Day 172

25 minutes on the cardio wave. Levels from 5 -7 ... normal la.

Day 171

Forgot to blog about Monday night Body Combat with Terence and Lorraine. But before that, did about 10 minutes on the stepper. I think I tried the thigh toner instead of the butt workout... either way it's only 10 minutes so I doubt it makes a difference, heh.

We're still on the new release... and found out from Terence that it *is* all about vampires and all that. He gave a more ... erm... vivid description on where the vampire parts come in. I'm only really feelin' it for We Will Survive and Our Solemn Hour.

Anyway, a really fun class, really started getting the groove of the tracks. Heck, we were even encouraged to sing along for "How Far We've Come". Nice track! Easy to follow chorey too.

I really don't feel very tired after a BC class, even though I swear I go "all out". :P Which is good!! I still have a long way to go before I achieve my target weight... T___T

Day 170

Ran on the strider for 40 minutes... not bad, stamina level still there. Did 6.6 miles.. or is it km? I never figured out which metric system the machine is using.

Anyways... that's all. Gotta conserve energy for tomorrow. (Monday night BC! Yeay!)

Day 169

Aloha everybody! I'm back from my working trip in Laos. I loved it there! Seriously, I'm now thinking about the feasibility of living & working in a different country every month. :O Thing is, I like money too much to just forget about commitments and travel around the world. Sigh... but living in Laos was really good! Better than my last trip to Cambodia!

I had serious doubts about being able to complete my usual Friday 3-classes-marathon, but I surprised myself when I did manage to do so! Of course, was dog tired at the end and I am *so* going to have a good sleep tonight. I could even feel butt and calve muscle pain like last time, but luckily it wasn't serious and it was towards the end of the class, so I just worked it off. ;)

Started with the new release from Body Jam with Jason and Clarissa (sp?). I really like the new releases from this quarter! For all 3 of the classes that I went for. Anyway, back to the story about Body Jam.... I can't remember ALL of it, til I do a few classes, but I super loved the choreo for Beautiful People, it is so awesome that we can dance to ROCK tracks, not just the club and house type. :) The tracks seem to require more and more stamina at each release... there's one squat and switch movement (macam Russian "Kalinka" dance) that works your thighs and ass like nothing else. T____T Oh, and one more new move that I like is the one where you jump in the air and attempt to click your heels together. I forgot what it's called, but that one is awesome too. I like jumping! Hahahaa.

Next was Body Step with Anthony. I was sooo lucky to stand at the back, behind these two other members who I think did Body Step training before. One of them, I have seen shadowing Anthony before, the other I tak kenal la. Anyway, so I could easily follow them whenever I got too confused (especially during the "round the world" bits) and I swear, if you looked at our class from outside, you wouldn't believe that the people inside are doing NEW releases. Everyone looks so pro, ok!!!! :3 I really like all the tracks for Body Step... really no complaints. The first track "Here I Come" already gets your heart pumping, and the "Live your Life" track towards the end is just so inspiring. I used to be avid Body Step member, then dropped out because of the "I don't want to make my calves any more muscular than they are" thought. Then joined back because it's honestly and truly one of the better Group-X classes for you to lose weight... I was really scared that I won't get into the groove again because seriously, Body Step ain't easy. But with new releases like these, I think I will definitely be going to Step classes more frequently! :b

Last, but not least, was Body Combat with James. He is so lucky, today he got many new female students, hahaha! Anyway, I was really dog tired at this point, but I was just too curious over how the new release would be. I watched the Les Mills preview before I left for Laos, and I think I must've watched the wrong one or something. They were talking about the theme being vampires, but doesn't seem very vampirish to me also. Maybe I'll go study the tracks later.

Warm up started with "Summer of 69", original by Bryan Adams in case you didn't know. Awesome! I didn't really like the second half of the warm up, but it's still ok. Next was "Beat It" by Fall Out Boy... erm.. it was alright.... ok I don't remember the rest. :x But I know that the choreography was pretty simple.... straightforward... ok la. I didn't really like the whole incorporation of Capoeira into BC, but not like it's a humongous turn-off. (The main reason being that Capoeira really needs a lot of floor space in order for you to do everything properly. It's damn not fun to do this on a crowded floor.. then again most of the jump kick tracks are like that too).

Really no complaints la.. it was a great workout day. It's always good to do new releases for the FIRST TIME with really good instructors... then you feel like you won't mind doing it for the next month or so. If it's not a good class, you end up avoiding that particular class for the next month or so. So thanks all for giving such a great introduction... hehehhee. (Ya ya, today's not the launch, but seemingly a launch to me)

Day 168

Gangster Challenge at the gym! Basically, just 1.5 hours of Body Combat with some of TF's top BC instructors (*drumrolllllll*) - Terence, Lorraine & Nicholas!


The class tarted with Lorraine & Nicholas taking one "team" each and then discussing with the members for the gang name and gang cheer. Hahaha, I think Lorraine prepared way beforehand (hey, it's not cheating - Nicholas should do his homework. :P) and our team name was "Gang Bang" and the team cheer goes something like "You Bang, I Bang, We Bang, We Bang Bang Bang, Go Gang Bang!!!" Wtf!!!!!!! Some more then I ditarik to lead the cheer which I have to say ... I did with too much enthusiasm. I started out quite malu to shout gangbang gangbang but in the end semua kinda combination of gang and bang also fly out. O_O"

Nicholas's team is called Mamak Gang and got no cheer (I think).
(Only a short sentence dedicated to him, haha!)

