RickInOz

Here’s a little Christmas present for you all. The new release BodyPump 72 has arrived and here are my thoughts on it. The launch was over a week ago, but I’ve been just a little busy … so better late than never … and on with the review:

Warmup:
This one follows the usual pattern of working the back, shoulders, legs, back and biceps. Nothing special to report in terms of innovations, but we do very little legwork with only 5 squats and 8 lunges per leg. Instead we have two sets of overhead presses and a long biceps set. This makes the track feel a little unbalanced and upper-body heavy. Fortunately though, the music comes to the rescue and we get the first uplifting warm-up song for ages: If (Freemasons 2009 Re-Dub) – Freemasons Feat. Hazel Fernandes.

Squats:
This was billed as a tough track but I don’t think it’s particularly difficult. Essentially the track consists of two big rounds each having two distinct halves. Mostly it’s standard fare with a cue to go to wide stance at the quarter mark. If you enjoyed the bottom-halves from the last release, then you’ll like this one as we do 48 again. Each big round finishes with 4 x 4 of them, and if that wasn’t enough a couple of 2 x 4 sets are thrown in too. But despite that, it certainly doesn’t match 71 for intensity. The show-piece in this release is that the music lulls between the two rounds making it sound like the track has finished, but then it goes on. I can well see the “surprise” wearing thin very quickly. You would think that Kelly Clarkson wouldn’t work in BodyPump, but I Do Not Hook Up is sufficiently rocky to work well.

Chest:
I’ll warn you straight up – this is a hard Chest track. We’ve had a few accessible tracks recently, so this one will sting. It starts off simply enough with a replica of the chore from 69 with slow ranges, singles and 6 bottom-half pulses. This is repeated twice before we sit up for a premature break. Then, like 64, there is a fair bit of work to come and this causes that familiar burn to develop early. This track also sees a return of the slow bottom-half pulses from 68, but we only get one set of these unfortunately. A great track: Always Be Here – Dane Rumble with hints of Michael Jackson and RHCP, but it’s let down by chore that doesn’t always match it.

Back:
Another cookie cutter affair and lifted straight out of 70. So don’t expect anything exciting with the usual lifts, rows, clean-n-presses, triple row sets. Three rounds with breaks in between make for a reasonably straight forward track. It’s not that easy, but by no means challenging either. The return of Cascada with Perfect Day seals this off as a utterly forgettable track. The team at Les Mills really need to do something with track 4 as it is fast becoming tired and unimaginative with the same acts and same chore turning up again and again.

Triceps:
Now this release shows how good triceps tracks can be. It’s a real toughie esp if you take the options … but we’ll get to that in a second. To start with it’s bar work with 3 rounds on the bench. We also get the pullover move from 67 back again, but just for the first two rounds. And then the other favourite – dips! The option I mentioned before is to do this weighted either with the bar or a plate in your lap. I’ve found myself fatiguing enough by the end of the bench work so have just been doing the dips with bodyweight alone, but perhaps I’ll try for something by mix-out time. The music badly lets down what should be an enjoyable track with Sugar by Flo Rida. This song would be bad enough on it’s own but dredges new depths by sampling the dire Blue by Eiffel 65.

Biceps:
This has the makings of a tough, yet great, biceps track. It starts with two duplicate rounds, with the option to switch the back leg half-way through as always. The usual slow reps start us off before some bottom-half pulses. And then the innovation kicks in. Anyone remember the bicep rows from 67? Pulling the bar up to the chest works the bicep in a very different way to curls and prevents momentum assisting bar movement. I actually found my forearms felt it after these rows rather than my biceps, presumably from having to grip the bar hard. We then get a much needed break before finishing with a simple 16 bottom-half row set. Pity really as there was potential to fit in some more bicep rows. Music is the Ricochet TV cover of Green Day’s Know Your Enemy.

Lunges:
72 had been a fairly strong release so far, but here is the big let-down. As if we hadn’t done enough squats in the Squat track, we get more … lots more in fact. The track consists of 4 rounds alternating squats and lunges. The squat sections aren’t the active recovery I was expecting them to be and really hammer legs still fatigued from earlier work. Which meant I then couldn’t really do the lunge sections justice. It defies logic why they couldn’t have just choreographed lunges instead, either dynamic or static. This one should be swapped out as soon as possible. Music: Gone – Lasgo.

Shoulders:
In keeping with the generally tough nature of the release thus far, this Shoulder track is a killer. We start with some push-ups before going into rear-deltoid raises, lateral raises. Then grab the bar for upright rows and finish with overhead presses. All sounds fairly standard fare doesn’t it? Well get ready to hurt as this release features the 3/4 range pulse. So, rather than coming back to the bottom of the range we stop early and then go up again (i.e: go 1/4 range to top back and forth). This prevents us from taking that micro-break at the bottom and really makes the most of the “time-under-tension” principle. There are 12 of them per exercise group and they really make your muscles scream, believe me. Music is a rocky remix of Michael Jackson’s Beat It by Xeroxx.

Abs:
Another challenging track, but unfortunately not in a good way. As with 71, those who have packed their gear away early will wind up looking foolish as we need the bench again. Those reverse crunches are back, but this time there are no regular crunches to break them up. This means those deep abdominal muscles really get targeted. As if that wasn’t enough we then punish them some more with a long hover. There is the option to have feet up on the bench again, with travelling forward and backward and alternate stepping on/off the bench for advanced Pumpers. As with previous releases featuring a hard shoulder track and following it up with a prolonged plank, this is a big mistake and I just can’t hold it, not through lack of core strength, but my arms just won’t hold me up. Music: Love Sex Magic – Ciara Feat. Justin Timberlake.

Warm-down:
After such a gruelling workout it would be nice if we could do the normal supine leg stretches, but this time we have to quickly transition into and out of a seated glute stretch. This combined with lying quad stretches makes the first half of this track seem rather rushed and scrappy. It wouldn’t be so bad if we had been given a good tune to unwind with, but instead a cover of the Seether remix of George Michael’s Careless Whisper, by Badlands has to suffice … but falls very short and isn’t relaxing in the slightest.

Overall Impressions:
Despite many negative comments above I do like this release. For an experienced participant like me it offers a rare challenge with none of the tracks being easy, and most of them being downright nasty. It’s not particularly cardio-intensive but certainly tests endurance and will-power.

The downside of this is that, on the converse, I suspect that it will be too daunting for new participants. Triceps, Shoulders and Abs are simply too complex and tough, and even using light weights won’t diminish their difficulty. Les Mills need to be mindful that the program attracts a range of people and they can’t just cater to one hardcore group. Having said that, on the plus side, it will act as a rude shock to all those who have been coasting along with the same unchallenging weights for too long.

Musically this is another lemon. The first 3 tracks really work well, and are well suited to their disciplines and choreography. Unfortunately thereafter things go downhill with Biceps and Shoulders going some way to recoup the howlers in Back, Triceps, Lunges, Abs and Warmdown. Just because they have to use cover acts to keep licensing costs down does not excuse poor choices. The difficulty of tracks partially masks the bad songs, but not enough unfortunately.

Maybe this will be a keeper like 71 turned out to be (with the exception of lunges) as it does have some great tracks despite being let down in a few key areas I’ve elucidated above. Time will tell, and we have a few more weeks to get to know it better.

Your comments and opinions will be welcome as always.