Les Mills: The world’s most popular systematic fitness program

You may not be familiar with the name Les Mills, but you must be familiar with the idea of ??going to the gym to "play combe." Courses such as Body Combat and Body Pump, commonly known as "Combe", are systematic courses developed by Les Mills. They have been popular in the world for 20 to 30 years and are the most popular systematic fitness courses in the world. Some people say that there are two types of group fitness classes in the world, one is Les Mills, and the other is other group classes. Body Combat is one of the most popular classes at Les Mills. With a long history and many enthusiasts,

The Les Mills series of courses has developed into more than ten types, focusing on strength, aerobic and stretching training areas. According to Les Mills' own statistics, there are as many people in the world doing Body Pump as there are people doing CrossFit, which shows its popularity. Les Mills' courses have been developed and accumulated, and all courses will be updated every three months. For example, Body Pump has exceeded 100 sessions so far. This system of courses has been developed for several years before it was renamed Body Pump. Therefore, it can be said that Body Pump This series of courses has a history of more than 30 years. Since its development, it has cultivated many die-hard fans, who every time are like religious fanatics, memorizing the movements of every issue, and taking the trouble to once again verify the quality and popularity of Les Mills courses. Body Pump is Les Mills' oldest course, with a history of over 30 years. Focusing on the development of the market in China, Les Mills established a branch to specialize in operations

The development of Les Mills in Greater China was initially negotiated with Les Mills by representatives from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. The person in charge was Phillip Mills. He readily accepted the promotion concept, so around 1998, Les Mills courses first appeared in the then Alexander Club in Taiwan and in California gyms in Hong Kong. It has a history of nearly 20 years. Les Mills' authorized clubs in China have rapidly grown from more than 100 in 2014 to more than a thousand today, and their competitive strength is amazing. Recently, Les Mills took back its agency rights and established a branch company, Les Mills China, to handle the business. In addition to Greater China, Les Mills China is also responsible for Les Mills' business in South Korea. According to Jiang Nan, CEO of Les Mills China, the standard Les Mills course is one hour, and each club or coach can also arrange 45-minute or half-hour courses based on different needs. She also mentioned that in 2018, everyone will pay more attention to the development of this course in Barre, which is a course that combines professional fitness and ballet. As the name suggests, it is fitness training developed from ballet. Les Mills China CEO Jiang Nan continues to innovate courses to meet the needs of the new generation

Jiang Nan specifically mentioned Grit because it is the most popular course among young people in recent years. This is a course developed by Les Mills Junior, the grandson of Les Mills. Since he was only in his twenties, he wanted a unique training that was different from the traditional one. He felt that "I would only want to do courses that I think are cool", so he founded Grit, a novel course that combines strength, aerobics and jumping, has been widely loved by young customers since its launch. Les Mills Grit is a next-generation class that combines strength, cardio and jumping.

There is also Les Mills Live, which is an event like a large-scale concert. Most of the locations are in large stadiums. The one-day event is led by various course training instructors and is open to the general public to purchase tickets. Entering the venue, there may be thousands of people exercising together at the same time, and the scene is extremely spectacular. For example, the event held in Shanghai in September 2017 attracted more than 3,000 people, and the event held in Tokyo at the end of the year was even larger, and it was also disseminated via video, giving more people the opportunity to participate. In terms of functionality, Les Mills courses also have their own strengths, and most of them cooperate with research institutions to continuously develop and improve. For example, BodyPump is very helpful for maintaining bone density; Grit courses can play a 24-hour fat loss effect, and CX Worx Stretch band classes can help improve running power and speed, which are among the most talked about benefits.

Les Mills Live attracts thousands of fans to participate enthusiastically in every performance.

Investing heavily in creating immersive courses to create an unparalleled flywheel experience

In addition, there is also the immersive flywheel course that I am most interested in, The Trip. This is a method that uses surround projection to make all participants in the venue Everyone can feel the immersive riding experience. The dynamic vision was developed by the Hollywood technology team. The visual effects are first-class. The exclusive 270-degree giant surround screen developed with partners is not only difficult to splice, but also expensive. It also requires Only five projectors can project at the same time to provide a complete experience. Therefore, only a few countries in the world have introduced it. In addition to New Zealand and the Hong Kong classroom we reported before, China and Japan have also introduced and used it, creating a new experience of flywheel training. . The Trip is a flywheel course that combines high-tech equipment with an immersive experience. Virtual courses will break through restrictions and become a future star

Currently, Greater China is planning to promote Les MillsVirtual’s virtual courses. This is an online distance course that breaks the limitations of gym space. Not only does it have free space, but it also Due to the limit on the number of students in the class, hotels, companies and other units can freely arrange it. The class can also be started with 1 or 2 students. If a novice does not know where to start and just goes to a group class but feels that he cannot keep up, he can try this class first. Practice and see, once you are familiar with the movements, you will be more comfortable in group classes. Staff welfare associations of large companies usually have some exercise classes, but they are often limited by the space within the system and the number of people they can accommodate. If virtual classes are adopted, classes can be held as long as there is space, and there is no need to worry about adding more coaching hours to classes. Regarding the cost burden, Jiang Nan believes that this will be the most popular training model in the future. Regarding virtual courses, Jiang Nan said that its advantage is that it can break many restrictions, but it does not replace the function of coaches. The purpose of providing virtual courses is to help more people so that they can receive high-quality course guidance and services in areas with fewer resources. CXWORX focuses on elastic band core training to bring a stronger body. The Taiwanese market still has potential customer groups for the elderly and pregnant women

Regarding Taiwan’s operating environment, Jiang Nan said that Les Mills accounts for about 50% of Taiwan’s group class market, with 2-300 companies. Gyms use it. In addition, Taiwan has only introduced a few mainstream Les Mills courses at present, and there is still a lot of room for growth. In the future, they will be committed to providing more diverse course options so that students in Taiwan can fully experience the meaning and essence of Les Mills. Every time Les Mills publishes a new training course, it attracts a large number of online fitness coaches to sign up.

Jiang Nan mentioned that she also found that Taiwan’s population is aging much faster than other countries and will soon surpass Japan; in addition, generally Chinese people often have many taboos on pregnant women doing exercise, but pregnant women are If you can carry out appropriate exercise training during pregnancy and postpartum, it will be very helpful for natural birth and postpartum recovery. At present, most members in mainland China are in their 20s and 30s. Les Mills is still a very trendy project in China, and there are also many young people participating. In the future, their promotion will mainly focus on middle-aged and elderly people and pregnant women, breaking through these two groups. The myth of being unable to exercise is just like the founding purpose of Les Mills, the mission of helping others, and leading everyone into the field of physical fitness in a more attractive way. Les Mills has been deeply involved in Taiwan for many years, and senior lecturer Matt Thraxton (second from right) has personally come to Greater China to provide long-term training services.

Image provided by/Les Mills China Photography, Interview and Writing/Oliver Wu