[NovaFitMom]

So after a launch and the allotted time has passed, how frequently do you all change out your tracks? We have some who change EVERY SONG EVERY CLASS and some who change a few songs and keep those for several classes and change out; my thought is that if you keep something for a small bit of time (but not too long so people can be challenged and not plateau) then they can get the most benefit because they have an idea of what is coming and can work hard. Your thoughts?

[Asterix]

When I get bored with the release I change tracks cos the class have got bored as well.

Mind on the last release of BP I didn't like the music for the shoulders; couldn't bear to listen to it to learn so I just dug out an old fave, I used Rock Star from BP57 which was march 06 and the class loved it. It was like having an old frend back.

I guess it is why you are changing the tracks, some are too easy, some you don't like (bring on the cheesy euro pop please). I guess it is what you are happy teaching and your class likes. Sometimes I mix in old stuff which they love other times I keep the current release and amend the choro a bit - chuck in some harder moves, take out the pause and my fave is to increase the speed of the music. They don't notice the latter untill the end they they are either silent with shock or quite vocal :biggrin:

I do let them know if I am changing the track (mostly) and they adjust weights accordingly. I think it keeps them challenged

[TP]

Those who change all songs every time are not thinking about their participants. They are only thinking of themselves. Shame.

[Special]

Asterix, on Aug 29 2008, 04:19 AM, said:

other times I keep the current release and amend the choro a bit - chuck in some harder moves, take out the pause and my fave is to increase the speed of the music.

I am glad I don't go to your classes. That shit bugs the crap out of me.

TP, on Sep 4 2008, 12:03 AM, said:

Those who change all songs every time are not thinking about their participants. They are only thinking of themselves. Shame.

Why do you say that? You often make very definite statements without explaining yourself, or without possibly knowing the full story. Why is it not possible that an Instructor is doing it because that is exactly what his participants want?

What benefit does an Instructor get from changing each track? More learning to do?


I know lots of participant who like the music changed regularly. I don't know any instructor that changes every track each week, but I have never once heard a participant complain about too much variety.
I have heard the opposite a whole lot though. Members complaining that the class gets boring if it is the same songs week after week.

If I had the choice between an Instructor who changed every song each week, or one that taught the same mix for over a month, it would be a very easy decision. It's not like Pump is hard to follow.

[kt74]

TP, on Sep 3 2008, 03:03 PM, said:

Those who change all songs every time are not thinking about their participants. They are only thinking of themselves. Shame.

Hello? Why?

After the initial 4-5 week launch period, I do a different mix every week. Why do I do that? For regular and expert members, it keeps them interested and keeps them on their toes. If there is a song (or move - e.g. tricep dips) they don't like, it will be changed the following week. For novice members, I *always* mention before each track whether it will be particularly hard or easy or long or short, and therefore what type of weight they should use (a little more or a little less than normal)

It also means I can take special requests (e.g. more dips! or to repeat a certain song; I have even done mixes of favourites for members leaving or birthdays) or do theme classes - e.g. Valentine's, Halloween, Olympics, Eurovision. In fact I even check that I do something different from my cover instructors - e.g. if I know that my cover likes playing tracks from the BP40s, then I might do a mix from the BP50s the following week

In addition, almost all of my clubs also have in-house instructors for some Pump classes, most of whom only do the newest release - mainly because they are newer or less confident with changing CDs. And that's also perfectly fine in my book! Members can mix and match my class with their classes depending on their mood and how they like to train

If I was only thinking of myself, I'd do the same thing for 3 months - why waste all that time learning, preparing and mixing a new selection every week?!

[TP]

For special and kt74:

If you change ALL the tracks every week, which means that a participant does the same chorry one once or twice, it is really decreasing the effect of the training. If you have new tracks everytime you come to a class, you cannot use the weights effectively. You don't know what's the optimal weight for you if you haven't done the track before. You don't progress as you would if you do the same excercise more times.