At first, I didn't think I would enjoy the class... I came for the sake of doing as much Combat as I can before I go to Laos for the next 2/3/4 weeks (my managers cannot make up their mind) and even though my flight is tomorrow, I just *HAD* to go for this class lah. Hello, they had been promoting it like one month in advance, and getting me all hyped up for it. :P Anyway... yeah... in the end I really enjoyed myself! Generally I don't like all those "hardcore" music, but it was a good mix... we had Somebody Told Me, Bad & Sexy ("You're so bad ... it's SEXY!!!" HAHAHAHAHA), Behind the Cow, Tribal Dance, Don't you Want to Feel, Good To Me (??), Crashed the Wedding, We're Not Gonna Take It (??, So What, etc etc. Actually, some of the songs are repeated from the "war" theme class previously. :) Gosh, can't believe that we did TWO circle tracks, TWO Muay Thai tracks and an unbelievable amount of tracks in general. :D And the best part? Don't really even feel exhausted at the end of the day. :3

At the end of the class, they gave away presents for most violent (???!!), best dressed gangster and something else I forgot la. Oh you know what? I think I should get most violent la, I'm sure I'm the only one who punched Terence in his stomach wtf. O_O Actually, I do feel really bad about it, but I'm also laughing like hell. In the first place, we were doing the Don't you wanna feel track, and there's all these punches to the ribs right. Then he go and stand in front of me, to be target practice. Then as my hand was going to punch him, I was like, "Why is Terence like, not even guarding his stomach. Is he trying to be like Houdini!!" Then I didn't want to be like the dude who caused Houdini's death, so I didn't punch so hard la, wtf.. but still. O_O WHAT ARE YOU DOING TERENCE!!

He said it's ok, just don't hit below the belt. O_O"

After that, we took pictures. This time, I purposely made some weird face since my pictures always come out weird anyway for group pics in theme classes. Hehe. :)

Day 167

Went for Body Combat ... and Alex C is back! :) Yay!

The trouble was... there was only 2 other pple in the class. T___T Okay, later another lady came so there were 3 of us, but the other lady was a BC instructor too. T____T

Alex asked us to face the back of the class and then he was on the floor as well to lead the way. Eh, damn not used to starting with the left leg first! O_O Totally made me all confused. And if I thought that Jack & Terence loves doing oldddd tracks, Alex C totally dug out some reallyyyyyyy old-time songs that had me beaming from ear to ear. Well, I don't remember all, but I LOVEEEE 5ive's If you're getting down. OMG! That is such a nice cardio track for the finale. Pleasseeeee do this one more often! :O

We also had Power of Love (AHEM), I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)... yeah , as Alex says, macam Valentine's Day theme class!

Okay, I gotta go. Great class!! Next time don't make us start left leg first please! Hahahha.

Day 165

The past few days, I have been a real sloth! Waking up way past noon, having "obligations" at home so I can't go out (obligations = looking after my virtual village, wtf). On Monday, I was supposed to visit Simon's mom... and after staring and staring at all the gym holiday schedules, I decided that I would just go for a quick weight training round. However, when I realised that I would be able to go for Body Combat, I sms-ed his mom to tell her that I would not be able to stay over at their house for that long after all, kekeke. Damn terrible.

Jack was teaching, and as I've written previously, he's one of the few instructors who does the old releases. Some of the songs he did : Stuck on You, Wasabi, Addicted to Love, Neckbreaker. *don't remember the rest* Well, guess what he said! X_X As he was doing the chorey for Addicted to Love, he said, "That's all there is to it, last time BC is that simple." Wahhhhh, he's insulting "old time" BC! How can!! *true supporter of older release BC comes out*

First of all, BC, whether old release or new release, to me is still erm... combat performance. It isn't real combat. If someone tries to knife you for your wallet / purse, you can't "combat" them to protect yourself. I just think that MOST of the newer release takes itself way, wayyyyy too seriously. "Old release" combat was more fun and had nicer tracks to listen to and work out to. If you ask anyone who has been doing BC for more than 2 years, they will definitely prefer "old release" combat to "new release" combat.

And no offense again, but I don't think old release combat was like, super easy. If it was super easy, then there should be no problem for new instructors to teach old release tracks as well. They would be able to learn the steps like that *snaps fingers*... to be able to teach a variety of tracks, not just the latest ones. But they don't... I wonder why. Maybe it's too boring for them since they don't do it with all the funny actions as well...

(Btw, yes, some of the steps in "newer releases" are harder... like the evasive side kick, the switch knee (which is not difficult, just confuses pple actually)... but some of the people in BC haven't "eased" into these moves... it's nice to teach them more basic (and fun!) tracks instead of just jumping to the difficult stuff... IMHO... who am I, just a participant ranting. No instructor qualifications also)

Anyway, this little rant was not targetted to be against anyone... no offense meant at all!! Just had to defend old release BC tracks since most of the newer instructors don't do it, and now the old timers are saying it's too simple. ;(

Before class : did 20 minutes on Cardio Wave. Hehehhe. Level 7 all the way, babeh. :)