Sunday, February 13, 2011

Review: BodyAttack 71

So here I go! This is the first in a line of release reviews I'm going to be doing. Please keep in mind that the content below is my own personal opinion of the release. I welcome all feedback and acknowledge that everyone has personal tastes!

This release was marketed to us with a couple of different things in mind. First off, the teaser and Lisa's intro of the class mention "club atmosphere". Although Studio One was set up for a club feeling, only Track 9 immediately jumps to my mind as being particularly clubbish. Otherwise, most Attack music could arguably be heard in a club, since most of the songs are remixed and techno-ish sounding anyway. Second, it was stated that this is the first full release under the new 3D structure. The tracks were supposedly scripted and presented using hand-chosen cues and each dimension was supposed to feel different. As far as coaching, this wasn't always as obvious as I think Lisa would like. The choreography definitely shows the 3 dimensions this time around. I'll get back to that in a minute, but it is something to keep in mind while reading and reviewing.

My initial impressions were that this release is challenging. Both peak tracks and the upper body conditioning track are absolutely killer when done high. I had to train on this release for a good 2 months (once a week) to build my stamina enough to do it all high (I still can't do the upper body all high... more on that to come). With that said, there is plenty of innovation (Lisa is amazing) and the choreography shows the 3 different dimensions well. I really like most of the songs too!

Let's break it down:

  1. One Love - Let's start off with the music, since I'm definitely a song person. LOVE the song. The message is awesome and the song is dark and soldier-ish. This is a nice change for the warm-up. As far as choreography, I like the innovation with the walk-it-up/grapevine combo. I don't really have any complaints about this warm-up by itself. One thing I would say is that when comparing to others, the first sequence of choreography is identical to the Attack 70 warm-up... literally. From the beginning all the way until the step curls begin, it is identical. We've seen a lot of the first half of that sequence recently... 67, 69, 70 and 71 all have it. Of course, this is only really noticeable to the diehards, so it shouldn't be a problem really.
  2. Good Times - The song is OK. We have a new arm-line! When I first saw this, I thought "wow... the 80s are making a comeback." It's fun for variety though, and working in the corners is always fun. The song is a bit repetitive, but with the new arm-line, there's plenty of opportunity to get the feel for it.
  3. Mama Do - A fairly straightforward aerobic track. Personally, I don't care for the song. The choreography is pretty standard, save a 2-bounce/2-jack combo. This makes for easy work on technique improvement!
  4. Swing - Great song, great choreography, challenging, crowd favorite... I love it! One thing I would've done differently, is instead of doing 4 double hop curls and 4 skaters at the beginning, I would've written in 4 low-option skaters followed by 4 high skaters. This one is definitely a butt-kicker. Make sure you precue and stay on top of it. There are lots of quick changes.
  5. Gettin' Over You - HARD! HARD! HARD! I swear Lisa's new mission is to kick everyone's upper body into shape! The last few upper body tracks have been getting harder and harder! There's innovation here with the alternating one-arm planks. Unfortunately for me, my upper body is my weakest point, so I really feel these ones. One thing I like about it? No tricep pushups. :) Lisa does an amazing job at varying up upper body tracks.
  6. In My Head - Remix of the Jason Derulo hit. I love this song in Pump, so it's fun. This running track has 2 basic combos that repeat. Easy, fun, and interactive. I like!
  7. Would You Raise Your Hands? - It's teased as soccer inspired, but I don't really see that here. The song is really good, and the 4-step L-hop move is an awesome workout for the legs. The 3-step skaters at the end were a little random.
  8. On My Way - Motivating, inspiring, uplifting... everything a good interval track should be. I like the song, and again, the choreography is standard for a track 8. This is not bad. At the Q3 2010 quarterly I attended with Lisa Osborne, she voiced that she would never change or complicate the track 8 choreography. It's really intended as the core "aerobic" track, and is dedicated to those hardcore Jazzergetics/Attackers of old.
  9. Welcome To The Club - AWESOME!!! For sure the highlight of the release to me. One comment I got from some of the members who've done this release is that the choreography fit the music right on. I think this track displays that perfectly. It's a different feel for a track 9... you can see the sports dimension take over and it's very challenging. Can't say enough good about it!
  10. Upside Down - Another challenging leg track! One legged squat/pushback which requires work on balance and forces you to load the grounded leg. Then we have repeaters and a squat-lunge combo that's killer! The song is OK. Not as fun as 69 or 70, but good nonetheless. :)
  11. Winner - INNOVATION! I like the new combo a lot! The thing that's great about this track is the tempo is slow... much opposite of 70. It's nice to see different combinations of things work really well, as it provides lots of variety and allows you to challenge the muscle in a different way. Reps vs time spent in each rep, load vs stamina and etc.
  12. Sign Of A Victory - FINALLY!!! A really great cooldown song after the last few were more top 40 focused. I love the message of the song and the choreographed victory moves. There are a few non-standard stretches in this one. If you like the song, it's also in this quarter's Flow/Balance release. :)

Overall, 71 is challenging. It pushes you, but the music is still enjoyable enough to keep you on track. There's only a couple of tracks that I personally won't re-teach very often, but none that I'll scrap entirely. AND it has a couple that are now in my top 5!

Great job Lisa!

1 comment:

  1. So enjoyed this post....still trying to figure out what I think about the new release....keep writing....love your posts!!! Happy Monday! :)

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