[Special]

From what I have seen, 90% of participant use the same weight no matter what the track (as in they have a set tricep weight and it is not going to change, they use the same weight for squats each week.)
Changing the track is not making any difference to their training effect. The benefit they get is slightly different moves each week. Plus, a lot of people like variety... no point worrying about their training effect if they are so bored they don't turn up.
And regular/serious Pumpers (the ones that like to challenge themselves) get to know a whole lot of the songs anyway and know where to push themselves.

Like kt74 said, she advises her class what the track involves. That's what any half decent Instructor would do.

I am not trying to convince every instructor to change every week because I don't think you need to, but I hardly think it is a selfish thing to do.

[Placebo]

I don't change every track when I start to mix again. My thing is usually to do with the fact that at most of my gyms there is a sound system with only one CD player (ie, not a multiple turntable that I can program), an old system that I can't use mp3 technology on, or they have a stupid DVD player that has to 'think' about things for 30secs before 'loading' the song.

I usually pick a release and run with it for about 3-4wks, then change to another. But I've really not got a lot of past releases to choose from myself (having only trained on 63), so I'm kind of limited in that respect.

The only time I change the set choreography is when my brain takes a little 'holiday' and I make a mistake.

[Bron Gondwana]

Definitely agree with you there Placebo. I have been shadowing/team teaching a lunchtime class in the city (45 min) for the last little while, and that one's tricky, because people need to get back to work and we often start late because the previous class ran over time. Our solution is generally to cut the abs track in half and shorten the cooldown a little as well, while advising people to have an additional stretch back at their desks.

I had to do that today with the first time this class had seen 67, so I did the first set of oblique crunches and then flipped them over, took a decent time to get set up and even had time to throw in a demo of the hover crunch before taking them through the full set of hover crunches and the pushup ending. It didn't _quite_ fit the music, but it worked out pretty well

If I had time though, there's no way I'd deliberately mess with the choreography - there's plenty of choices without breaks or with lots of bottom halves if that's where you want to take the class. If you mess with the choreography you get one of:

a) people who know it well and get pissed at you for breaking their brain; or
people who don't know either way.

( tend to be fairly new participants who are busy concentrating on learning their moves anyway, and they are the ones who really need that break so they can finish the class with good form and feel good about themselves.

In short, changing the choreography to a track is a bad idea.

[TP]

OK. Feels so futile trying to explain things to someone who absolutely has no knowledge about training. When changing tracks every time, it is causing the fact that participants cannot increase their weights and then they tend to use the same weights every time. When you do the same excersise over and over, you can gradually use more weights for that excercise.

[kt74]

TP, on Sep 4 2008, 08:26 AM, said:

OK. Feels so futile trying to explain things to someone who absolutely has no knowledge about training. When changing tracks every time, it is causing the fact that participants cannot increase their weights and then they tend to use the same weights every time. When you do the same excersise over and over, you can gradually use more weights for that excercise.

...and that's what happens when a new release is launched. Do the new release for 4-5 weeks, and hopefully other instructors are doing the same. Members who are doing 3-4 Pump classes a week (as I used to do when I was a member) will soon have done the new release 10-15 times at least. They are then bored of the music, used to the exercises, and their weight increases have plateaued

Members will still get to do the new release with newer instructors in other timeslots, if that's what they prefer. But in my classes I mix so that regular members have a new challenge

They don't stay with the same weights each week, because I tell them to use more or less than normal. e.g. when I taught BP29 the other week, I challenged them all to add at least 2.5k to their usual tricep weight (because there are no extensions), but to go easier on their chest weight (because there is no break); then the following week I might do an easier chest track with press ups (BP34, say) and a tricep track with lots of extensions (BP47 or BP51); a tough lunge track one week (BP44 or BP62) and an easy one the following week (BP37). Every week there is always a different challenge

TP, it's not always just about adding more weight every class - you can do that in the weights room. My members want fun, variety, new challenges and a different reason to come to my class every week

[Special]

TP, on Sep 4 2008, 05:26 PM, said:

OK. Feels so futile trying to explain things to someone who absolutely has no knowledge about training. When changing tracks every time, it is causing the fact that participants cannot increase their weights and then they tend to use the same weights every time. When you do the same excersise over and over, you can gradually use more weights for that excercise.

