Customer Reviews

Beyond Basic Yoga for Dummies

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have found both Sara's DVDs useful and fun. I will not repeat information from other reviewers that I agree with, but I will offer a few tips to those who have a concern over the length of time and "patter" in this series (Beyond Basic and Basic). These tips will work for both DVDs.

If you have gone through the daily dozen with Sara several times and know everything she's going to say, do one of the following...

1. Mute Sara and just watch her do the poses with you while you put on a calming CD. You'll still feel like she's there with you and she'll keep you moving from one pose to another.

2. Don't use the DVD at all, but put the daily dozen list in front of you and just follow it at your own pace. (Also listening to some calming music.) You can increase or decrease the amount of breaths you take in each pose to modify your session. We do this a lot.

3. Do the intermediate session on the Basic DVD or the meditation on the Beyond Basics. Those 2 rotated make a great session on their own!

When you want a refresher course on how the poses should look and feel, just turn Sara back on and review with her.

Don't be scared off by other reviewers' comments! I've been using this series for a year now, and it's the one I'm happiest with! This new DVD is a great companion for the first.

Namaste.

Just when I was getting bored with the routine from "Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies", they decided to come out with a sequel with the same instructor (the always wonderful Sara Ivanhoe) but with a more challenging workout. I had been doing the old routine for about 10 months when I decided to step things up a bit and buy the sequel. This video is a fitting follow-up to the first. While the first routine introduced you to yoga and got you used to practicing it on a regular basis, the second video really gets you into it and presents a good workout for the body. You will be surprised at how fit this yoga workout will make you feel. I've been doing the workout for 6 months now, and I'm more toned and muscular, and I've even lost some weight! (Never meant to, though, it just happened...) When I noticed that my clothes didn't fit as snuggly as they used to, and I had to buy smaller rings, I knew the yoga was working!

Like the first video, the instructor goes through each pose step-by-step to make sure you are doing it properly. If you're a veteran of the first video, you'll have no problem learning the new routine. But even if this is your first time, you will have no problem learning and doing the poses since the instructor makes yoga so accessible for everyone. And the good thing about the video is that you can watch it a few times, memorize the routine, and then do it on your own after that.

With this video, who needs to spend money on expensive yoga classes at the gym? You'll get a great workout at a great price.

I bought the First DVD, Yoga for Dummies. It was great because it had a section where she showed you each pose and then she actually gave you a full routine that you could practice to. This DVD only gives the instructional part but there is no routine to follow. And I agree with the other reviews...the pop-ups are beyond annoying. I do not think these existed on the first DVD and I am not quite sure why they were added. I like Candle Light Yoga and Crunch Fat Burning with Sara but I would not recommend this DVD due to the fact that it is basically instructional with no practice routine to go with the instructional.

This is a perfect DVD if you are a beginner, and maybe even intermediate. Sarah explains every thing very well. The thing is, that I found it a little slow. Since the title says "beyond" basic yoga for dummies, I thought it would be an intermediate level, but it's not, I would say it's a little bit more than a beginner level, but less than intermediate; however, the explanations are really good, which is a great plus, since in so many live classes teachers assume that you are an expert, her voice is relaxing, and gives you a decent workout. It's not a DVD that you would play very often, since it takes over 60 minutes, and it's not like other DVD's where you have at least 2 different routines. Here it's all conected, so you can't go from pose #3 to pose #10, or from one routine to another, since you would feel like somehting is missing.

Sara Ivanhoe's nurturing teaching style makes her workouts perfect for beginners, but even if you are intermediate, she still knows how to present challenging postures in a way that makes you want to try them. This workout begins with a series of stretches to warm up the upper body, but you may want to walk for 20-30 minutes or do some aerobics to warm up the muscles. I found that without the walking or biking, I was not as flexible.

