Product Details

• Actors: Elena Brower
• Directors: Andrea Ambandos
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: ANCHOR BAY
• DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
• Run Time: 64 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001AYWY68
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,619 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Yoga is a wonderful way to help you keep fit, relieve stress, and ease your everyday experiences. Filmed on a beautifully serene location overlooking the Pacific Ocean, these two 30-minute programs will help you realize all the benefits of yoga by unveiling a new connection between your body and mind. The AM sequence enhances basic poses with gentle repetitions to invigorate, tone, and streamline your body while reconnecting to your breathing in a new way every time you practice. The PM sequence in designed to dissolve stress as it lengthens and opens your muscles. You'll learn to use your alignment to expand your breathing capacity, nourishing your body and balancing your entire being.

About the Instructor:
Elena Brower, Certified Anusara Yoga teacher, encourages you to invite yoga’s healing beneficence into every realm of your life. She is the founder of Virayoga in New York City and author of Alchemy, A Glossary.  Named one of New York City’s top yoga teachers by Fit Yoga magazine, Elena’s clients include Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, Minnie Driver, Eva Mendes, Christy Turlington and Rebecca Romijn.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice gentle practices perfect for waking up or winding down, September 27, 2008

By 

LCW - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Element: Am and PM Yoga for Beginners (DVD)

(What's this?)

I was so excited to get this product as I have another of Elena Brower's Yoga DVD's and absolutly love it. I'm happy to say that this did not dissapoint either.

The AM workout slowly warms up and opens your body and manages to pack in quite an impressive variety of poses into 30 minutes that work your entire body without making it seemed rushed. It leaves you very invigorated and is really the perfect quick workout for the morning.

The PM workout is so relaxing, soothing, and just leaves you feeling all ooey gooey good! Elena adds a lot of breathing and centering in this workout, something I find missing or lacking in many Yoga workouts. It is a soothing workout for both mind and body, the very essence of what Yoga is supposed to be!

Here's a breakdown of the poses:

AM:
-Mountain Pose w/ some gentle arm and shoulder warm ups
-Warm ups w/ cat-cow, down dog, childs pose, a down dog/plank vinyassa, ending in cat cow
-Twisted lunge
-Gentle Sun Salutations
-Standing Poses including Warrior II, Side Angle, Wide Leg Forward Bend, WLFB w. a twist, and Warrior III w/ modificaitons, side plank w/ modifications
-Then you move onto floor work with the Sphinx pose, moving locust pose, boat pose, bridge pose, seated twist
-Ending with a seated meditation and centering

PM:
-Seated meditation and moving your body with your breath to get centered and relax
-Down Dog
-Plank
-Cobra
-Pigeon Pose
-Twisted Pigeon Pose
-Down Dog
-Childs Pose
-Breathing and Centering
-Easy Twist
-Seated Stick Pose (Dandasana) alternating with seated twists
-Seated Forward bends
-Back to Seated Stick Pose
-Cobblers Pose
-One legged seated forward bend
-Savasana

Both workouts are perfect for what they meant to be: gentle and quick with emphasis on both the working and relaxing aspects of Yoga. I highly recommend this great DVD!

62 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good, but not for rank beginners, October 14, 2008

By 

Jon Norris (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Element: Am and PM Yoga for Beginners (DVD)

(What's this?)

This is a good yoga video, but it is important to realize that it is not an instructional video for absolute beginners. The poses may be easy enough for beginners to tackle, but this is not a video for teaching yoga to a novice.

The video consists of two sets of postures (poses, movements), one for morning and one for evening. Elena Brower obviously knows her stuff, and each pose is shown from a variety of angles. The narration is helpful and clear. There are some instructions for a few variations based on the learner's abilities.

While the video is well shot and the poses well done, I find it lacking in instructional value. There is too much unexplained jargon; "soften your eyes," "inhale brightly open," and so on. The yogic names, when used, are not explained, spelled out onscreen, or pronounced slowly. There is no booklet included to explain, define, or clarify any of the material. