BODY CHALLENGES

Oh my body is aching already. Body Pump was FUN today, as always, and the class was packed with people, which is such a kick to experience. And although I am all healhty and strong, I'm not as strong as I thought I was today. Legs shaking, arms shaking now as well, I almost feel like I'm coming down with something. But like the banner says up top, "Pressure Makes Diamonds". If we don't challenge our bodies, then it will never keep evolving, developing, changing. So put some pressure on yourselves when doing your workout. Challenge yourselves and see the change, reap the benefits! Otherwise, how else are you going to see the results?!

Think I need some rest after this brutal work out week. So now, time for Zumba for a few hours, then shower and rest, and later a 40th birthday party! Yay!

A friend sent this article to me about Body Pump. Have a read:

Once, if you wanted to shape up after Christmas, you attended a class called Legs, Bums and Tums. Now, if you are looking for a workout, it will be pre-choreographed scientifically by a multinational fitness company — and called something suitably aggressive such as Bodyattack or Bodypump.

“Body” classes — there are eight in all — have taken over the gym world in the past few years; it seems that there isn’t a gym in the UK that doesn’t offer at least one. Up to 1.3 million people a week in Britain do one of the classes. What makes them so successful is that, whether you’re in New York or Tunbridge Wells, the class will be identical: the same moves to the same music, in the same order, all formulated to burn calories and maximise fitness. In Bodypump (weights), for example, participants are told that they will burn 600 calories in the hour-long class if they keep up.

The man behind the revolution is Phillip Mills, a New Zealand athlete who had his “eureka” moment as a student in America in the 1970s, when group fitness classes were just beginning. On his return to New Zealand, he created Bodypump, an aerobics class with weights, for the chain of gyms founded by his father, Les. The class was launched in the UK in 1997, quickly followed by Bodyattack (a more traditional, but highly energetic, aerobics), Bodybalance (a cross between yoga, t’ai chi and Pilates), Bodycombat (martial arts) and Bodystep. The company, Les Mills International (LMI), has now filled almost every niche in the workout timetable, with the possible exceptions of salsa and circuits, and has a global turnover of £100 million. The latest is Bodyvive, for the 50-plus market and the less fit, and Bodyjam and Combat classes will start at British secondary schools this year.

The secret of the company’s success is in the ruthless quality control, according to Phillip Mills. “Before we came along there were hundreds of thousands of teachers; a small percentage would be good, but the vast majority would be average. What we do is employ teams of the best teachers to put together quality-assured classes — we have spent 30 years building the formulas for each one. We test them, then trial them over and over again until we believe that we have got them perfect, then we ship them out. We treat it as a science.”

From an article in the The Times Online. Full article here:
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/diet_and_fitness/article6979728.ece