A 50-minute Anusara-based Yoga workout for beginners (but not total newbies). Elena Brower instructs.

Beginning and advanced beginning Yoga enthusiasts. You should be a little familiar with the poses, as Brower doesn't give you completely thorough alignment instructions, and you should be fairly flexible already, since some of the poses require it. You will just need a sticky mat and an open, serene attitude.

I once had a Yoga teacher — a very good one, as a matter of fact — who wound his class in a pose that was uncomfortable for most of us. As he walked around the room, passing by our scrunched-up faces, he said, "I can tell this isn't one of your favorite poses. Good. It means you need to practice it more often." Everyone who hits the Yoga mat on regular basis has some poses that offer more of a challenge than the others, and those poses are different for everyone. For me, it's hip opening poses, and unfortunately this DVD is full of them. Maybe that's why, whenever instructor Brower blissfully invited me to "smile" during the more intense parts of this practice, I refused. She's actually a wonderful instructor — while light on detail regarding actual posture, she spouts lots of clues that help you deepen your awareness of the poses. But the moment she moved us into Pigeon Pose, I knew I was not going to be a happy camper. I was uncomfortable during a good portion of this routine, and yes, I've done it quite often over the past few weeks since it appeared in my mailbox. There are parts I enjoyed — there are a number of twists that feel great, and she only puts you through a couple of Sun Salutations, unlike some DVD Yoga instructors who make them into the whole routine. But how you feel about this DVD depends on where you're tight. One word of warning — Brower starts off instructing you in mirror image — her left side is your right, like you're looking in a mirror — but then she switches over to same side instruction, which might throw you off if you're not aware of it. Deal with it however you want to (I chose to refer to the screen and continue to mirror her poses), but just know that she switches on you.

 

 

Name

Email

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment