Customer Reviews

Big Yoga Beginners Hatha 1

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

 

 

I can see where this DVD may be helpful to SOME large people. However, I still found that I was incapable of doing some of the postures because of my stomach and leg size. In fact, I found this DVD no easier for someone my size than the beginner Yoga Zone DVDs -- and those are certainly not marketed for larger people.

In many of the postures, she has you stand with your feet together or sit with your legs together in front of you. She also has you cross one leg over the other leg and twist -- which is also impossible for someone my size. Then she has you pull your knees to your chest. I cannot do any of these. I am a size 24, by the way. And I am able to do most of the postures in many yoga DVDs, like Yoga Zone. I am also very active, having lost 60 pounds to date (I do Turbo Jam, Walk Away the Pounds, and Jari Love).

With this purchase, I also bought "Just My Size Yoga" by Megan Garcia. I love that DVD. Although it is not perfect (I would like it to be longer and to have more stretches), it is far more achievable for someone of my size. In fact, there is not a single posture I cannot attain. After that DVD, I feel refreshed, revitalized, and strong. Unfortunately, I cannot say that for this "Big Yoga" DVD. I really wanted to love it, but I will have to wait until I lose at least another 50-100 pounds probably.

I do mainly cardio and strength training and wanted to start doing yoga to increase flexibility. I thought this would be nice and is is suppposedly geared towards a larger body and is a beginner level.

To start, it spent so much time with the instructor chanting that I had to finally fast forward to the workout. It also wastes several minutes where you do nothing except move your eyes back and forth, up and down, one corner to the other. Yoga EYEs??

I felt the actual workout was rather disjointed in it's movements from standing to the floor back to standing. And as to being appropriate for larger sized beginners - how many are going to be able to do a pose where you have to hoist your entire body into the air while supporting nearly your entire weight just by placing your hands on your back just below the shoulder blades?

Before it even got to the pose mentioned above, there were other poses that even I thought were overly simple. It was on one of these very simple poses that the instructor herself states that if you can't do those poses that you should be using an even more simple DVD - what is supposed to be easier than a level 1 beginner DVD??

Skip this DVD - it will never be worth any price. I recommend Just My Size Yoga instead...a much better DVD.

I used to do yoga quite regularly before having children and gaining 40 pounds (post pregnancy). I've been looking for a yoga dvd that is more accomodating for my larger body. This dvd did NOTHING for me. The eye rolls killed me - my eyes don't need to be toned, my tummy does! I wouldn't recommend this dvd to anyone. Yoga for the Rest of Us was at least a little more challenging.

Meera's Big Yoga is not for "exercise" or weight loss but is for the aspiring Yoga student who wants to embark on the Yoga journey and experience the fullness of Yoga. If you are looking for a "workout" Yoga DVD for plus size people, Integral Yoga isn't for you. Big Yoga is based on Integral Yoga, a system developed by Sri Swami Satchidananda (also known as "the Woodstock Guru) that focuses on the whole person (thus chanting, eye movements, breathing exercises, deep relaxation) with the goal of Yoga in mind: transcending body and mind to have an experience of one's inner peace and joy. Meera is one of Integral Yoga's most senior teachers and adapted the class as part of her ongoing Yoga journey in a larger body.

This Big Yoga CD is exactly what I was looking for. The instructor is awesome, with a smooth voice. I love the pre yoga work and meditation. I was not looking for a CD full of poses I couldn't do. This brings in relaxation, meditation as well as yoga poses for all to benifit. I'm really happy to find a yoga CD that has included in the format what is on the label. Can't wait for the next Big Yoga CD to arrive. Thanks for a great workout!

I purchased the dvd to use in between the times I couldn't go to my class. I found it to be easier than my class which was also aimed at plus sizes. To my surprise though I found myself working up a sweat. Even though the eye rolls may seem simple, it is relaxing. I would have liked to see more routines and less of the meditation.

I LOVE the instructor. She is lovely . . . very calming with an extraordinary voice. The DVD is beautifully made and very well rounded. I fell in love with integral yoga after taking a class with my sister, and this is the first and only integral yoga DVD I've found. The asanas follow the class almost exactly. I wouldn't have minded a few more yoga poses but did enjoy the focus on the other aspects of the practice as well. As I said, this DVD is very well rounded. I look forward to more by Meera.

I loved Meera Patricia Kerr`s book, Big Yoga, so when she offered to send me her DVDs to review I was ecstatic.

