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Well, there are very few members that can remember back as far as I can - but I have done the "whole release thing" in the past (from 29 through to 45 in consecutive classes over a 4 week period).

What I love about mixing is that you can define your own class and as an instructor I can push my members to do different things.

What's wrong with doing a class of all super hard tracks? Or all the easy ones for that matter? Have a class where you load up the squat weight and then use zero weight on the toughest lunge track ever to push hard on technique.

As an instructor, I'm there to guide my class toward improving - increasing their weight, getting better...if they want to. Then again, some people just come along for the fun of it! There's no right or wrong way here - except for those instructors who don't ever mix it up because, quite honestly, they're just too lazy to learn something new. No excuse for doing a release for the full 3 months in Pump.

I remain unconvinced that there's any particular training method designed for individual releases that will make a significant difference. At one time you could see a defined theme of choreo running through some releases (look at BP33 to see how they used held moves - 1/3 in squats, holds in biceps, triceps and abs)... but newer releases haven't had this type of theme.

What tends to happen more in Pump is that a different move comes along and we see it used ad nauseum over the next few releases...

Having recently read through the BP manual, here in Australia they reccommend teaching the whole release for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 4 to 6 weeks.  They reccommend to start mixing with past releases as long as you consider what Les Mills calls "The Musical Journey".  I understand the concept but in the long run I think that that it is open to interpretation.

I agree with the posting that says we won't pick tracks that we don't like and I would challenge anyone who would say they would play a particular track despite HATING it, other than during the launch period.  (In my case both the warm up and the lunge track from 65 went into my vault, never to come out again).  That would point to the advantages of doing a whole release.  I do also agree with ck1 that there's nothing wrong with mashing all the hardest tracks together and really hitting your clients hard although I'm not sure what would work at every timeslot or club.

Perhaps this is one of those things that we as instructors get to choose how to do on our own?  To be honest the fact that we're teaching a pre-choreographed programme limits us enough to what we can do, so I'll take advantage of the flexibility to mix and match as I please. :)  And maybe sometimes I will rescue an old release in it's entirety just to shake things up, who knows?

After all, it's not rocket science is it?

justcallmeryan:

Having recently read through the BP manual, here in Australia they reccommend teaching the whole release for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 4 to 6 weeks. 

 

Does everyone realise this applies to new releases? 

I do both I sometimes go back to a whole release or I mix and match 

One of my favs is 57

But I also have things like  my favs from 41,42,43

At the moment Im doing a mix of early 50s - what takes my mood really!

But I also look at whats coming up eg press ups in chest ?/ in 66 then I might throw that in - one week to prepare the class but not pick war machine  for shoulders ha ha ???

or mac raises - or if a new release had dips I might go back to doing triceps push ups.

I also have an 80s mix a christmas mix, a pump challenge  etc

Being creative is what I love about pump

I don't get complaints I explain what we are doing at the beginning - I also get the  odd request  - My  classes  love variety as Im the only instructor who is experienced and has a good back log of Cds

Variety is key to making us all happy! Not to brag, but after spending 3-4 wks MAXIMUM on a new release, I then rotate and teach a different release each week. I've been teaching since BP#33 and have over 20 releases in my BP repetoire. I like to rotate them all and end up teaching each release only about once every 6 -7 months. I keep track of which release I've taught on what date on a flow sheet. I usually teach the same release 2-3 times in a given week - all for different classes (ie Tues at one location & Thurs & Sat at a different location), and then I teach a different release the next week. Getting creative by mixing up releases takes  more time but is fun for the holidays or for a special theme... I did a bunch of tracks related to freedom for 4th of July, and I've put together mixes for Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, Cinco de Mayo...you get the picture.

Not all instructors have a repetoire of releases, but initially he/she should be working hard to learn & present each new release every 3 months to build up their library. Talk w/your instructor - she may be too new to have any other releases to teach. But if she's got others, she needs to rotate them to keep you interested, and yes, to offer you different physical challenges w/each class - otherwise your body adapts and you'll miss out on the full training effects - and as you stated your mind checks out which also minimizes the training effects.

How's this:

My local club in Switzerland has a policy of not mixing releases... AND only using the same release for 3 months. Therefore, only changing music directly after the quarterly. Apparently "the clients love it". Well, they only love what they know I guess!!!

As soon as I start working there, I will try and encourage them to allow me to mix music, as that's what keeps clients interested and fresh! Glen and the others didn't create the choreography for it to feature for 3 months and then get dusty in our cupboards.

