Les Mills BODYPUMP 100 class and my weekly workout recap

This weekend was full of all the good stuff in my world: teaching Les Mills BODYPUMP 100 group fitness classes, relaxing, sleeping, eating delicious food, hanging out with friends and feeling strong.

Les Mills BODYPUMP 100 release review and overview

Let’s start with the group fitness. I was lucky enough to teach the 100th release of BODYPUMP on Saturday, January 14th, a day when people across the world were experiencing the same workout at the same time, for the first time, which is super cool. When looking through my Instagram and Facebook feeds all weekend long, I could see people in all different languages sharing pictures of their respective launch classes at their home gyms. One tribe! And many of us were wearing our commemorative jersey …

For a little background, BODYPUMP has been around for 25 years, and this 100th release is a huge milestone for a group fitness program in the fitness industry (new releases come out every three months, consisting of new music and moves, all with the same standard format of 10 tracks). Les Mills BODYPUMP is the original barbell workout and is an amazing way to get lean, build muscle and lift weights in the group setting. And it’s special to me, because BODYPUMP is the first program that I ever got certified to teach more than seven years ago. (I trained on release 69.)

For all of the members and instructors, this weekend was a time to celebrate how this one workout brings so many people together in 100 countries every single day. People become addicted to the workout and then join the “Les Mills tribe” and commit to getting fit together. They get stronger. They lift more weight. They change their lives.

On Saturday morning, I team taught the release with two instructors, and I did the same thing on Sunday morning. On Saturday, I taught tracks 1, 2 and 3, which is the warm-up, squats and chest track. And on Sunday, I taught tracks 1, 5, and 6, which is the warm-up, triceps and biceps. I’ll be teaching the release in full on Tuesday morning solo in my regular BODYPUMP class at 6 a.m.

The music of the BODYPUMP 100 release is great, with Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s “This is What You Came For” opening the workout and setting the scene for what’s ahead. The squat track has an awesome beat and includes a triple-pulse at the bottom, which is pretty tough. The chest track has a totally cool song called “Bad Man,” which I have never heard before, and I will say that the chest track is perhaps the hardest chest track I can remember since I’ve been teaching, consisting of eight-bottom pulses, a new mid-grip and also a lot of bottom-pulse push-ups. The back track is strong, the triceps track is fun, set to “Me Too” and has my favorite move, the press-pullover combo. I would say that biceps is my favorite song of the release (“Who’s With Me“), and even though you don’t need a bar for it, it burns. (Dave came to take the workout on Saturday and said the biceps track is still haunting him and his very sore arms!) Lunges, shoulders and core are also good. Not a weak track in the house.

BODYPUMP 100 continues on the trend of the last few releases with more than 1,000 reps and a focus on bottom pulsing and mid-range pulsing to work the muscles into true fatigue quickly. This particular release has way more push-ups (in chest, triceps and shoulders) than others, so it’s a functional and athletic workout, which is harder than some releases in the past. I love it!

As far as the classes this weekend, they were PACKED. We had nearly 60 people in each class, and the three instructors brought our own personal Les Mills SMARTBARS so that we could save the rest of the equipment for more members. (Yes, I brought weights to the gym, and the humor of that was not lost on me or anyone who saw me walking through the parking lot in the early morning both days.) I loved teaching with such talented instructors, who all bring something a little different to the table. They are ROCKstars. Here’s a look at our Sunday crew after class, and after 2,000 reps in 24 hours …

And while I had practiced and prepared a decent amount, for the first time in the history of teaching launch release, I actually had a couple little mess-ups. Nothing that the members would notice on Saturday, but a little rift during Sunday in biceps for like five seconds, when I said singles and did 2/2s. We laughed it off and kept going, but being a perfectionist who NEVER messes up in the front of the group fitness room, I was a little upset with myself. Oh well! It didn’t change the effectiveness of the workout for anyone, and it was a good lesson to me that it’s okay to make a mistake.

Overall, I LOVE teaching BODYPUMP, I love the crowd at 24 Hour Fitness Walnut Creek Super Sport, and I LOVE that Les Mills is still producing such an well-rounded group program like BODYPUMP 25 years later. Finishing it out with a shot of our crew before the first workout of the weekend …

By the way, I’ve had a lot of requests for me to bring back my “release reviews,” and I don’t really plan to do that anytime soon. But with BODYPUMP 100 being so monumental, I wanted to give it some air time. Hope you enjoyed! And if you tried the workout this weekend, let me know your favorite track and overall thoughts in the comments.

You can see more Les Mills posts here and a BODYPUMP overview here.

The rest of the weekend

Other than teaching group fitness, I also hung out with Dave and Rudy, hit up yoga, did some chores and regular stuff, went to a dinner party at a friends’ house and a nice dinner out with Dave and took virtually no pictures worth sharing.

We really enjoyed having a full Sunday knowing that Monday was not a work day and are ready for a great week! 

My weekly workout recap

Here’s a look at all of my workouts lately, and surprise — they’re heavy on BODYPUMP …

Weekly Workouts

• Monday: Rest day
• Tuesday: Taught a one-hour BODYPUMP class, 6 a.m.
• Wednesday: Practiced BODYPUMP at home for 30 minutes, 8 a.m.
• Thursday: Practiced BODYPUMP at home for one hour, 6 p.m.
• Friday: Took a one-hour CP1 yoga class at CorePower, 5:30 p.m.
• Saturday: Taught a one-hour BODYPUMP class, 8 a.m.
• Sunday: Taught a one-hour BODYPUMP class, 8:30 a.m.

Overview of the week

If you would like an example of a week of workouts not to model, this would be it. Not a great week in terms of workout diversity. In an ideal world, you should not be doing BODYPUMP on consecutive days, because it’s a full-body resistance workout and your body needs time to rest. But due to teaching and practicing, I did a ton of it back to back. The good news is that I foam rolled before every PUMP session, took a full day off and did a nice gentle yoga session to help my body out. This upcoming week will be much more balanced!

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P.S. Thanks to Meghan for today’s “Week in Review” link-up. 

Questions of the day

Did you work out over the weekend? If so, what did you do?

What do you think of BODYPUMP 100?