Body Pump 74

Out of all of the filming classes, I generally have my own personal favourite, and a filming that stands out as being a highlight. Somehow, this time around, all three of those rumbled into one.

Body Pump 74 was my personal favourite filming masterclass, a highlight as far as enviornment/buzz went, and as far as previewing what is to come in the Pump world, the most exciting.

My friend Glen Stollery had a massive problem being unable to share the details of the release, and I find myself faced with the same problem. In fact, the first time I saw the release before filming, I was so excited about it that I was texting him DURING the class going OMG IT HAS THIS IN IT, and OMG IT HAS THAT IN IT. Seriously, imagine me in a tricep track, doing kickbacks with a plate in one hand and a cellphone in the other. THAT's how exciting this release is.

Let me quote a fantastic paragraph that Stollery wrote in his post:

Now I have no idea if Glen reads the Les Mills’ community forums, but recently there’s been a thread on there entitled "BP choreography likes/dislikes". As the name makes clear, in it, instructors and participants are stating a whole heap of various things they’d like to see more of, and less of in BP. Now, if Glen doesn’t read the forum he’s clearly psychic as I couldn’t help but smile as I checked a whole bunch of the suggestions off one after the other in BP74. I probably can’t go into specifics, but, if you were one of the people suggesting a change in musical style (and tempo!) for the back track, simplicity in the warm up, a purer lunge track then you’re gonna love 74...

I agree wholeheartedly. It's rare that I get this excited about a Pump release. I'm seriously way more excited about this release than... than...

*swallows*

I'm gonna say it...

I'm more excited about this release than JAM.

The other release I'm excited about is RPM 47, but I love RPM anyway so that's not a surprise. But I'm SO incredibly excited about this Pump release that I could easily ramble for hours about it. I'm already impatient for workshops and launches for it, and it feels like an age until I get to do it again.

There were three presenters - Glen and Susan, naturally, and Karen Russell from Australia. In my mind, it was a perfect presenting team. There wasn't any of the showbiz pizazz with make up and outfits like what we saw for say... BP71 & BP72 (remember those catsuits that Emma and Susan wore... oooooo...) - just functional sports gear, and it felt like a back to basics, no nonsense, we're here to work Let's Get Down To It class.

I already knew that the release was a good one, yet I was still just as excited about it. I was really interested to know what Stollery would think about it, since he's a Pump instructor, and at one time during the class he turned to me and said, "I feel like I've just run into a wall." It is one HARD release, and I think it is exactly what Pump needed.

Now, I had a little dig at some of the participants getting preferential treatment in the BS80 post, about how they managed to get up the front to be on he DVD well before anyone else was allowed onto the room.

Well, apparently, it does not take such an obscene amount of effort.

All it takes, is an obscene amount of yellow.

Observe:

And that's in natural light. In a dimmed room with black curtains to block out all of the sunlight, the effect was more like this.

[apologies for the bad photoshopping, but you get the idea]

The Pump presenters mentioned it more than once, and oh man, if you thought yellow was the main concern, you should've seen how RED his face went! I think it was Karen who at one point said, "That really is one yellow shirt... can you get that on camera? You gotta get it on camera, that is one yellow shirt."

Ahahaha, I was cracking up - Stollery likes to stay at the back to AVOID being amongst the masses of people who want to be on the DVD. I wonder if I should wear an RPM top at the front of the next Jam filming and see if that attracts any attention!

After the shoulder track, we were pretty much sick from how intense the workout was. I at least had seen the full release once before so knew how to adjust my weights. The end was in sight and I was relieved, because I was exhausted, and had just the abs track to go.

It was at that point that Glen said, "Guys... just so you know, we're going to be filming the biceps track again after abs."

There are two tracks in particular that I think are insanely hard in this release - and they are the lunges and the biceps. So if there was one track that I did NOT want to refilm, it was one of those.

Ordinarily, this sort of announcement would be met with a large groan from the crowd.

Instead, there was an astonished silence. You could almost feel the Please Tell Me You're Joking vibe in the air.

I hadn't noticed anything wrong in the biceps track... maybe it was something like one of the presenters having too little weight on, or who knows, someone's head in the way up the front. My suspicion was maybe they used the explicit version of the track when they should've used the clean version, but I didn't detect any difference in the music. I'd be interested to know those of you that get the Pump DVD, what sort of vibe you detect. The first time we did it, it was out of this world - we were pumped, we were OMFG THIS IS HAAAAARD, and the second time, I was gritting my teeth thinking "I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate you".

I got a bit of a shock in the cooldown. The first time I heard it, it was a song that reminded me of a particularly tough time - in short, a period of time where I was heartbroken. Whenever I hear that song, I lose a bit of my composure, and it caught me off guard in the first BP74 rehearsal I attended, and yes, I cried during it. I hope noone was in the class that day, because it was not glamorous. Yet, in the filming, a completely different song was used. And yet, Glen and Susan continued to use the original cooldown in the days afterwards in their normal classes. What's up with that? I'm slightly relieved though... but worried that it could turn up in a future release.

This was my favourite release of the day. Favourite of the quarter. It was great having Stollery and Stacy beside me for this class - most of the others whom I knew had gone downstairs for Jam rehearsal (and I already told you, I'm MUCH more excited about BP74), so it was great to have two awesome people beside me.

It took me right back to my first ever Les Mills class, where I was floored by how hard the workout was, and had a great person beside me, being Sarah-I. That vibe, that exhausted feeling, and having good people around you feeling exactly the same way... that is why I joined this gym.