Great Primer Yoga Workout
My husband and I recently decided to incorporate yoga into our fitness regimen for its focus on relaxation and flexibility, as well as the more traditional benefits in the area of strength and toning.
"Yoga for Beginners with Desi Bartlett" turned out to be a great choice for us to start with, as we are yoga neophytes, yet we have both had some exposure to the most common poses throughout various other movement and fitness classes, and we are also familiar with safety issues dealing with the knees, neck, and back.
This disc includes two 25 minute practices. The first is a solar practice that we both found to be incredibly energizing but not overwhelming for yoga newbies who are stumbling through it after rolling out of bed early in the morning. More advanced practitioners may not find it challenging or varied enough, but from where I stand, it's a great practice for learning poses while still flowing through a sequence.
The 25 minute lunar practice focuses on flexibility, and let me tell you, if I did this practice every day I feel like I might actually make a significant dent in my own limberness (or lack thereof). It felt great, and it's a good follow-up to the solar so that the two practices could be done one after the other.
Having said all that, I do feel that those who are COMPLETELY ignorant of all things yoga would do best to try this DVD only after trying a slower, gentler "teaching" program such as "Yoga Journal's Yoga for Beginners," which is in the Iyengar style. It might be necessary to try to develop one's yoga vocabulary a little before jumping into a DVD like this one, which moves fairly quickly for a beginner's workout, and doesn't really give much attention to things such as foot placement or safety cautions.
