Customer Reviews

Antonia Kidman Yoga - The Power and Style Of Ashtanga

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this DVD because it features a smooth, flowing Ashtanga yoga workout. Antonia and Kate (the instructor) are very graceful, plus there are good modifications for beginner to intermediate levels. The only minus is that it's not very chellenging for advanced practitioners. Also, it's a bit short - approx. 45-50 minutes.
So, being quite an advanced practitioner, I save this DVD for when I'm looking for more of a stress relief and sensation workout, and if I want more of a chellenge I go for the wonderfull Brian Kest Power Yoga Series.

I like this video, and have used it several times.

There are three people doing the exercises, performing them at various levels, so you can adapt the exercises to your abilities. The teacher is a former dancer, very graceful, and it is a joy to observe how she does the exercises.

The exercises flow smoothly inmto one another, and the teacher encourages you to try harder, whitour overdoing it.

There are not enough instructions to attempt the more demanding postures, but I believe that nonbody should do yoga just from following videos at home. I believe one needs a mixture of live classes and home videaos.

I did not find the exercises too easy, but then I am not that athletic.

I did not like the Sun Salutations in the beginning of this workout. They were too fast, so that when they were done, I was not even warmed up. It reminded me of MTV Power Yoga, which I hated.

However, I really liked that there were a whole standing and then seated sequences. I aleady have them, though. The seated sequence was basically the same as is on Yoga Shakti, and the standing sequence the same as the Nicki Doane video Ashtanga Yoga Beginner's Practice (but shorter and therefore less good).

So, if you don't have any such videos, this is good because it was cheap and they talk in Australian accents. (They say "Let's move into THE up dog.") If you have a healthy-sized collection, though, it wont really add anything.

This is a good overview of the Ashtanga practice. I miss some of the postures, and I'd like to see several more sun salutations to really get the body warmed up, but generally, I've been very happy with it. It serves well as a supplement to classroom practice. I purchased the Richard Freeman Ashtanga video, and while it's a great video, he does the whole sequence, which takes about two hours - not very practical. The fact that you can pop this video in and an hour later have be done and have gotten a pretty good yoga workout is really great.

This is definitely not a video for someone unfamiliar with yoga practices. There's not a lot of time spent in explaining postures, and there's no explanation of proper breathing before the video begins. But if you've already taken some yoga, this is a great at-home supplement.

The dvd menu options include chapter selections & extras which includes interviews, 2 min on breathing, 7 min on abdominals exercises & 6 min on sun salutions done outside.
This main yoga workout is set in a studio with Kate leading, Antonia, a male & female helping to demonstrate various beginer to advanced levels. The music is very light in sounding but also the volume is set so low, you barely hear it. Kate's voice seemed a bit stiff & stern for me, but after a while grew on me so that it didn't keep me from following along. She gives many instructions on contraindications, how to do the pose, what to watch out for in cheating, etc. both before & during the execution of the poses. She also reminds you of how the poses benefit your muslces & joints & also which of your interneral organs enjoy the poses to keep you going.
It starts with sun salutions done so fast, I couldn't keep up just like the reviwer said of MTV's Power Yoga. After several of these, she adds side angle, triangle, warrior 1, twisted side angle.
Next are standing poses such as ones mentioned & added are cresent, wide legged forward stretch & other poses that are on almost any other yoga dvd. Here she goes much slower, holding poses for feels like 15 - 45 seconds.
Next is balancing standing poses such as tree, then leg straight out & to the side, half lotus & bending down.
Next is sitting such as sitting foward bend & 1 leg fwd bend, butterfly, twisted sage pose, etc. other usual poses. For the back she adds table, locust, bridge, full wheel. Last is a shoulder stand that starts out as plow & goes into the shoulderstand & for advanced goes into putting the legs in lotus during it.
Overall it's good, I like hearing the benefits, the diff stages, good instruction. The cons are the poses are basically the same on any almost all other yoga dvds, the camera is sometimes on Kate's face instead of, say, Antonia being chosen to be the one person geting in/out of advanced shoulder stand & the inability to really hear/get relaxed with the music.

This is a fairly standard Ashtanga-style practice. It is a shortened form of the Primary Series of Ashtanga, so if you like this video but 45 minutes isn't long enough for you, try any Ashtanga Primary Series video. Beryl Bender Birch's "Power Yoga" is good, as well as the videos by Richard Freeman or David Swenson.

In the featured Editor Review, Sam Graham describes the video as "adequate but incomplete, as is so often the case with yoga video products; there's no warm-up, and curiously, the few minutes devoted to yoga breathing, far and away the most vital component of any practice, come after the ashtanga series is over." Well, none of that is any fault of the video or the instructor - that is the way traditional Ashtanga is. The whole practice is a breathing exercise. The Sun Salutations are the warm-up - if you need a substantial warm up before you can do a Sun Salutation, this probably isn't the video for you. If you need a few more Sun Salutations to warm up, just pause video and do them!

As for the video itself, the instruction may not be complete enough for someone with little or no yoga experience. The camera doesn't always get to the relevant area in time to see what you need to see. Kidman's form is not perfect, but perhaps that might be encouraging to some students.

I liked this one -- but i am definitely a beginner -- she explains each step so I don't feel like I am left out of the loop and I feel really good when I am done.

I really enjoyed this dvd. I loved the flow of it. It wasn't boring and it was a nice setting. There wasn't much explanation of the postures, so if you don't know any yoga this is not for you. If you do, I definitely recommend it. The only thing I didn't like was the very end - I was closing my eyes in relaxation and after about 20 seconds you are jolted back to reality with Antonia Kidman's voice. They should have ended it with relaxing music so you can stay in relaxation as long as you want without pressing pause. Other than that, it was a great workout.

I happened to come across this DVD at my local library. I tired it out and determined I'd like to own it. Unlike many yoga DVD's it has a farily quick pace and it shows you poses at various levels of ability. This is a good program for those that are still newer to yoga yet it has quite a few advanced poses. This is a program that you can grow with as it isn't only a beginner's program. It will take me quite some time to advance to some of the poses - which is exactly what I was looking for. Also, the DVD has a few different sections to choose from so you can custom tailor your workout.

The content of this video is very good, format flows well, the instructor keeps you going and the exercises are very cardiovascular, just what I wanted. Well spoken, addresses different abilities, supports resting and you complete it feeling well worked!!