Fitness Friday: Les Mills BODYJAM™

It’s Friday! And do you know what that means? Yes, it’s almost the weekend, but it’s also BODYJAM night!

It occured to me that I did my series on classes I tried at Fitness Fiesta – but what about the exercise that makes up my regular week?

Friday nights have been BodyJam nights for a few years now.  It’s a great way to get the weekend started!

And if you are boogying all night long then it’s great for getting you all limbered up and in the mood for a night on the tiles.

What does the website say?

BODYJAM™ is a dance workout designed around repetition – all you need is basic rhythm and coordination and a love of dance. Your instructor will help you master the moves….BODYJAM™ is for people of all levels of fitness, and we promise you’ll get fitter doing this class regularly.

Well, even Ben has made a habit of joining me at Friday-Jam, so perhaps basic rhythm isn’t necessary after all 🙂 (sorry, Love).

Unlike other Les Mills programs, where each track is a new routine (I’m thinking BodyStep, BodyCombat and BodyPump here) the moves in BodyJam build up over a number of tracks until you have a complete ‘routine’.  It is generally split into 5 sections (this is how I see it)

1. Warm up – over 2/3 tracks going over different moves per track
2. 1st block – build up a routine over the next few tracks
3. Recovery track – we usually get a quick drink break after the first main block before the recovery track – 1 song to get your heart rate back to normal
4. 2nd larger block – again, building up a number of moves in blocks over a number of tracks which you put together into a routine.
5. Cooldown

The centre I go to is currently doing BodyJam 68.  For those who don’t know, Les Mills programs are refreshed with new moves and music every 3 months.  Our current tracklist:

• Together Again – Janet Jackson
• The Boys – Nicki Minaj feat. Cassie
• Levels (Skrillex Remix) – Avicii
• Centre Of The Universe (Remode Edit) – Axwell
• Let’s Go (Swanky Tunes & Hard Rock Sofa Remix) – Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo
• Right Now (Sick Individuals Club Mix) – Rihanna feat. David Guetta
• Century – Fifteen Vital
• Tennis Court – Lorde
• Hey! – Showtek
• Turn Me On (David Guetta & Laidback Luke Remix) – David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj
• Booyah (Original) – Showtek feat. We Are Loud and Sonny Wilson
• Blood On The Leaves – Kanye West
• Where Have You Been (Hardwell Remix) – Rihanna
• Wake Me Up – Avicii

The cooldown has to be one of my favourites – but nothing will beat the cooldown of BodyJam 60 (OMG was it really that long ago!), which Ben and I did as our first dance Come On – who can tell me what the song was???

Ben didn’t even do BodyJam back then, so about 2 weeks before the wedding I managed to teach him some moves which we surprised our guests with 🙂

Anyway, back to BodyJam 68.

I have to say it’s not my favourite release.  It had a lot to live up to as 67 was awesome – I loved it.  But I have to say that I don’t think 68 ‘flows’ very well.   Personally, I’ve had trouble getting my heart rate high, meaning my cardio intensity and calorie burn are lower than I would expect from a BodyJam class.

I feel I have to bring my own energy – if I am ‘in the zone’ then it’s great, but if I’m tired, or just not ‘feeling it’ then the music and moves aren’t enough to light the spark.

I understand that all good Les Mills Instructors are encouraged to ‘repeat’ old releases, so I hope our class will be mixed up a bit soon.  There have been so many great releases in the past, I think it’s great for newer guys to try something different, and as someone who has been going to BodyJam since it started at our centre with about 10-15 people in the studio (to the 60+ people in our Sports Hall that it is now) I love to do old stuff and remember how I once struggled with moves that now come as second nature.

Have you done BodyJam?  If so what were your favourite releases/tracks?  Do you remember the cooldown for BodyJam 60?

Tagged: Body Jam, Body Jam 68, BodyJam, BodyJam68, Dance, Les Mills, review