It's futile discussing anything with you because you seem incapable of thinking outside your tiny little box. I'm not sure why I bothered now.
If the only goal is increasing weights, why ever change the tracks???
One can understand training, and also take time to understand their participants and what they like. Like I said earlier, there is no point in worrying about adding weight if there are no participants in your class because they find it boring as bat-shit.

Personally, I teach 1/2 to 2/3 the same as the week before, then change up some tracks. It seems to be an OK balance of familiarity allowing them to switch off a bit and just work on pushing themselves, and then some new music and variety.

You say you need to do the same exercise over and over to increase the weight.... have you seen Pump choreography?
Even with different songs, the moves are the same 80% of the time. Do your muscles know they are doing squats to a different song? I doubt it.


btw - when I gave the example of most members sticking with the same weight, that was based on what I have seen in other Instructors classes: Instructors that very rarely mix.
So you were wrong.... that's not what's causing them to stick with the same weight. Feel free to assume what you like though, I am going to continue to do what makes my class happiest.

[TP]

kt74, on Sep 4 2008, 01:47 PM, said:

...and that's what happens when a new release is launched. Do the new release for 4-5 weeks, and hopefully other instructors are doing the same. Members who are doing 3-4 Pump classes a week (as I used to do when I was a member) will soon have done the new release 10-15 times at least. They are then bored of the music, used to the exercises, and their weight increases have plateaued

That's not the type of participant that we should refer to. Nobody should do more than 2 bodypump classes per week. If they get bored, they should watch the mirror. Why not try to get the variety by doing something else besides the bodypump.

If you mix every week, then NORMAL participants gets to do same mix only once or twice.

kt74, on Sep 4 2008, 01:47 PM, said:

TP, it's not always just about adding more weight every class - you can do that in the weights room. My members want fun, variety, new challenges and a different reason to come to my class every week

I didn't say that they should increase weights everyweek. It should happen over a period of time, and that is not accomplished if you change the excercise every week.

If you are a good and inspiring instructor, the participants WILL come to your class again and again even if you don't change the tracks every week.

Special, on Sep 4 2008, 02:20 PM, said:

It's futile discussing anything with you because you seem incapable of thinking outside your tiny little box. I'm not sure why I bothered now.
If the only goal is increasing weights, why ever change the tracks???

That just proves my point that there is no knowledge behind your comments. When you do the same excercise, it's good until some point. Then you body/muscles gets adapted to the excercise and you don't get the full benefit anymore. That's when it's time to change the excercise.

Special, on Sep 4 2008, 02:20 PM, said:

One can understand training, and also take time to understand their participants and what they like. Like I said earlier, there is no point in worrying about adding weight if there are no participants in your class because they find it boring as bat-shit.

As I said earlier, if your participants get bored to your class, it doesn't mean it's because of the tracks. If instructor can be inspiring and interesting, one wouldn't have to constantly change the track in order to keep participants interested.

Special, on Sep 4 2008, 02:20 PM, said:

Personally, I teach 1/2 to 2/3 the same as the week before, then change up some tracks. It seems to be an OK balance of familiarity allowing them to switch off a bit and just work on pushing themselves, and then some new music and variety.

OK. That is one good thing. Not changing ALL the tracks.

Special, on Sep 4 2008, 02:20 PM, said:

You say you need to do the same exercise over and over to increase the weight.... have you seen Pump choreography?
Even with different songs, the moves are the same 80% of the time. Do your muscles know they are doing squats to a different song? I doubt it.

It's not about the song, it's the choreography. Even when the moves are same, the choreography has lot to do with it. For example there are some bicep tracks which I can easily do with 20 kgs with perfect technique, but then there are some tracks that I would struggle if I used 17 kgs. Same moves in the tracks, but still totally different effect.

