The Body Attack Group Effect

Dear Body Attacker,

Do you want to learn a simple trick you can do to boost your performance and push you to go the extra mile every time you workout?

Its not coffee. Not Alaxan. Non of those expensive pre-workout wheyprotein or energy gels. It’s something as simple as joining a group class!

Les Mills calls this the “Group Effect.”

It's a similar concept in psychology called "social facilitation" where in scientist observed in an experiment "a significant improvement in performance produced by the mere presence of others’.

On your own, it’s easier to stop when the going gets hard.
In a group, you'll gain strength from working out with others and you'll motivate each other to work harder, and push yourself just a little more.

This is one of the main essence of Body Attack. Shared energy and connection.
As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, the most effective way to get motivation, inspiration and results is by making exercise fun and not a chore.




Surround yourself with like minded people, bring your friends along to a Body Attack Class, have fun working out to chart-topping music and experience the Body Attack group effect!

Let's sweat together!

Erik

Body Attack Plyometric Lunges: The Bridge Between Strength And Power!

Dear Body Attacker,

Do you want to be strong or fast? Why not choose both?

Squats, deadlifts and snatches are a staple of any good training program if you want to build strength and explosiveness.

Although training squats and deadlifts with heavy weights will give you a base of strength you need and improve your efficiency in the way you move, in can only and increase your speed to a certain point.

here's what a bar bending deadlift looks like... complete with angry face and popping veins

If you want to work on explosiveness, the best exercise to help you with it are things like olympic lifts (clean and jerk, barbel snatches), ballistic kettlebell moves (swings and snatches) and plyometrics. However, these moves are fairly intense and can tax not just your muscles but also the nervous system.

That’s why one of my favorite Body Attack move is the Plyometric Lunge. The lunge is the key that will unlock your strength (for a heavier squat and deadlift) and develop your explosiveness (higher jumps and speed).

It is the bridge between strength and power.

You don’t just want to be strong. We want to be fast too. The ability to explode, sprint and change directions like a ninja.

The Body Attack plyo lunge is great for explosiveness but not as hard and taxing as a box jump or a full-on tuck jump. You'll gain more strength weight training with deadlifts or squats but when it comes to delivering the benefits of speed and power, plyo lunges will take you a step further.

Because you drop down and have to explode going up, your body has to learn to absorb force and redirect it which is GREAT for developing power in a way that is easy to learn and not to tough on the joints.

If all you want in life is to look and feel good, get the most out of life that you can and have no plans of competing in the Olympics anytime soon, then lunges are a great tool to increase your speed and power without costing a lot of time or energy.

However if you're training to beat Goku and could use a little more gains in speed and power, lunges provide a great transition into more intense tools like olympic lifts and plyometrics.

So the next time we do some lunges in track 4, keep your front knee out, back straight, chest up and feel the strength and power in your glutes and your legs!

Feel awesome knowing every lunge is a step further towards a functional, strong and fit body attack booty!

Happy lunges, Erik

How to start a Body Attack a habit and take your fitness to the next level effortlessly.

Dear Body Attacker,

How are your fitness resolutions? 

The first month of the year is almost over and most people have already fallen off their promises and new year resolutions. Don't let that happen to you!!!

How to make your new year resolutions stick

“Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going…” This quote written on the walls of Fitness First Wynsum Ortigas many years ago stuck with me and it still rings true today.


In truth, there’s no substitute for hard work and discipline, in your fitness goals or any goals for that matter, you have to put in the work, sweat hard and you have to do it on a consistent basis.

The secret lies in making “work” fun for you and turning it into a habit so it doesn’t require discipline, or willpower for you to do it regularly. That’s why the Les Mills group exercises worked so well for me when I was starting on my fitness journey.

It was fun, and it turned into a habit. Instead of dreading at the thought of the workout, it was something that I would look forward to every time I would go to the gym

Become a Body Attack athlete by building a Body Attack habit. 

Now we know what Connor Mc Gregor has been up to... Body Attack secret training! 

In any training program, there’s the nitty gritty of planning the progression, recovery and varying levels of intensity and volume. But none of these stuff will work if you don’t actually show up and workout on a regular basis and not just on the first month of the year.  Have fun, enjoy the workout, feel the music and  don’t worry about dialing up the intensity. The first step is making it a habit.

SMART START - What’s the secret to building a habit? Start with small doses. “Too many people make the mistake of leaping into exercise when baby steps are what’s needed,” says Bryce Hastings, Les Mills Head of Research. If it’s your first time, keep these in mind:

Start slow – Don’t push your body too soon, stop your workout when things are feeling tough.

Build gradually – Aim towards staying for a full workout as your fitness builds

If you want to start a habit of flossing your teeth every night, Psychologist Bj Fogg recommends starting by flossing just one or two of your teeth.

With the BODY ATTACK SMART START format, you can just do half the class (tracks 1 to 5) and you will still get the benefits of agility and mixed impact training (track 2), high intensity interval training ( track 4),  and athletic strength training in (Track 5). You still get high and happy from the endorphin rush of a good workout and experience the fun and feel good music in every Body Attack release.

How to make the most out of your Body Attack workout when doing the low impact options

Body Attack is for everyone. Whatever your fitness level, Body Attack will unleash the inner athlete inside of you.

In Body Attack, there are many ways to tone down the intensity. You can:

Take away the complexity - Most of the Body Attack tracks will have your arms and feet moving  in a contralateral way. A contralateral movement pertains to exercising muscles on opposite sides of the body from one another and this is important for developing your core and stabilizer muscles and it improves functional fitness.

To make it easier, you can focus on the footwork and take away the arm movements and with time, the arm movements will come naturally.

Tone down the intensity and take away the impact- Plyometric moves like tuck jumps and burpees burn a lot of calories as it involves moving your whole body with a fair amount of intensity. Even the Body Attack Jump Jacks will have your legs, arms, lungs and heart pumping hard.

If you need to recover or if you find your form and technique starting to suffer, you can switch to the low impact options shown by your instructor in every track. It’s actually called “low impact” options and not “easy option” because it is not necessarily easier but it shifts the focus of the moves to a different aspect of the workout.

The options let you focus on the form, technique and alignment of the exercise  by toning down the intensity and taking away the jumps. This will help you ingrain the functional movement patterns in Body Attack deep down into your muscle memory and give you a foundation of strength and balance when you choose to do switch to including the plyometric moves.

Start small and keep doing it until it becomes automatic! Make Body Attack a habit!


KIA ORA!

Erik