Body Combat 60 (again)

Lazybones today.  I took this class on Tuesday and am still dying from it; there's no way I could've done it again today, it's such a killer.  Instead, I laid on the couch and ate dark chocolate covered almonds, then i found this in my inbox: a great review of my killer.  I totally agree with their take on it, especially the point that it makes you just wanna throw up at times, it's so intense.  I'd rather be a couch potato and eat dark chocolate almonds today, so we'll just enjoy this class vicariously, shall we?  cheerio!  

(from Grandnat's Blog, http://grandnat.co.uk/emergency-review-les-mills-body-combat-release-60/

Is this the most relentless Body Combat class so far?

Are programme directors Dan and Rachael celebrating 15 years ofBody 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.

Let's have a look at the tracks.

Upper Body Warm Up – Hit me with your best shot (BassLouder Remix Edit) –Neon Ninja

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.

Roundhouse Kick

Lower Body Warm Up – Roar (Bass Rayders Remix Edit) – Hot Cherry

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 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 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 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.

Plyo Lunges

Combat 2 – Emergency (Clockwork Remix) – Steve Aoki feat. Lil Jon, Chiddy Ban

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.

Power  2 – Rise Again  (Sy and Unknown Remix) – Breeze v Lost Witness

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.

Combat 3 – What’s Love  (Kandy Man Remix Edit) – Ste Ingham and Nick Stitz

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. 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 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.

Power 3 – Sunshine On a Cloudy Day  (Eufeion Remix)

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 now shuffling about here because I'm not sure we could take it.

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

Indeed.

Cool down – Now We are Free – Lisa Kelly

"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.

whack a mole

Jesus Culture Radio on Pandora

   Walk with Me by Jesus Culture

Author of the world, walk with me
Ruler of the earth, walk with me
Calmer of the storm, walk with me
Healer of my heart, walk with me

How I need You
How I need You
Oh Jesus, walk with me

Light for every step, walk with me
Giver of each breath, walk with me

How I need You
How I need You
Oh Jesus, walk with me
How I love You
How I love You
Oh Jesus, walk with me

In Your presence Lord there is peace, there is rest
In Your presence Lord there is life that never ends
In Your presence Lord there is joy there is joy
In Your presence Lord there is life that never ends

Never Once by Matt Redman

Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we've come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You've done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You've done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say

Never once did we ever walk alone
Carried by Your constant grace
Held within Your perfect peace

Never once, no, we never walk alone

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Every step we are breathing in Your grace
Evermore well be breathing out Your praise

You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Songwriters
INGRAM, JASON / REDMAN, MATT / WANSTALL, TIM

Published by
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, CHRYSALIS MUSIC GROUP

songs in the attic

still on a sheryl kick

                                                   

still thinking about my last post. In particular, the part about relating to Michael Jackson's condition of arrested development.

 feeling this bubbly happy feeling deep inside me, beginning to bubble to the surface, now and again, in short little pops like soda pop.  a funny, childlike feeling i've been hiding for years.  i first felt it again about a year ago, when we first arrived at the ocean for a family vacation at the beach. It was just like the feeling i had as a kid when, after driving across the country from land-locked Wisconsin to the Outer Banks of NC, we finally piled out of that old station wagon, all seven of us, and I breathed my very first whiff of salty ocean air..ahhhhh!!!  I was seven at the time, and I remember how giddy we all were, and how monstrous the waves looked to us, after only seeing the medium size waves of Lake Michigan when we visited the eastern edge of Wisconsin.  To see the real ocean, its unleashed fury and beauty as it smashed the shores with its salty wildness, was overwhelmingly intoxicating to me as a child, and still acts as a drug every time i return to the beach.

Kind of at a loss as to what to do with this new revelation, this return of my childlike spirit, something i've hidden for so many years.  Stuffed it down inside of me, made decisions and choices that seemed right and grown-up and practical at the time, and seemed like a good cover-up for this youthful, seemingly immature, impulsive child inside of me that wanted to be free but for some reason it was something to be ashamed of, hidden, killed for the sake of being a proper adult.
why? I realize now this is just the way i was made, and no, it does not give me license to be selfish and irresponsible or lazy.  Perhaps it was intended as a unique gift, something that, despite making me feel like such an oddball in my peer group of moms fussing over schedules and financial goals and three-bean casseroles,  it was meant as a way for me to give back to the world, share my creativity in ways that required me to re-capture the flame of that crazy wild child again.