"The Daily Dozen" exercises are a little more challenging than the first DVD and I was actually surprised at two of the exercises because they almost seemed advanced. It was more the length of time you are required to hold the posture that seems to make them go beyond intermediate. Upward Dog is surprisingly challenging when held for six breaths. Normally I've tried this in a vinyasa style workout with flowing postures. When you take each posture and focus your attention for six breaths, this becomes a test of patience and endurance. The postures include:

Chair
Warrior
Triangle
Wide Leg Standing Forward Bend
Low Lunge Twist
Upward Facing Dog
Dolphin
Cow - I had never seen this exercise before! Total challenge!
Wide Leg Seated Forward Bend
Reclined Butterfly
Supine Twist
Final Relaxation

I really loved "Dolphin" which is like Downward dog with your arms bent and your head almost on the floor. It tests your upper body strength and balance, but feels great once you are done with the breathing exercises. Each posture presents a physical and psychological challenge which makes them even more fun.

"Cow" felt very much like an advanced exercise, mostly because of the flexibility required to even get into the posture. I literally sat there laughing when I realized there was no way my legs would "pretzel" the way the exercise required. So, you may just want to adapt that one for beginner/intermediate and it still seems to have the desired effect. Beginners will find some of the exercises to be more intermediate, and intermediate practitioners may find this workout great for developing patience.

For some reason, which I can't explain, Sara Ivanhoe's workouts leave me feeling more centered, balanced and generally happy and peaceful. It is as if the world spins a little more smoothly after the workout. A meditation session is also offered and Sara Ivanhoe teaches you a new mudra. I can also highly recommend her Candlelight Yoga workout and all of her 20-minute Makeovers.

Items needed: Yoga Mat

~The Rebecca Review

Big fan of Sara Ivanhoe here. Her instructional style is pleasant without being patronizing; she looks like she's really enjoying herself and manages to convey the feeling that she is in the room with you. Her instruction creates a very clear picture of what the body is supposed to be doing/feeling/aiming for at any time.

I found it to be not only a great sequel to Basic Yoga for Dummies, but an excellent companion to her two Crunch workouts--many of the poses introduced in the Crunch series are explored in more depth here, which made both the Fat-Burning and the Joy Of Yoga workouts become clearer.

Once I understood the poses I wished that there were an option to run through them with fewer preliminaries, but I like the DVD so much anyway that I had to give it five stars. I'll be working with this one for awhile--there's plenty of room to grow with this workout.

I received this as a gift from someone that chose it for the familiarity of the brand, against the myriad of other yoga videos available. Like many other Dummies publications, it delivers an adequate amount of information in an easy-to-understand and unsaturated fashion. While I would have preferred a better exposition of the principles involved, Beyond Basic Yoga for Dummies provided a fairly rigourous and rewaring yoga workout that left me with an extremely calm feeling of energy upon completion. My biggest complaint is the frequent interruptions of the trademark Dummies tips as they're very distracting, especially when you're supposed to be focusing on the movement; Ironically enough, one of the tips tells you to eliminate distractions! Sarah Ivanhoe is a great instructor, but I think that her Crunch Candlelight Yoga video far surpasses this one if you're interested in a better understanding and demonstration of Yoga.

This dvd is exceptional for beginners! Before purchasing this, I had never done Yoga before. I really love Sara Ivanhoe, she has a very soothing voice and makes you feel very comfortable. There are a lot of explanations before every pose, so if you have no idea to what you are doing, you will be perfectly fine. However, if you have some basic yoga knowledge already, this won't be the dvd for you. You will then find it very slow and boring due to all the explanations and slower pace. But, I would recommend it 100 percent for someone who has never done yoga before!!! Don't be afraid to give it a try!!

I have been praciticing yoga for about a year now. I purchased this video after about 4 months of practice and was completely bored. I couldn't even get past the first couple of segments. I found the pace slow. The first video that I bought was Crunch: Fat Burning Yoga, I loved it! I found it easy to follow and just the right amount of challenge, so I looked for other videos by Sara Ivanhoe. I purchase this and was very disapointed. For anyone with any prior yoga experience I would not recomend this, however if you are unsure of the proper way to do poses, this could be very helpful.

I've never done yoga before, but started with this one. It was great to hear the whole thing for about the first two times I watched it. After that, I've found that the only way to really get the benefits from it and not spend an hour listening to Sarah talk about yoga, is to keep the remote with me and try to zip through some of the setup. But it's a real pain, and I wish that there a section that allowed you to run through the entire workout at once, without spending 5 minutes to get into each pose.