yoga

[momincharge]

All this talk about yoga and I am just wondering if anyone can recommend a GOOD yoga tape? I would qualify as an advanced exerciser-- tongue in cheek here! I am a survivor of Cathe's tapes! But
have never done yoga. Interested to know if you REALLY get a workout or if it is more of a stretching, relaxation thing. I am always looking for good ways to crosstrain,and there is only so much you can do at home.

 

[jencrispin]

Total Yoga and Yoga for Flexibility

I like those two tapes a lot! I'm a beginner/ low intermediate exerciser in yoga and a high intermediate exerciser otherwise. I like Healing Arts Yoga for Flexibility with Patricia Walden. She is incredibly flexible and has a beautiful voice, and the two workouts on that tape take about a half an hour.

The other tape I like is Living Arts Total Yoga which really leaves my abs feeling worked!

I found both of these at Hastings.

 

[ms]

yoga suggestions and info

Hi
Last weekend I bought Yoga for Dummies and it is a very informative book which tells you all you need to know. I personally use yoga to increase my performance in cardio and weight workouts.
It is great for relieving tension, relaxation, preventing muscle pain/soreness from weight work, as well as, for strength, flexibility.. it is good cardiovascularly in that by doing breathing work I have increased my lung capacity and my aerobic endurance (at least it feels that way- I don't know if it is "true" as in a fact; but I can tell a difference) It also lengthens the muscles, many yoga practitioners look like dancers and achieve that look because like balllet the stretches/poses are challenging and lengthening...I can go on and on about the benefits.

I am very very picky about videos. If the instructor is off the beat, misses cues,...I just quit the video. I can't stand a bad video. I love Cathe (she is the ideal to me). I also use other vidos: I do videos by Kari Anderson, Gin Miller, Firm, Christi Taylor...so you have an idea of what I expect in a video.

The Yoga Journal series is the best. It got raves/best video awards, etc. from Shape, Self, Fitness, Fit...and is a staff favorite at Collage. It has 7 videos in the series.
The Kathy Smith New Yoga Series has 3 tapes. I just have the first one so far. It is good too. The Ali MacGraw tape won awards the year it came out and is a staff favorite at Collage, too. I do not have this one - yet.

I do not know much about power yoga, but what I do know is this: it is not traditional yoga. They take traditional poses (and new ones) and go quickly through them. They are very athletic poses for muscle strengthening and do tone and firm, but I have not used them. The power yoga is a sport and is very contraversal because it goes against what traditional yoga is all about.

I suggest getting the Dummies book and an intro to yoga: Yoga for Beginners by Yoga Journal, (and/or Kathy Smith Yoga for Beginners) and learning the poses and going from there. Yoga is like weight work in that there are only so many exercises, but what is most important is proper technique and positioning. It is better to start with a beginner tape - even if you are a advanced exerciser - so that you learn proper form, when to breathe, etc. So that you are doing it correctly from the beginning, and don't get injured or have a bad experience.
Good luck! I hope I have helped.
ms

 

[Colia]

If you are an advanced exerciser, I would recommend the Power Yoga series by Bryan Kest. These are challenging tapes if you haven't done yoga before, and will work and stretch different muscles than you ever thought you had. The first tape is quite pleasant and really gives a broad variety of poses and stretches. The second tape focuses more on strength and there is a bear of a section where you are holding a deep lunge for what seems like an eternity - your quads will not forget it! The third provides quite a lot of cardiovascular challenge as it moves so quickly, and requires a lot of flexibility, and I find myself shaking through it. But these tapes make you feel wonderfully stretched out and toned and I think are a great complement to the pounding of high impact aerobics, and muscle tightening of weight training. I would also recommend getting a book like Beryl Bender Birch's Power Yoga to ensure proper form for all these postures. Hope this helps!

 

[ElenaM]

Yoga Zone

I'm a low advanced exerciser as far as cardio/weights, but I'm still beginner/low intermediate in yoga (although I'm quickly becoming addicted to it.) I thought for the longest time that yoga wasn't for me, because the tapes I tried were either boring or too difficult (in my opinion only, obviously.) Actually, the thing I really disliked was the lack of real instruction in the tapes I bought (Kathy Smith beginner tape, Total Yoga.) The poses were demonstrated, with a caution that "less flexible exercisers may have to modify", but there wasn't a lot of help as far as giving hints in getting into the poses. Very discouraging.

Then I read the VF reviews and tried a Yoga Zone beginner tape. What a difference! Alan Finger is a wonderful instructor -- the tape I have (Conditioning and Stress Release) is full of helpful pointers ("relax your neck, lower your shoulders, use your top thighs to push your sitbones up", etc.) I'm anxiously waiting for the rest of the YZ tapes to arrive, and I just ordered AM and PM Yoga with Rodney Yee and Patricia Walden. I'm curious to see how much I like those.

Sorry to get so evangelical, but I am a BIG FAN of Yoga Zone.

Elena