Bringing it inside, keeping it inside. (Living Room Gym WORKOUT! Les Mills BodyCombat!)

May 23, 2021May 23, 2021That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Hello! I’d originally planned to write about our upcoming total lunar eclipse, but I figured it would make more sense to offer that post closer to the event, as in, the night before. Look for that post on Tuesday night!

Today, I’ve got a workout post that’s long overdue. I’d intended to do this about a year ago. I believe that I did post some sort of living-room workout before that, but I can’t find it now! As I recall, the notion was “this is to give you an idea of it, but I’ll come back with a real living-room workout post soon.” By “real,” I was thinking “with five thousand pics.” So here, finally, is that workout post.

We have NutritionalDirect to thank for this, as they featured one of my garage gym posts on their site last week. It was the nudge that I needed. I was reminded that many of you are here because of the garage gym/fitness/martial arts aspect of my blog, and I apologize for my neglect in this vein, my friends. This post is for you, as well as for anyone else who may be interested.

I got right to it. I saw my post on NutritionalDirect on Monday, and on Wednesday, I set up my phone to record my Les Mills BodyCombat workout.

The thing I’m happiest to show with this post is the sort of workout that can be done in a small space. BodyCombat is a dynamic, varied, and fast-paced workout, and it requires no equipment other than a yoga mat (if you have a hard floor). I do the full one-hour version in this little space between furniture and the window wall – we’re talking a 9′ x 8′ space, roughly.* I do have to make modifications when advancing in any direction, but that’s totally inconsequential. Anything that involves advancing to cover space can be done just as effectively in place!

*Granted, I’m 5′, 4″. A taller person would have a harder time in this small space, to be sure.

Please pay no mind to the wild fluctuations in lighting throughout the hour. I do not have an actual camera or lights for filming, so I’m working with daylight and my overhead light. Light fades in and out. The lower I am to the floor, the darker it gets.

Let’s get into it!

side kick (Why do I never pivot my standing foot enough?!)

some kind of plyo – I think this is just leaping up from a shoot

sprints – impossible to capture in a still from a video, but for what it’s worth!

jump kick in process – limited by space overhead (ceiling fan) and in front (wall), but still.

[NOTE: my guard in all of the above Muay Thai pics is WRONG! I know better. It’s good to review my form like this every once in a while]

running man knees (lame-ass pic, I know, but that’s what was happening here.)

back lifts/raises/supermans/whatever they’re called

Jumping in to switch legs during the stretching

OG readers, remember “walking-off” pics at the end of garage gym workout posts? This is the living-room version, I guess. I didn’t have far to walk!

If you’re interested in doing this Les Mills BodyCombat workout (this one was release #64) or any of the other hundreds offered by Les Mills, click here to explore Les Mills On Demand. Les Mills’ workouts are world-class. They are amazing. Every workout I do is on this app!

Happy new week to you, my friends!

Get back on the ground! Les Mills Body Combat #70 (new release informal review).

January 24, 2017August 4, 2018That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Last week, we did Les Mills Body Combat release #70 for the first time. You knew I would come here to share my thoughts, right? heheh.

The work-out:

There’s a big difference between #70 and some of the older Body Combat releases I’ve seen; if you’re a Body Combat purist, you may not be thrilled with the change: #70 deviates from the norm by moving in the direction of a greater fighting condition focus.

For the first time that I’ve seen, there are three warm-up tracks, rather than two. The additional warm-up track is conditioning-intense. There’s a lot of core-work in this release.

There’s a heavier emphasis on muscle endurance in #70. It includes more ground-work… push-ups, mountain climbers, bear crawls, and hip escapes (kick-throughs)… moves we’ve seen in previous releases, but not all in the same release, and not so much in the warm-up and throughout the tracks. #70 also has you doing squats and sprints. You don’t get into fighting condition by just striking and kicking, after all. Les Mills is amping it up.

There’s also the addition of a boxing defense technique I haven’t seen in Body Combat yet: the parry (in track 4).

