Les Mills International
Les Mills International is a New Zealand company that is the world's largest provider of choreographed exercise-to-music group fitness classes[1] distributed to health clubs. The first Les Mills program was BodyStep, with BodyPump being the first program released internationally. There are currently ten programs.
History
Les Mills International was founded by Les Mills, Phillip Mills' father and named after his father, Les Mills, four-time Olympian and founder of the Les Mills World of Fitness chain of gyms in Auckland, New Zealand.
Phillip Mills developed a series of exercise-to-music programmes that would later become the Les Mills programmes in current release. Their success in the Les Mills gyms in New Zealand led Phillip to release them internationally. After a successful debut in Australia, the programmes have expanded to more than 12,000 gyms and health clubs in 75 countries, with an estimated 5 million participants every week taking a Les Mills class.
In 2004, Phillip Mills was Ernst & Young's New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year, and the following year he competed in Monaco as a finalist for Ernst & Young's World Entrepreneur of the Year award. In 2005, Les Mills International was named New Zealand Services Exporter of the Year by NZ Trade and Enterprise and, in 2007, he and wife Jackie Mills co-authored the book Fighting Globesity - A Practical Guide to Personal Health and Global Sustainability.
Programs
- BodyAttack, floor-based aerobics with an athletics and sports-inspired theme, featuring a variety of simple body movements placed in sequence to high-intensity music; said to be the most intense of the LesMills programs.
- BodyBalance, a strength and flexibility class that uses techniques of Pilates, Yoga and t'ai chi, complete with special emphasis on body harmonization, relaxation, muscle control and concentration. (Known as BodyFlow in Canada and the United States of America)
- BodyCombat, floor-based aerobics with a martial arts theme, featuring various disciplines such as taekwondo, karate, t'ai chi, kickboxing and muay thai.
- BodyJam, floor-based aerobics with a hip-hop dance-based theme which draws on other dance varieties such as jive, jazz and salsa as well.
- BodyPump, a muscle conditioning class using a barbell and plates to target major muscle groups for a full-body muscle conditioning and cardio workout.
- BodyStep, floor-based cardio workout with a step aerobics theme; using a height adjustable step featuring high-energy cardio blocks followed by muscle conditioning for the legs and gluteals.
- BodyVive, a floor-based, low-impact class combining cardio exercise for heart fitness, resistance training for strength and stability, and stretching and mobility work.
- RPM, a cardio—spinning routine on a stationary bicycle, featuring a simulated variety of terrains coupled with time trials and interval training.
- CXWORX, a 30 minute, floor-based core training workout combining a variety of core-focused exercises for strength and stabilization. New to the LesMills repertoire, to be released in mid-March, 2011.
- Sh'Bam, a floor-based aerobics program with more a Latin dance-inspired theme. New to the LesMills repertoire.
References
- ^ Felstead, Bishop, Fuller, Jewson, Lee, Unwin (2006). "Moving to the music: Learning processes, training and productive systems - the case of exercise to music instruction". London, United Kingdom, p.6. http://learningaswork.cf.ac.uk/outputs/Moving_to_the_Music_Final.pdf.
Research
- Lythe J., Pfitzinger, P. Caloric expenditure and aerobic demand of Bodystep, Bodyattack, Bodycombat and RPM. Auckland: UniSports, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1999:15.
- Pfitzinger P, Lythe J. The aerobic demand and energy expenditure during BODYPUMP. Auckland: University of Auckland, 1999:17
- Lythe, J., Pfitzinger, P. and Ho, D. The Physical and Psychological Response to 13 weeks of Structured Group-fitness Exercise in Untrained Individuals. UniSports Centre for Sport Performance, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 2000:33.
- Stanforth, D., Stanforth, P.R., & Hoemeke, M.P. (2000). Physiologic and metabolic responses to a Body Pump workout. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 14, 144-150.
External links