The Star Trek Aliens' Workout (Body Pump)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Body Pump
Date:	05/12/08 (844 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Targets a wide range of muscle groups

Disadvantages: Messes up my hair

I have been doing Body Pump whenever and wherever I can for 4 years. I have taken classes in 4 countries on 3 continents, and whenever I move to a new place, it's the first thing I look for when finding a new gym. It is simply one of my favourite classes at the gym, and I never tire of it.

Body Pump is a weights class, which in itself is a funny thing to be. Traditionally, group exercise classes are for the girls and weights are for the boys in my experience, but Body Pump, like Body Combat, another class in the franchise, is one which has managed to unite the sexes and seems to have universal appeal. Classes are an hour long (though an "express" 45 minute version is also available) and are only available in gyms who have a license for the franchise. Instructors are specially trained (they have to submit a video of a real class they're leading before they get their final accreditation) and are supposed to dress in certain clothes, as with other classes in the Body Systems series. The gyms provide the, branded equipment you need, and you just have to show up with a water bottle, a towel, and a can-do attitude. The class has set choreography from which instructors cannot deviate. They also cannot change the order of the exercises since each one is matched to the track on the CD. Every few months a new Release is released, with brand new music, and the exercises change slightly to keep it fresh.

The first time I did Body Pump I thought it was a novel idea, to have a grunting, huffing weight lifting class set to Top 40 music, but I soon grew to adore it. You start the class by getting a stack of weights and making up your bar, adding disks to it at the level you require. The bars are easy to manage, and can fit a great stack of weights on, though I tend to end up with only two or three on each side. The first track is a warm-up where you quickly run through exercises for all the muscle groups you will be targeting, except the abs. Then you move on to the individual tracks which each work one muscle group for the duration of the song. Down-time is unavoidable because you have to add or reduce weights between each track (since, for example, legs are usually stronger than triceps) but after a few classes you soon become adept at whizzing off the place holders, changing the weights, and fastening them again.

Body Pump is a very simple class, because there are only a few movements to learn for each muscle group. The variation comes in the timing - 'up for 3/down for 1', and then 'up 2/down 2' for example. However the music is lively and changing from one muscle group to another every track keeps it from getting boring. I used to be a typical girl who just did cardio, no weights. Now I do some weight machines in the gym, but whenever I can I prefer to trade them for a Pump class. There's no way I will do an hour's weights on my own, nor will I work my way through every body part, but put me in a Pump class and I'll happily squat, lunge, catch and dip with the rest of them.

At first it can be hard to know which weights to use, but you soon learn (though usually the hard way, by going too heavy and flaking out half-way through the track). I tend to have two different weight options, one for legs/back and another, lighter one for arms, chest and shoulders, though some people change every track, adding or reducing by a little. I haven't managed to find a way to correlate my weights on my Pump bar with those on the machines in the gym, but it's not too hard to remember what you need in each place. If you go to Pump regularly you should be able to add weight after a while, as your muscles grow stronger - I am now using double what I started with, though am a long way off some of the scary-ass man-women in the class.

According to the official blurb, Pump can burn up to 600 calories per class, improve your strength (duh), improve your general fitness, shape and tone your muscles and improve bone density. It is very important to have correct form in this class since you are working with weights, and a good instructor will always correct you. I have also been to some gyms where they have a special 30 minute "technique" class before the main event, so newbies can learn the ropes at a more relaxed pace, because during the class there's not really time to stop and reposition. I took The Boy to his first class last Sunday and watching him struggle through some of the positions reminded me of what I was like when I first started - now I hardly have to think about it, and the moves come as second nature to me.

The moves you will generally find in any Pump release include squats and lunges (the latter sometimes on a step, to add intensity / the ouch factor). You will do press-ups (sometimes twice per class), bicep curls, triceps kick backs and something I was convinced for over a year was called a "Klingon Press" (it's actually a Clean and Press...I just had Star Trek on the brain at that point). I love these because they make me feel like a proper weight lifter as you "throw" and catch the weight. The penultimate section is always abs, which includes crunches, planks and bicycles, and then you stay lying on the floor and finish with a cool down and stretch

Despite the good calorie burn, Pump is not really an aerobic activity, and you spend most of the class standing on the same spot. In order to see results quickly, you need to combine it with cardio too, to burn off the layers of fat over your newly toned muscles. I like to combine Pump with a Body Combat (fighting) class, and doing them back to back followed by a trip for a pancake or waffle breakfast is quickly becoming my new Sunday morning ritual. It is recommended that you do no more than 3 Pump classes a week, and always have a recovery day in between. I tend to hurt about 24 hours after doing a Pump class, and if I don't it's a sign I've not used enough weights. I am particularly conscious of my chest and my bum (so is The Boy, but that's a different story) since these areas tend to get more a muscle hangover than my arms and back do.

My only grumble about the class is a girlie one. I don't like the way the few tracks that require you to be on your back (like the abs, the triceps, and the chest) are interspersed throughout the class, since they invariably mess up my hair. By the end of the class I look a mess anyway, so I don't really care, but when it's the 2nd or 3rd track, and I'm still looking relatively human, it bugs me that I have to juggle re-doing my hair with changing weights.

That said, I still think this is a great gym class that complements a typical gym routine of treadmill / elliptical trainer / rowing machine. The fact that you are stuck there for the hour makes you work harder than you might left to your own devices, and the music and choreography help make quite a boring activity (lifting weights) into a fun one. You do not have to be strong to join in - the baby weights are only 1kg each, and when slotted onto a bar, and balanced on your back, this feels like next to nothing. Though some may feel otherwise, I never see a competitive aspect to this class - sure, you can't help but see what weights others are using, but most tracks you're concentrating on your own form, or checking yourself out in the mirror, rather than sighing that sweaty, beefy man in the corner is lifting twice what you are.

Many gyms now offer these classes, and I hope this has given you a good overview of what to expect. If you've been considering dipping a toe into the weight-workout pool, I would fully recommend it, and Body Pump, with its neat choreography, funky music, and well-trained instructors, could be exactly the way to start.


For more info:

www.bodypump.com/

Summary: A great way to incorporate weight training into your gym routine