The music: #70 moves away from the usual dub-step/trap-heavy commercial song remix tracklist. #70’s tracklist is more like, Les Mills Went to the Club and a Rave and Got Inspired. It’s 50 minutes of electronica (EDM, electronic house, drum & bass, hardcore), plus a little hip-hop. Tempos vary to accompany the choreography, of course, but overall, this tracklist is like there’s a DJ in the house.

Electronic music tends to be a love or hate thing, so if you’re not a fan, you may not feel as motivated by #70’s tracklist. If that’s the case, you can use it as an opportunity to focus on form even more. This music isn’t so much do I like this song as it is about the drive behind it.

“Samurai – Honor” (original art by David Lozeau)

(Yes, this is the third time I’ve posted a pic of this print since Callaghan gave me the print a month ago. It’s my favorite of all the gifts he’s given me, period.)

I’ve decided that this particular Samurai ancestor is my spirit animal.

*****

Les Mills Body Combat 70

Track 1a: Upper-body warm-up [Party Favor – Bust ‘Em]

Music: EDM

The workout: Upper-body warm-up with combinations of the usual punches, 1-2-3-4. Jumping jacks. too.

Track 1b: Lower-body warm-up [Hardwell & W&W feat. Fatman Scoop – Don’t Stop The Madness]

Music: Electro house

The workout: Again, combinations of typical lower-body moves: hip rolls and front, roundhouse, side, and back kicks.

Track 1c: Integrated warm-up [Nero – The Thrill]

Music: Electronic. (Slower tempo, good for the core work in this track)

The workout: Bear crawls, hip escapes (kick-throughs), 2-part push-ups.

Track 2: Combat 1 [Hardwell & Showtek – How We Do]

Music: Electronic/EDM

The workout: Lower/upper-body conditioning with typical kicking and striking combinations. Also, sprints.

Track 3: Power Training 1 [Sigma ft. Labrinth – Higher]

Music: Drum & Bass

The workout: (Upper-body) Slow-tempo uppercuts from a front stance (modified horse), involving more upper-body lateral movement than usual. Then a tempo-increase for typical punching combinations. Then back to the slow tempo, but the lateral move is with ~~hooks,~~ rather than upper-cuts. [EDA: There are no hooks! Just uppercuts, jabs, and power jabs. The power jabs are added last, rather than hooks. Apologies for the goof!!]

Track 4: Combat 2 [Knife Party & Tom Staar – Kraken]

Music: Electronic

The workout: (Lower-body/upper-body) Knees and kicks building to jump kicks. Then a striking combination that finishes with a parry (defense) before launching into a jump kick.

Track 5: Power Training 2 [Rudiment – Not Giving In]

Music: Drum & Bass

The workout: (Conditioning) Ground-work: 2-part push-ups, mountain-climbers, bear crawls, more mountain-climbers. Then up on your feet for sprints in ascending sets.

Track 6: Combat 3 [L-FRESH The LION – 1 in 100,000]

Music: Hip-hop/Electronica/Drum and Bass

The workout: (Plyomectric lower-body conditioning) Alternating front kicks jumping down to squats. Then just jumping out to wide squats with pulses, alternating hands to ground.

Track 7: Muay Thai [(UK Hardcore) Re-Con & Klubfiller – Freak]

Music: Hardcore/EDM

The workout: Usual Muay Thai combination (jab/cross/ascending elbow, two back knees, option to make the second knee a jump). Then running-man knees. I’ve seen more involved Muay Thai tracks than this, but it’s still a good track, and your legs are already dead by the time you get to it, anyway.

Track 8: Power Training 3 [(DnB) – Feint – We Won’t Be Alone (feat. Laura Brehm) (Monstercat Release)]

Music: Drum & Bass

The workout: The usual upper-body finisher with jabs/crosses/jump jabs/power hooks.

Track 9: Conditioning [Don’t Let Me Down- The Chainsmokers ft. Daya ]

Music: Dance/EDM (slower tempo)

The workout: (Abs) Typical combination of crunches/leg extensions

Track 10: Cool-down [I need a dollar- Aloe Blacc]

Music: Hip-hop

The workout: Stretching.