I love asking my class which track they feel like today (at the start of the class) then I arrange every other track around that (so we don't do too many pushups, or dead rows or similar) to overuse certain muscles.

Does anyone else have this policy within their club? And what do we all think about using old releases??? I tend to go back no further than 54, as I don't want to use "old technology/choreography" that may have been ruled out as unsafe or whatever.

(Obviously if people don't have back releases this isn't possible... but as soon as you are passed as a trainee you can purchase the back releases and practise at home (and get that damn DVD sent in quicksmart!)

 

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health is far more important than a stripped body

Have u shown the club the recommendations by les mills about teaching for 2-4 weeks then mixing ??? thats the way its supposed to be done ..howeva i think with pump 6 weeks is a better time as it takes a good 6 weeks to get benefit out exercise..

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The More You Sweat In Practice The Less You Bleed In Battle..

[quote user="LaraFitness"

And what do we all think about using old releases??? I tend to go back no further than 54, as I don't want to use "old technology/choreography" that may have been ruled out as unsafe or whatever.]

I use "old" releases all the time. I just incorporate the updated modifications, training tips & cues. Some of the old stuff is too great to put away in a vault!

LaraFitness:

And what do we all think about using old releases??? I tend to go back no further than 54, as I don't want to use "old technology/choreography" that may have been ruled out as unsafe or whatever.

A few instructors in my city are National Trainers for BodyPump. When they were at the Global Summit, Susan Tolj said, "How many of you are using releases from the 30s and 40s in your classes?" Tons of trainers put up their hands. "What the *&%#! are you thinking?" she asked.

 According to her, we should not be using too many of the super old tracks. For starters, yes the workouts have evolved. But also, a lot of that music is super outdated to the point of being cheesy - dont ya think? I'm all for pulling out a good old *timeless* track - like Sweet Child O' Mine - but... Well I had to emergency-sub a BodyStep class recently; I hadn't taught Step in ages, and the only Conditioning track I could remember was "Jenny from the Block!" How embarrassed was I to be using that mouldy oldie...!

Sprinkling one or two real oldies in there is okay, but apparently the new message is that we should be sticking closer to the newer releases.

 

I can see both sides of using the new vs the old releases. Most of the music is pretty timeless and it's really nice to have different music & choreo to present. I teach a pretty vocal group and they always let me know when they've heard enough of the new release - and it' usually only after 2-3wks. I can't imagine doing the same release for over a month! Changing up the training as well as the music is more stimulating for our muscles & minds. I try to alternate new & old releases each week and always incorporate the new training tips or options when teaching the old releases. One of the things that makes my classes more appealing to my participants, is that they know it will be different every week. This keeps things fresh & exciting - even if it is old music & choreo. So many of the popular oldies are classics - like "Heard it through the Grapevine" and then so many of the rest of the songs aren't well known...so I really haven't had the problem of feeling cheesy or outdated!

Susan really said not to use some of the older tracks because they are 'outdated'.  Sorry but I don't understand that comment at all.  Isn't the shoulder track in the current release 66 a remix of the same song used for shoulders in release 38?  And I guess "Time after Time" is not a cheesy oldie because they decided to use it?  Brenda and I paid good money for these releases.  And there's absolutely nothing wrong with a lot of the songs.  Unless there's a move that is no longer safe, we're using as many of the songs as we can.  Our mixes usually include songs from old and new releases and we always take requests.  We have had older people request newer songs and younger people request older songs.  They all love the variety. 

Maybe it's my age, but if there comes a day when I'm forced to replace Van Halen's 'Jump" as a chest track with Pink's "I'm not dead", because it's too cheesy, it will time to put me out to pasture.

I adore Susan, but I completely disagree w/her reccommendation & comment about older releases being outdated. Not only is there an investment of $ but also of the time taken to learn and master each new release - I'm not about to just stop using the older ones - some of them are actually my favs!! I love having a library of releases to choose from; I can keep them safe/effective & updated by staying current w/my teaching & cueing.

That's my opinion & I'm sticking to it!!

Hold up! :)

Just so we're not all jumping all over Susan - that was more of an 'interpretation' of the suggestion she made at the Global Summit, not a direct quote. The word that was relayed to us, brought back from the Summit, was: by all means, chuck a few old tracks in there from time to time, but also try to stay current and be sure to use some new ones too. A lot of "old school" instructors (and I count myself in that group because I have a habit of doing this - maybe some of you can admit to it too?) will *always* go back to the 30s and 40s when it comes time to mix, sometimes altogether ignoring the 60s. Why ignore the current releases? To truly "mix it up" you would hopefully see tracks from all of the different BodyPump Eras...