the muscles. Job done see you next time :).
Give Feedback
So that’s Body Combat 54 in the bag. Have you enjoyed this release?
If you have any thoughts about Body Combat 54 and you’d like to share then please feel free to comment or get in touch. If you didn’t already know you can also give feedback to Les Mills in relation to any programme/release. Are you an instructor? Heard of the BLAH (be loud and heard)? http://www.lesmills.com/blah Are you a participant? You can let Les Mills know about your experiences with after class. http://www.lesmills.com/global/classes/after-class-surveys.aspx
