The three original Power Yoga workouts from Bryan Kest. Each one is about 50 minutes long.

Intermediate to advanced Yoga enthusiasts. You do need to know your poses well and have some flexibility. These routines require endurance and strength too. That said, don't let this scare you off if you are at the lower end of intermediate — you may be surprised at how much you will be able to do.

A little over a decade ago, Bryan Kest's series of Power Yoga videos caused a stir in the Yoga community. This was back in the day when most vigorous Yoga styles outside of traditional Ashtanga were looked at askance. Kest's routines were brought into question by serious Yogis, and his teacher-to-the-stars glamour was not viewed kindly. His rockstar looks — dark ringlets and cooly slouching posture — didn't help either. Well, years have passed and now Power Yoga and Ashtanga coexist somewhat peacefully. Kest's mass of long hair (sadly) is gone, but he still teaches celebrities and his videos have become some of the best selling Yoga workouts ever. There's a reason these routines have sold so well — they are quite good!

 

Each of the three segments on this disc start off with Ashtanga-style Sun Salutations to heat the body and build endurance and strength. While they are all similar in approach, each session has a slightly different focus — Energy, logically, is to energize, and you get in some abdominal work too; Tone challenges your muscles, especially your lower body; and Sweat is a bit more vigorous and has some more advanced poses (wheel and a modified headstand that eases you into Crow). While Kest encourages you to work within your limits, you won't find much in the way of modifications, and the class he is teaching on film is clearly quite advanced (in fact, one of the students is Seane Corn, who now has her own DVD series).

 

How you feel about the workouts on this DVD depends a lot on what you are looking for from your Yoga practice. Kest talks a lot, and often his instruction is more about your mental state than the actual pose. Even better, he reminds you constantly to breathe (following his timing for inhaling and exhaling really helps in the poses). This is good if you want that, but if you're looking for quiet, you won't get it here. And while this practice owes a lot to Ashtanga, it veers far enough away from tradition to annoy purists quite bit. And then there's all that hair, the sinewy body, the jean shorts cut off up to here... you'll find it either appealing, distracting or downright annoying. Kest definitely brings out strong emotions in people. It's up to you to get past that and just do the practice. In any case, if you've been doing Yoga a while and don't mind being coached by a guy with an odd accent and bad boy good looks, these 3 intense workouts can really rev up your practice a notch... or two.

 

 

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