Where i'm going with this is just as much a mystery to me as it is to you. the fun part is, this crazy wild child in me does not grow older with each passing breath, it just gets crazier, as its vision becomes clearer, like brushing the sand off a treasure hidden on the beach.

that's where it ends for now.  and i'll end with another little song i'm learning to play on my guitar, from my artist of the week, Sheryl Crow.

or not.

sorry, i lied.  someone's in my "recording studio" at the moment, so i'll share this with you instead, this video that does a pretty good job of embodying the spirit of my thoughts this morning.  especially where she plays her air guitar and chases the endless bubbles...happy bubbles.

enjoy!

Soak up the sun (cover)

  and there's more!!

As a follow-up to my previous post about Sheryl Crow, here's me practicing one of her songs, Soak up the Sun.  (don't laugh, don't judge, i am just PRACTICING!!) ;-D

stay bright

Speaking of hiding in the back row of life...(as i referred to in my previous post about doing Body Combat in the back row of class..) ..i read an interesting article the other day.  It was in a Good Housekeeping magazine that appeared before my eyes during a recent 2-hour browse at the bookstore. Smiling from the cover was none other than one of my favorite recording artists, Sheryl Crow.  i've always loved her music, her lyrics are so fun and easy to relate to. Like that first big hit, "all i wanna do is have some fun".

(here's the link, read it now and come back to me or save it for later:)
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/celebrity-interviews/sheryl-crow

  

 I digged that song.... (dug?) I could relate to sitting in a bar, drinking beer at noon on a Tuesday. Hanging out with some guy i have no interest in, but we're just sitting there, shootin the breeze, watching people go in and out and on their way, while we play with matches and talk about nothing important.  Reminds me of when i was in college..(here i go again, reminiscing the glory days) I had this job on campus one summer, working in the entomology lab (study of insects) of our College of Natural Resources.  I worked with these two guys, labeling jars of weird dead insects floating in chemicals. On Tuesdays they had lunch specials and cheap beer at this popular hang-out just across the street, (a bar, this is Wisconsin, had a bar on every corner, pretty much)  so these guys & I would walk over and share a couple pitchers of brewski with our lunch, just hangin out, then walk back and try to finish working our hours in the lab, (we cheese-heads had great tolerance, beer flows like milk in that state!) trying hard not to mistake those soggy dead insects for snacks from the vending machine down the hall.  These guys both had girlfriends, it was totally platonic and fun.  I love those kind of relationships.  I always seem to be the most emotionally healthy when i have a few good, platonic "guy" friendships in my life.. the kind of friends that are totally just friends, without one speck of awkwardness that comes when one person is hoping to make it more than just friends. Just friends to hang, laugh, do fun, risky sports with..that's it.  That's where the lines are drawn.  Another example was one of my first "real" office jobs after college, where a couple guys and I would go rollerblading over the lunch hour in a nearby park and greenway.  I remember one time we were racing down this concrete path through a forested area, i was in front, and we suddenly had to cross this rickety wooden bridge over a creek.  At the speed i was already going at, it was impossible to slow down and take the bridge slowly, so when my wheel got stuck in one of the old wooden boards, i went catapulting through the air, spinning wildly till i hit the earth on the other side of the path (thankfully i missed the concrete) and went rolling through the scratchy bushes till i lost momentum and landed in a heap.  Not wanting to look like a sissy, i quickly got up, and the guys were like, "hey, you ok?" i say "yeah" & they're like "ok let's go". perfect.  now if they had been like, "oh, you poor thing, you poor delicate little thing, this is too rough for you, go rest your pretty little head, let the guys do this", i'd be soooooo angry i wouldn't be able to see straight.

ok so where was i going with this? oh yes, back to sheryl  crow...



Another thing I liked about this article, and about Sheryl Crow is how she won't lose her "shine" just to change her status, as explained in this excerpt:

Since moving to Nashville, Crow has been feeling empowered in her relationships with men, too. That wasn't always the case. With her earlier relationships, there had been a pattern: "I had always gone out with guys who were highly successful, which would seem like it would put me at an equal level," says Crow, whose former boyfriends include actor Owen Wilson and musician Eric Clapton. "But what ends up happening is that one of you becomes smaller — and it was always me. It's always the woman." She pauses. "I mean, I don't know if it's always the woman, but I do think that sometimes in order for one person's light to shine, everyone else has to dim theirs."