Special, on Sep 4 2008, 02:20 PM, said:

btw - when I gave the example of most members sticking with the same weight, that was based on what I have seen in other Instructors classes: Instructors that very rarely mix.
So you were wrong.... that's not what's causing them to stick with the same weight. Feel free to assume what you like though, I am going to continue to do what makes my class happiest.

Hmm... Makes me think if your participants are there for training or just for fun.

[Doobie123]

Bron Gondwana, on Sep 4 2008, 05:54 AM, said:

Definitely agree with you there Placebo. I have been shadowing/team teaching a lunchtime class in the city (45 min) for the last little while, and that one's tricky, because people need to get back to work and we often start late because the previous class ran over time. Our solution is generally to cut the abs track in half and shorten the cooldown a little as well, while advising people to have an additional stretch back at their desks.

WHAT ON EARTH!!!
With a 45 min class loose the Triceps and Biceps, for aA half hour class losses those plus shoulders or Lunges and the cool down. Loosing the cool down seems your best option to meet your timeframe. NEVER loose or cut the abs track. It is the the most important one to do as a strong core is key to all other components of Pump. I don't wish to appear rude or abrupt but this is drilled in to you at module training. Don't change the format. Suggest you have a look over the hand book to refresh.

TP, on Sep 4 2008, 01:26 PM, said:

Hmm... Makes me think if your participants are there for training or just for fun.

What does it matter? Participants are there for many reasons. Some want to train hard, some want to get fit, stay fit get fitter. I have some that come along just for social interaction and have no desire to loose weight, break sweat or otherwise.
My point is, you can't please all the people all the time. It is the participant who pays for teh class and the instructor is there for them. If they like a mix of music, mix away.

[TP]

Doobie123, on Sep 4 2008, 04:41 PM, said:

My point is, you can't please all the people all the time. It is the participant who pays for teh class and the instructor is there for them. If they like a mix of music, mix away.

But if you only please those who are there for fun and like new mixes everyweek, you are not giving a good class to those who really wants to excercise.

[Doobie123]

TP, on Sep 4 2008, 02:54 PM, said:

But if you only please those who are there for fun and like new mixes everyweek, you are not giving a good class to those who really wants to excercise.

I've been here before with you TP so this is my last comment on the subject of mix in relation to your posts.

If you read my post again, what I said was you adapt the class to suit the majority of participants.



If the majority of participants are there to increase their strength endurance, then provide more challenging (harder tracks). Mix to suit them. Mixing doesn’t just mean making things easier or more fun.

As to how much to mix, if the class likes a change every week, as some do, then change every week. If they don’t like change, stay the same.



It is up to the instructor to mix tracks or not in line with the format and guidelines provided by Les Mills. If instructors find their participants want different tracks every week (after the initial launch) and that works best for them, then the choice to mix is there.

Your statement assumes people only go to classes for a tough work out and that couldn’t be further from reality.



Mixing tracks also provides a bigger challenge for regular, demanding participants as it varies the work out. Increasing weight is not the only goal to aspire to in bodypump so you need to cater for those participant needs as well. Indeed, there is only so much weight you can put on the bar.

[kt74]

TP, on Sep 4 2008, 01:26 PM, said:

If you are a good and inspiring instructor, the participants WILL come to your class again and again even if you don't change the tracks every week
...
Makes me think if your participants are there for training or just for fun.

It's got nothing to do with giving good and inspiring classes, or doing the same tracks because people will get the optimum training effect from them... it's about giving fee-paying members what they want...

I always ask for feedback, and while it's obvious people come to Pump to get fit, my members mainly come because it's fun, it's a release from the office, it makes them feel good, they see their fellow participants, they like the variety of music... and they get a pretty good workout at the same time. That's why I mix - because they like it!!!

