THE GYM - BODY ATTACK

I've had one of those mornings yesterday - it was so grey neither my daughter or I wanted to get out of bed. Consequently we were then rushing around and very nearly late to school. To give myself some energy I drunk two enormous coffees and then went to my exercise class, couldn't park for about 15 minutes and forgot my water bottle - duh.

Every Monday I try and do the class Body Attack, as every Monday without a doubt I am suffering from overdoing the food and wine at the weekend (I think 99% of the class are in the same boat judging by the lack of enthusiasm on their faces). 

I don't know if you know Body Attack - I describe it is jumping around like a lunatic for an hour. It is a great all over body workout and you seriously sweat (even my eyes seem to sweat which is most unpleasant) so it is a great way to get rid of the weekend's toxins. The first time I did it I thought I was going to die and said never again - however I now try to do it twice a week as you can burn off around 700 calories per class which is not to be sniffed at!

Body Attack is a sports-inspired cardio workout for building strength and stamina. It is a high-energy interval training class combining athletic aerobic movements with strength and stabilisation exercises. There are 12 tracks per class (an hour long) and here is the current list of music and exercise.

You work the whole body combining moves such as squats, high kicks, press ups, lunges, shuffles, tuck jumps, jumping jacks, running, burpees, sit ups and even a new one where you jump into a snowboarding / surfing position and I picture myself as Michael J Fox in Teen Wolf surfing on that van! There is a lot of variety to keen you interested.

A new Body Attack class is released every three months with new music and choreography. We have just received a new release and it is taking me a while to get used to - coordination is not a strong point! Every exercise has a different level so if you can't do a move anymore, you can do a low intensity version - I had to do this yesterday as jumping around after two large coffees could have ended in an extremely embarrassing situation!!

As with pump you are working in a group and that really helps with motivation - nobody finds it easy (even the instructor is sweating buckets) and you can spur each other on plus it makes it much less boring!! Everybody is a different shape or size and whilst it is mainly women in my classes, men do come along too and find it a great way to boost their fitness as it is totally different to just running & doing weights - my brother runs a lot and fast but recently did an exercise challenge which included burpees, jumping jacks, press ups etc and he could not walk for a week!!

A combination of this and body pump will definitely keep those spare tyres at bay and increase your fitness - I will be practising what I preach and doing an hour of body attack tomorrow and while I dread the thought of it now, I know it is a fantastic work out so have a try!