In summary: LOVE IT. #70 is a conditioning-heavy, cardio kickboxing extravaganza of punishment with a soundtrack that works well, too. Can’t wait to see what Les Mills does with #71!

I started Les Mills Body Pump. (First impressions report!)

October 28, 2016August 4, 2018That Asian-Looking Chick 2 Comments

In workout/fitness news: After over two years of whispering tempting testimonials into my ear, my Body Combat crew finally succeeded in dragging me over to the dark side: I started Les Mills Body Pump this week! I added two Pump classes to my weekly schedule when it suddenly hit me that self-motivated weight-training was never going to happen (it only took me a year to figure this out, can you believe it).

Also (I had to remind myself), I can make my own schedule, so morning classes during the week are totally doable.

And! By the luck of the schedule at my gym, I have a Pump instructor who’s as kick-ass as the class, itself.

Les Mills BODYPUMP [pic from lesmillsdotcom]

Now I have a concrete workout schedule of five days a week… three Combats, and two Pumps. [::rejoices::] …plus whenever I can get into the garage.

After this week’s two Pump classes, I’m already hooked! I’d done the class one time before, over two years ago (before we started Combat), but I wasn’t on board for various reasons. (Namely, laziness.)

I felt tight in my upper body after the first class, so I expected to be incapacitated the next day, but it wasn’t that bad. My legs were super sore, and my biceps were straight-up mangled. I didn’t feel anything in my chest, back, shoulders, or triceps. I took four Advil for my legs and biceps before going to Combat and managed to get through without too much trouble.

Back in Pump the day after that – yesterday – I almost didn’t make it through the biceps track, because my bi’s were still struggling to recover from Tuesday… I mean, I probably only actually did 65-70% of the track. I had to rest a lot. My legs were mostly back to normal (thanks to Combat the night before).

I. Am. Loving. It.

Izzy the Trainer advised me to start out with just 5 lb plates on the barbell, which was excellent… she saved me the hassle of fumbling with weights in an unfamiliar format when I had no idea what those weights should be! Now that I’ve done the class twice, I know that I definitely need to increase my weights for chest, back, shoulders, and triceps. I’m not increasing the weight for biceps. I’m not increasing for legs yet, either, because I like going deep in my squats, and it’s already a challenge maintaining that depth during the faster bottom half reps/pulses.

As for the lunges, I’m thinking of dropping down to even lower weights, or using no weight at all, so I can optimize my form and depth. I have a hard time modifying my knock-knees in bent-knee lunge position; it makes me somewhat unstable. If I take it slow, I can adjust my feet and sink down low, but there’s usually no time in class, so I end up doing shallow lunges. (FUN FACT: I was late to walk and wore metal leg braces up to my hips as a child… thankfully. The braces corrected things quite a bit. No complaining here!) I’ll probably start next week with no weight for the lunges, and then work my way up gradually as my muscles adapt.

Some of my first-impression thoughts during my first class:

YAY there’s a warm-up *** Clean and press? What? Wait!! How??? *** Awesome, legs are done. *** [::deep breath::] OMG How long was I holding my breath? – Can’t believe I actually forgot to breathe. *** HOLD UP all that was just the warm-up!! *** Sweat dripping down my elbows. Weird. *** Starting with legs, good. Then they’ll be done. *** Loving the burn from these low-squat pulses!!! *** More sweat dripping down the inside of my arms to my elbows. *** […] *** Okay I totally need a remedial class in clean and press. *** I’m not feeling anything in my back – this is too easy – am I doing this right?? *** Skull-crushers, cool *** Holy crap What is even happening to my biceps right now *** Legs AGAIN?! *** Make sure we’re successful in this lunge track, she said. – I am NOT being successful in this lunge track. *** Squats, YES. – These I can do! *** Shoulders, hell yeah *** This ab track though!!!! LOVE IT. *** Okay – It’s over and we only did a thousand clean and presses and I had no idea how to do them but I think I faked it pretty well.

…After the second class, I had the clean and presses down.

Good times!!

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