Not all of them like mixing of course. A couple of members at one of my classes (Monday morning, actually!) prefer me to do the new release for longer. And that's fine, I normally do it for 5-6 weeks there. Ironically, when that period is over, this is also the same class that most enthusiastically asks me what theme we will be doing next week and could we do a certain exercise or certain song please

And when I cover somewhere as a one-off, I always ask whether they would like me to play the new release or old stuff, and whether they want it "hard" or "easy" (or "cheesey!"). I can never tell if they are going to say "hard" or "easy", but apart from the first 2-3 weeks of a new release, I *guarantee* you that they will ask for oldies

So to answer the original poster's question, instructors should play whatever the majority of their class wants them to... Hey, if you came to my class, you too would have a say in what music I play

[Bron Gondwana]

Doobie123, on Sep 4 2008, 11:41 PM, said:

WHAT ON EARTH!!!
With a 45 min class loose the Triceps and Biceps, for aA half hour class losses those plus shoulders or Lunges and the cool down. Loosing the cool down seems your best option to meet your timeframe. NEVER loose or cut the abs track. It is the the most important one to do as a strong core is key to all other components of Pump. I don't wish to appear rude or abrupt but this is drilled in to you at module training. Don't change the format. Suggest you have a look over the hand book to refresh.

I don't like the situation much, but I was team teaching with the GFM and I did what I was told! It's actually the class before that's to blame for being late - we had pushed through really quickly to make up time. I certainly didn't remove the whole track, just cut it to about 2/3 length, and the cooldown even more. If I didn't say I was doing that up front, most people would have left straight away, and got _no_ abs. There was seriously less than half a class left by the end of the cooldown.

Since it was the first time that half of them had seen Pump 67, I wanted to make sure everyone did the hover crunch. That's the most interesting inovation in the whole release!

Interestingly, the abs track gets cut in both Step and Combat 45 minute formats, meaning that people doing mainly 45 minute lunchtime classes don't get many options. I think what I'll do if I'm in that situation again is push the "abs blast" classes as an option. There are three of them a week at that club, and they're only 1/2 hour, so people should be able to fit one in!

[Placebo]

When you box, or kickbox, you have very strong use of your abs throughout your training session. In fact, the last time I trained in Muay Thai kickboxing, my abs were sore for about a week - TA, Obliques, plus the Rectus abdominis. Abs should be utilised throughout the Combat class, so much so, that the ab track becomes a bit redundant. Saying that, trying to get participants to switch those abs on 100% of the time can be difficult (but not impossible). So, yes, Combat may well lose the ab track. My memory of 45min Combat classes is a bit hazy, so please correct me if I'm wrong!

However, Pump, whilst the participants are continually told to engage the abs, they are lifting for at least 5mins under a load (with each track). I see the ab track as essential to Pump, simply due to the increased load through weights, rather than just bodyweight (as in Combat and Step). It is additional "protective" mechanism.

Geez, don't think I explained myself very well, but hope someone gets the gist of what I'm saying

Bron I know, it's difficult when it's your GFM and the first class is always running into your timeslot! I had to take a Combat class after a Vive each week at one particular gym. Instructor regularly went 10-15mins into my 60min timeslot. Then I was squeezed at the other end by the GFM (Pilates class) who was the Vive instructors best friend. Frustrating to say the least.

[Alagal]

[quote name='WLGarcia' date='Jul 14 2008, 03:44 PM' post='252149']
So after a launch and the allotted time has passed, how frequently do you all change out your tracks? We have some who change EVERY SONG EVERY CLASS and some who change a few songs and keep those for several classes and change out; my thought is that if you keep something for a small bit of time (but not too long so people can be challenged and not plateau) then they can get the most benefit because they have an idea of what is coming and can work hard. Your thoughts?


Just speaking from a participant's point of view, I get very bored quickly with the same releases and appreciate variety. I love doing some of the older tracks that a lot of the instructors have probably forgotten, but as you say, you also feel challenged by switching songs up some. My attendance drops off after too much of the same thing.