www.JamFreaks.com

Yesterday was a super long day. If you read the post, you'll remember that we woke up at 3am. In the morning, we toured the LMI offices. Very interesting. They employ about 60 people and they all (including the program directors) sit in one room. I was surprised to learn that the PD's do not have complete autonomy over their programs. They work with researches, consultants and have management that directs where the program goes and how it is delivered. While there, we met Lisa O and Chris Richardson. Chris is the GFM for the Aukland gym. Because of their facility and resources, when celebrities come to town, they go to Les Mills for personal training. Apparently, the Black Eyed Peas will be coming soon. Les Mills uses the local news stations makeup people and camera crews.

We got to see the "choreography rooms".... 3 small rooms down stairs with mirrors and a stereo where all the chorey is created and practiced. Carla (bodyjam presenter) was practicing while we peeked in. It was also fascinating to find out that the new releases are pretty much created start to finish in only about the 2 weeks prior to filiming. They fly in the presenters and they just plow through it in two weeks until they film it. Bodyjam will film on Monday and since I've gotten here, G has taught every jam class, practicing the new stuff. When he's not teaching, he's practicing with his team. You would never know that when you take his class because he teaches as if it's still fun, fresh, new and exciting to him.

The international office is just a about 50 feet from the Aukland gym. The Les Mills gym is pretty big. They have 15,000 members and on the tour, they said that their retention is very high. It spans through about 4 different levels and feels pretty much like a maze. I keep getting confused, so it’s a good thing Mike is here to show me where to go. They say that Studio 1 can hold up to 200 people. It doesn’t seem THAT much bigger than our room at Fitness Works. It's probably about as wide, but a little deeper. The sound system is incredible and sounds awesome. The stage is nice and roomy. They have a little room off to the side of the studio for the sound room. Annie was the person who was giving us the tour. Apparently, the presenters have often said "Turn it up, Annie" in the videos. She was very nice and friendly. There are SO many fit people here. I feel like a cow!

They do a lot of things similar to Fitness Works. For every class on the schedule, there are 3 or more instructors waiting to get that class. Also, they share mic's during normal classes. I don't really understand why because they always have a mic for everyone during filming.

We had some time between our tour and filmings to grab some lunch and walk around on Queen Street. There were a lot of little shops and little places to eat. Walking around, I see the fashion here for women is to wear leggings (usually black) with ug-type boots or worse, white shoes. I’m sorry, but it is just plain wrong to wear white shoes with black pants. The boots & leggings are kind of growing on me a bit though. All the guys in suits are wearing pin stripes or even wide-stripes suits, often with the long pointy dress shoes. It was cold and started to rain on our way back to the gym. The streets are hilly, so walking can get intense at time.s

In the afternoon, we attending the filmings. They did 4 classes yesterday and will do the other 4 on Monday. We got there really early to make sure we got a good spot. Pump was first. Susan, Glen, Emma and another guy presented. Wait til you get a look at their outfits....very futuristic....haha. Don't kill me, but we didn't take a single picture! Sorry. They actually are pretty strict about letting cameras in during the filming. They only allow pictures afterwards. But, we're meeting everyone tonight...they're having a party for all the international people in town. We'll try to get pictures then. I always feel like a creepy stalker asking for pictures anyway. Ok, back to pump, it was good...pretty typical release. The emphasis was on adding 3/4 range to keep the muslces under tension longer. The bars are a lot heavier so I never really got my weights right. They were either too heavy or too light. Mike took the class and did awesome! We had to stop and start over a couple times due to choreography mistakes. Susan had a really hard time with her intro before the bicep track. I think we did probably 5 takes. The crowd was really cheering her on to get through it. The thing that surprised me the most about the tapings is that it is SOOOO "Hollywood", so staged. I knew it was, but not to this extent. The presenters have their hair & makeup done and are pretty ho-hum until the cameras come on and then they "turn it on" big time.

Body Vive was next, but I didn't stay. We went back to the hotel real quick to call our kids before they went to bed. And then, I snuck into studio 2 to take 15 minutes of bodyjam. Ahhh. I love G.

Then, Bodyattack. Lisa presented with a little hot chick from France and 2 NZ presenters. I can't remember their names, but the blonde girl was the one that Kimm Theobald's kids love. The other one was a guy...pretty good. We had to start over a few times, but it was mostly due to technical problems with the music or the mic's. The running track is insane and a complete mosh pit when you run into the middle of the circle.

Combat was very cool. Dan & Rach presented with a girl from Norway (I think) and a guy from the US (Angel maybe?). Again, not too fond of the outfits they wore. The theme of the release was to combine many different types of martial arts into one workout. There’s a new move – an ankle sweep. It was introduced by Dan in track 6 maybe? He was about ¾ way thru the track and stopped, saying it wasn’t world-class and he had some ideas in his head how to make it better. He apologized to everyone, saying that he was debating in his head between pizza (which they’d be having afterwards) and re-doing the track. It was funny, but pretty cool of him. He re-did the track and changed the way he cued it. Even though the first time around was good, the next time was even better. The muay-tai track was awesome. They had fog coming out of the stage and the music was eerie. Everything felt very authentic to martial arts, like a real fight. Awesome. Dan seems like a cool guy. Funny and personable and just outright cool.

They invited everyone to stay for pizza afterwards, but we were just so exhausted by the time it was over (about 9:30), especially since we had gotten up at 3am that day, that Mike & I just went home and crashed.

Sorry for the raw nature of my writing. Just trying to get it all out as quickly as possible. I was told to "dish" more. So there you go. Oh! And by the way, I met Raina, the local who writes the Cardio & Eathquakes blog. She's very nice. She seemed a bit flattered when I told her I'm a fan of her blog and that me and the other jam instructors all talk about it. (I feel a little like her now...it's hard not to include all the many, many details that make this place amazing!)

Keep writing your comments - I love them. And yes, Kristen, the people here DO take it for granted what they have in their own backyard!