A couple of days ago our gym installed a DVD player in the exercise room, so that you can use any program on the big roll-down screen and sound system. My training partner, Albert, and I used Kerr's Hatha Yoga One DVD together, so I'm pleased to present you with a male and female opinion on it.

First of all, we both agreed on some awesome positives.

Meera is lovely and calming, her voice was wonderful to listen to during the session. She is completely non-threatening.

The deep relaxation at the end of the DVD was incredible. Both of us felt that it was the best we'd ever experienced. It worked so well that we agreed we should have done yoga after other exercise, because we couldn't get ourselves pumped up again for pull-ups and bench presses. All we really wanted to do was go get some good food and chill for a while.

There was an exercise that required you to put your legs up a wall and then press your feet on the wall and lift your bottom up. I loved this one. (At least up to that point. When she took her feet off the wall and did a kind of headstand with all her weight on her neck and shoulders, she lost me.) Albert had a more difficult time getting into the position, but once he did, he enjoyed it as well.

Albert really liked the eye exercises at the beginning of the DVD. I didn't. They triggered motion sickness for me and kind of freaked me out.

There was one thing about this DVD that made part of it difficult to follow. Meera, in her book and in the DVD, describes a modified wall Sun Salutation. Which is awesome. Unfortunately, it's really hard to face a wall to do this series of exercises and watch the DVD to see what she's doing at the same time. The legs-up-the-wall sequence had the same problem. To use this program, you'll have to watch and learn the movements before hand so that you can do them without visual guidance from Meera. Albert and I sort of modified her modification of a Sun Salutation and did it standing, but without the wall so we could see what was going on.

The only other criticism I have is that I wish there were more modifications. She did recommend some remedies for larger bodies, for instance using a rolled blanket to rest your chin on when laying on your stomach. Since this DVD was marketed for larger people, I would have preferred poses that didn't require so much time laying flat on my stomach, which I find uncomfortable. She also had a few poses with her legs straight out in front of her and pressed together, which could have used the modification of opening them to make room for a big belly. I knew to do it, but Albert was determined to follow her instruction and his ability to get into a pose was hampered.

Overall, this DVD is worth the price for the deep relaxation portion, which was truly amazing. Albert asked me to let you know that he felt amazing after the hour was up and is looking forward to doing it again. This will become part of my yoga rotation, but with my own modifications and a little study of the modified Sun Salutation so I can do it on a wall without being able to see the TV.

NOTE: This DVD was sent to me by Meera Patricia Kerr for review purposes. My opinions and thoughts on it were not informed by the gift.
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Shaunta Grimes blogs about body acceptance and athleticism at liveoncejuicy.com.

I really enjoy this yoga class. It isn't too strenuous, yet I have been doing this everyday for 3 weeks and I can feel a difference in my body and my sense of well being. I Use this in conjunction with Peggy Cappy "Yoga for the rest of us" and I am told that I look like I am losing inches.

I think Meera wanted to jam everything she could into this DVD in some ways, but she left a lot of modifications to be desired. In fact I don't remember anything about modifications except for "use a blanket to sit on" if it was more comfortable. Other workouts along these lines, such as Heavyweight Yoga or Zyrka Landwijt's Gentle Yoga, not only talk about the modifications but show them in a way that doesn't distract from the workouts. The spinal twist she did is VERY difficult for a lot of people, let alone people with any abdominal girth to them. There are several modifications you can find online to do this DVD, but the point was to have a DVD that one could do with a bigger body--not that you would have to search and read to find modifications for. The wall work is also difficult to do when one is using a television to watch as one cannot face a wall and a television at the same time generally. However, that is something that can be memorized and done from her verbal cues alone. Mostly though I would say it's 25% of physical asana and the rest a lot of mental work, which is fine--not what I was looking for. The poses are one right after the other (except for corpse poses which seem to be the bulk of the DVD) in a disjointed fashion, and I would be surprised if any pose was held more than 30 seconds...the average seemed like 10 seconds...as soon as we were in position it was onto the next. Not enough time IMO to get anything out of the actual workout if this is intended to be a follow along DVD, which I think it is. She speaks rather fast as if she wants to make sure you get through these poses as quickly as possible again no modifications; this is something I can't stress enough the almost frentic pace of the workout. I'm not sure but to me it felt like her goal in the DVD was to do X amount of poses in X amount of time; again, not what I was looking for. The music and set are wonderful and I think the idea of a well rounded yoga workout for bigger bodies is great, but it just doesn't come through to me on this workout at all.