Day 4 Part 1 - One Tribe

Day 4 is the second day of the filmings.
BODYPUMP 66 - 1500
BODYSTEP 72 - 1700
BODYVIVE 7 - 1830
BODYJAM 45 - 2000

It's 1:20am now as I'm writing this. We finished the second day of the filmings, wrapping up all the 8 LM programs. I have also just finished sorting all my photos and videos for the past 4 days. It's been a long, tiring but extremely fulfilling day. These few days have given me a deeper understanding of what Fitness Magic is all about, and how each program uniquely draws its participants. LM programs aren't just Pump and Combat, there's magic in each of the other programs too. In reflection, I feel sad that the focus on PF seems to be only BP and BC, and participants are missing out on so much!

Out of the 8 filmings, I've attended 6. There was a slight tinge of regret that I didn't participate in Bodyvive, but only spectated. But after the last one, Bodyjam, I was so damn glad that I didn't do it. I might have collapsed on the way back. My legs and ankles were so damn sore.

We started the day late again, not surprising from the late night we had from filming yesterday. Our first stop was to explore the area, and we went to New World supermarket near Victoria Market. The supermarket is about a 10min walk from Les Mills gym, and the gym is about 5-7 mins away from our accomodation. Stuff at the supermarket isn't exactly that cheap either.


A pic of Victoria markets. Nike is here, but the stuff is awfully expensive. The Nike free 5.0 which I usually buy goes for NZ$200 here, compared to the S$150 or so you can get from SG.

Later, we headed over to Sky City for lunch. We were quite silly not to have lunch there yesterday, we forgot we had paid NZ$250 and lunch is provided. But we didn't forget this time round. The food today was rather good. Salmon (my favourite), beef, and green curry chicken Thai style. I ate a lot, in anticipation of a long day ahead.

BP filming was next, and frankly, I'm somewhat disappointed with the organisation. Prior to coming here, I had registered and paid for BP filming, so it was quite frustrating to hear the staff say that response is overwhelming and the trainers would be given priority. That didn't sit down to well with me and the rest of the instructors who had registered.

To make things worse, we were made to write our names down on a piece of paper which was the waiting list. After the trainers were allowed in, they finally allowed the instructors in, but this time they didn't even refer to the waiting list, it was just on a whoever is nearest to the barricade goes in first.

Now to see how overwhelming response is, take a look at these pics.



The boards were stacked so closely to one another that it was kinda dangerous.

While waiting for the class to start, I made a friend from China. He's a personal trainer in FF Shanghai, and teaches BC, BP, BB and RPM. His name is Yiming.



The staged performance was hilarious. They had 3 tall guys dressed up as the Transformers. 2 of them were actually international instructors, believe one is from Sweden the other is from Canada. Please watch the two clips in order.

"DO NOT DROP YOUR WEIGHTS"


"BLOW UP SPA POOL AND A COFFEE MACHINE"

The music for BP66 is actually awesome. I had not really liked the music for the previous few releases but this one is really very strong. There were remixed tracks of Living on a Prayer, Time After Time, one Abba track and Sheryl Crow's Always On Your Side.

I thought the killer tracks were the triceps and the biceps and shoulders. Is it because I've not done BP in a long while? Or is it because I was tired after yesterday?

The crowd was hot and screaming and making noises. It was really very fun. The only thing was there was no space for the pushups given how close everything was.

After the class, took a pic with BP Team 61.


Throughout the past few classes, I kept hearing the two words 'One Tribe'. I thought it was very fitting that they used those words as all the instructors and trainers were so supportive of each other and the filmings. It really felt like one big family. I saw several presenters for other programs come attend BP, people like Dan, Oscar, Thomas attended as well.

Look out for those two words in the 03/2008 releases!

Day 2 - International Team Teach

Day 2 was a short day. I only woke up at 12:30pm because I was so damn tired. Half a day was wasted... not that I had planned to do much anyway, I had just planned to attend a BP class in the morning but unfortunately I missed it.

Went for a quick lunch, and walked around where I live, as well as the Queen Street area, it's a shopping street. There's nothing much to shop around in Auckland. Things are expensive and there's nothing much that caught my eye. Since we were early for the 3:10pm BB class, we checked out Sky City first. That's where the filmings (and Global Summit) will be held this time round.






Some pics of Viaduct Harbour, near where I am staying.



