Body Vive 13

Thursday 30th July - 4:40pm

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As I expected, and it is rather unfortunate, the room emptied after Body Pump as preparation began for the Vive filming. In some ways, it was a good idea to have Vive after Pump, since the Vive participants are much more relaxed and there's far less competition for spots on the floor. When Pump and Combat filmings have been back-to-back in the past, you find that the situation is one angry mob of people replacing another in terms of floor space. With Vive, there was no hurry for people to get onto the floor, so the Pumpers weren't having to contend with evil looks as they tried to gather their bars, plates, steps and risers and get them packed out of the way.

In fact, it was even encouraged that other people help the Pumpers put their weights away, and would you believe it, it actually happened. Those who didn't take part in the Pump filming obliged and were picking up other peoples bars, plates, steps and risers, it was fantastic to see.

Mah boi Patrick assumed his spot in the first row, and given that I hadn't seen the choreography for Body Vive 13, and despite not knowing the choreography for Body Vive 11 I apparently am 'all over' the DVD (GAH!), I skulked back to the second row.

Before getting into the whats-what of the Vive filming - with the floor cleared of all of the Body Pump stuff, it gave a couple of people the opportunity to come up to me and talk to me. Even though I say here on the blog to 'Come on up to me and have a chat if you see me', I am ALWAYS surprised when people do that exact thing!

So quite often, you will get my standard expression.

I swear I'll learn sometime, honest! I'll learn how to be an ACTUAL social human being rather than a stunned mullet when people OMG TALK TO ME WTF*SPLODE*

For all of you who spoke to me, it really was an honour and very humbling that you took the time to come and say hello. It always will blow me away that people actually read, take in, and in some cases, look forward to my ramblings on here.

I was very concerned when after I wrote about the BJ47 filmings in a LOT of detail and was asked not to write like that anymore that I would lose readers, and yes, I did lose some. But there are still many of you that continue to read this blog even even when I can't share everything that I would like to share. Thank you for always being there. :-)

But now, onto Body Vive!

As I mentioned before, Patrick placed himself right in the front row, being the super enthusiastic amazing fantabulastic Viver that he is. Remember this!

The presenters this time around were the fabulous Susan 'Paris' Trainor, Pete and Japanese head trainer Michi. If I've spent her name incorrectly, can you please let me know in the comments? I can't give away most of the details on what they were wearing because quite honestly? I can't remember.

I know, I know you're ashamed of me. I'm ashamed of myself too.

BUT! I do remember that Susan Trainor's cropped pants were an awesome shade of teal and when I saw them I went, "WANT." I've been salivating for a pair of cropped pants in that colour ever since then, but no luck. Waaaah. Michi was wearing the same coloured top, and Pete sported his typical t-shirt-inside-a-puffy-vest look. (Ahahaha, apparently I *do* remember some of the details of what the team were wearing.)

I'm not a regular Viver, so I can't make too many comments on how this release rates compared to others. I will say though that I had an awesome time, and there's awesome music and awesome choreography in there.

Sounds fairly generic, but here's the catch.

I personally felt like a lot more work had been put into this release to make it a more intense workout, whilst remaining low impact and fun. There were times during the filming where the workout was so intense that both my ankle and my back started seizing up. They turned out to be fine, but there are only two other classes that I get that equivalent feeling and they are Body Pump and RPM. Anyone who says that Vive doesn't count as a class? They ain't working hard enough. Yes Mr Stollery, I am talking to you specifically!

And like any hard class, it hurts something ridiculous when the presenting team make mistakes - particularly when you're dealing with the resistance tubes. I cannot tell you the number of times that the team had to transition between tracks; I will forever have Michi's voice saying "Feet inside tube!" as a reminder of that release. My thighs were absolutely burning by the time the track was finally filmed (and even then, they had to refilm a bit at the end since a mistake hadn't been picked up on).

The other thing that made me feel uncomfortable was how... 'volatile' the resistance tubing felt underneath my feet. It kept sliding around, and at any given moment I was terrified that the tube would slip free from the safety of my feet and whack me in the chin, gah! Thankfully, it did. Regular Vivers - any advice on how you overcome this?

Doing this filming made me sorely miss my friends Missy and Jace whom I did the Vive 11 filming with - you SO should have been there with us, it felt wrong to not have you both there :-(

I was lucky that I had Patrick and DJ with me though! Two fantastic guys, and DJ must've gotten a million-billion shout outs from the presenting team while the filming was in action.

Patrick, however, the poor lad, not only didn't get any shoutouts while the camera was rolling (but got a mention from Susan before the filming started), but he also got told by the filming crew to stand back a bit from the front row since his head kept on bobbing up into the frame.

It was a reasonable request from the filming crew, but unfortunate that Patrick just happens to be a bit of a tall lad.

I've only done two Vive classes and I've loved them both - especially when the class has the balls in hand. More than once I had to run around to chase my ball since I'd been overzealous (or just plain clumsy) with some of the moves and literally, Lost My Balls. Though I wasn't the only one! All throughout the class there were balls rolling around all over the place and embarrassed folk scuffling around the edges trying to keep out of everyone's way and get their ball back.

There are a couple of tracks that mess with my head a bit. One of them is a signature track of another program (so much that it's been used twice in that program in different releases - same song!), and the other track is in the STYLE of another program. All through it I was going "What the... I feel like I'm doing BodySomethingElse." Patrick even warned me about it, but to a certain extent, I didn't believe him! Serves me right, I should always trust Mah Boi.

Vive unfortunately isn't a particularly accessible class for me - many of the classes are held during the day and I would have to leave work and return back afterwards to do them, which is a real shame. Because every time I do it, I am left in the same spot - thinking, "I should do more Vive!"

Body Vive 13 was no exception to that rule.

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Next up...

Body Combat 42