That changed when she took a friend's words as her touchstone: "Embrace the idea of only having equals in your life, and you'll see your relationships change." (end quote)

and another example of  Sheryl becoming "small" with someone else...

In 2003 she fell in love with seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who was a decade younger. (Armstrong's disgrace — the revelation of his doping and his being stripped of his titles — would come years after they'd broken up.) Crow moved to Austin to be with him, and they announced their engagement in the fall of 2005. The singer supported Armstrong's cancer organization (now the Livestrong Foundation) as well as his competitive cycling career and became close to his three children. She continued to write, record and tour even though, she realized later, she was making herself "really small" next to him. Without recognizing it, she had turned herself into a "self-appointed caretaker" for a wide swath of people — always making sure that "everyone else was OK, everyone else was happy."

(end quote)

Equals. not being unequally yoked. good stuff.  This may also bring up the old, over-thunk, over-debated issue of submission in marriage, in which I believe people just need to find the balance, and a sequence of events:   I believe that #1, first you find your equal,  #2, then you  "submit to one another out of reverence for Christ."  (Eph. 5:21)  Do all the things explained in the love chapter of 1 Cor. 13.  THEN, (#3)  THEN, once you have established that you are equals and that you are already submitting to each other in love, THEN the woman can easily slip into her role in letting the man take the lead, just like in ballroom dancing where the guy is supposed to have a clue and know what he's doing to lead the lady who obediently follows him around the dance floor.  So learn how to dance, guys, or stay off the floor!!!  ;-D

That way you won't find your light being dimmed by another.  like the feeling i get in the gym sometimes, when someone else is on the front row, being kind of a show-off in the way they dress and how hard they work-out (to impress the instructor? teacher pet syndrome?) ..and my response is to just get smaller and let them do their thing.

 

Another thing I love about Sheryl Crow is that she didn't wait around all her life for a man so she could have her dream of being a mother.  now i know that sounds radical, (but no she didn't have them out of wedlock) and obviously it's not the ideal situation to be a single mom; face it, kids need a father figure in their life.  but if it's something one feels strongly about, they're committed to doing their best, providing positive male role models where they can, and have the means to take care of them (obviously she does, most of us wouldn't be able to singlehandedly adopt and bring up 2 kids on a 50-acre ranch with a nanny and other household help)..then who am i to judge.  again i quote:

Crow adopted Wyatt in 2007 and Levi three years after that. The decision to take on two kids as a single mom constituted an emotional leap of faith. Her own parents had then been married for more than 50 years (that "set the bar high," she says). Now she and her brood are happily ensconced on this ranch about 30 minutes from Nashville. "I've become a glorified taxi driver," she laughs with regard to the life she's living now. Though she has a nanny and her sister Kathy, who lives nearby, helps out, Crow is a hands-on mom who takes the boys shopping at Target, drives them to Sunday school and swimming and tennis lessons and helps care for their pet guinea pigs.

"Hey, I would love to get married — I'm still old-fashioned. But I don't think marriage is the be-all and end-all." She pauses, then makes a joke about her own personal history: "It's better to have three broken engagements than three divorces." Though she's laughing, Crow seems to be justifying the life she's ended up with — one that is far from the traditional family she was raised in, yet that still embodies many of its values.

(end quote)

yeah i like that. don't settle, just to change your status, your lifestyle.  it's gotta be all there. i've got a lot more to say on that topic, settling, but i'll save it for another day...

and one more little ditty, one more thing in this article that made me sit up and say "eureka!!!"

The last 2 sentences in this blurb jumped off the screen at me like fleas on my cat:


 
Then, in 1987, at age 25, Crow landed a job as a backup singer on Michael Jackson's Bad tour — it was her baptism into rock-and-roll life. She remembers Jackson as "very professional" but also "childlike, with probably an extreme case of arrested development. His emotional maturation stopped at 14." 

wow.  all i can say. arrested development. ok, so that explains a few things in my own life, and that of some of my siblings.  i needn't go further.  close the book, fire the shrink, my work here is done. nuff said.  

and what am i going to do with that piece of info? that revelation?
maybe i should be like michael and build my own never-never land...

like this...








nahh... what to do now?
i have absolutely. no. clue. whatsoever. just takin it one day at a time.

God is in control.

thanks, Sheryl.