As announced, I would like to introduce you one by one to the Les Mills programmes in which I give classes and which therefore occasionally inspire me to write a new article.
After Attack and Pump, today let’s talk about the new programme Les Mills SHAPES, which only hit the studios in Germany at the beginning of this year.
This is what I tell new participants when they ask me about Shapes:
Shapes is a low-impact strength workout for the whole body. The exercises are inspired by Pilates, Yoga and Barre and use small movements and many repetitions to target the deep muscles, which we can never reach with the usual strength training for the large muscle groups.
BAAAAAM
How cool is this? 
I tell you, no matter how trained you are: This programme burns and the msucular ‘hangover’ is guaranteed!
In intervals of 30 (sometimes also 15 or 40) seconds, we concentrate on the respective focus muscle and go in search of the ‘burning and trembling’ 😀 – or, as it is officially called: the hotspot. We want to get there as quickly as possible and then try to keep going until the end of the interval, thereby strengthening our deep muscles in the long term*. At the same time, we are doing something for our good posture, balance and sense of equilibrium as well as for our coordination – in other words, we are also training our brain. By the way, it is possible to use additional equipment such as small plates/dumbbells or a glute band, but it is not a must, as the training is super effective even without additional resistance.
But perhaps the best thing about it is that although it is a low-impact programme – i.e. the heart rate always remains within a moderate range (pulse zone 2-3) – Shapes still reaches a cracking 4 on an intensity scale of 0 to 5.
And there’s something else I’d like to say about Shapes – mainly to those of you who already do other Les Mills programmes: Shapes is weird the first time you do it. Kind of strange. And it’s not soooo much fun. Please give the programme two or three chances and I’m sure you’ll end up just like me:
All of a sudden you’ll just FIBEEEER it!
*A study has shown that with three Shapes sessions a week, after just six weeks, the endurance of, e.g., the abdominal muscles had increased by 35%. https://www.lesmills.com/fit-planet/fitness/shapes-in-numbers/
Then subscribe to our blog updates via the sidebar (in the mobile version via the + sign). If you also want to be able to comment on our posts, just register here.