At Sky City, we saw Lisa and Fabio, and a bunch of other instructors whom I didn't know, rehearsing for BA61. They were in this cool blue and orange outfit. The location seemed a bit small though, for the 400 pple expected to attend the filmings. After that, we went back to grab our stuff and head for BB.

When we reached the gym, guess who I saw. Dan and Rach! I quickly took a photo with the 2 of them, knowing that on filming day, they would be swamped with people wanting to take photos with them. They seemed pretty rushed for time though, but they were nice to oblige with a couple of photos.



I attended BB alone, and had a nice surprise. It was international team-teach featuring Ann See and Sarah from UK, another instructor from NZ, and another one from Italy. Ben Tang from FF Singapore was here attending the class too too.


That's me at the bottom left hand corner doing the 'option'. I can't do the split.

BC after that turned out to be international TT too! This time it was Nathan, as well as 7 or 8 instructors from Team Brazil. Team Brazil were full of energy and passionate, and reminded me of Nathaniel and Gabby. The class was more rowdy than yesterday, but the general feel was that the Auckland crowd cum international instructors did not like to shout that much heh... I was in the front row with Ed, and Ben came forward and stood just behind us.


Ivens & Myself - Ivens presented BC3105


Nathan - the instructor for the class


Team Colombia - a really friendly and warm bunch!





Stayed for a few tracks for BP international TT, this time featuring 4 instructors from Team Sweden along 2 NZ instructors. I thought Sweden was really good. Good posture, good form, clear instructions. Their English is really superb. They even did a few tracks from BP65.




BP International TT featuring trainers from Team Sweden


Short clip of BP team in action


Ben Tang - master trainer from Singapore


Ed - who appeared in front row in BC30

All you BP fanatics, don't be jealous... I took a pic with Petter from BP62! He's like a mini-giant, really that big. Had a good chat with him, asked him about Sweden (yes they teach the programs in Swedish) and the reason why they're so fluent in English is because they learn it from third grade. He's not with Team Sweden for International TT as he's going to rest to prepare for BP66 filming. How exciting. He will be presenting T4 - Back track, and I will be attending the BP filming too.



After that, dropped by LM clothing store to try out more clothing. The zip-tops don't really fit me, but the Seal pants do. I've every intention to get myself a pair. It was getting late, near 6plus, so we rushed back to wait for PJ to drop by with some pizza for dinner!



Had a nice chat and really looking forward to catching him again. Looking forward to the filming tmr!

Day 1 Part 2 - First Bodycombat class in NZ

So I attended my first BC class in NZ - conducted by Mike and Nathan. There were many international instructors around for the class, and my rough estimate is that there were about 100 people in the room. The class was ok, I thought it could have been better had the crowd been more spontaneous. Heard from PJ that Auckland members don't usually make noise, unlike the crazy people in Singapore I know, but I certainly think shouting makes it more fun.

It was funny hearing Ed say 'Exhausted' after T8. After I started teaching, attending classes somehow doesn't seem to make me sweat that much since since I'm always busting my lungs out during my classes. What I didn't like was that there were a few occasions when they tried to subdue the crowd sometimes by saying 'shhh' or 'don't shout first'. I was thinking to myself, why control during level 1 and only shout during level 2? How about letting it out in level 1 and bringing it higher in level 2?


The class doing the circle track - Hymn



After the class, I stayed back to watch BP. Before BP started, managed to exchange a few words with PJ, and saw glimpses of some 'stars' who have appeared on previous DVDs. Yes, I saw Hernan (BC34), Ivens (BC31) and Oscar (BC31). Strangely, nobody looks like their size in the DVD! Oscar looks smaller and Ivens look bigger.

BP had 5 or 6 international presenters lined up. They did a preview of BP66. Here's some tracks for you guys. T2 is a remix of Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer. Not the same version used in BC24 though. I think the song's great to use... with its lyrics "Oh... halfway there... Oh..." BP really rocked. I guess BP is the most popular program in Auckland. The crowd was making so much more noise than the BC crowd. Yes, I actually feel that BP66 music is good after thinking that the music for the last few releases haven't been that good!






Managed to grab a pic with Hernan during the BP class, hehehe...


Left after T4, and on the way out, I actually took some time to explore the gym, and guess who I saw! Dan the Man. Doing his boxing training. He saw us looking across and winked back. Must be the BODYCOMBAT top I was wearing. Heehee.



Seems like quite a fulfilling day, really wanted to do BP, but thought I shouldn't exert myself so much after a 10hr flight... Hope the rest of my trip is good! =)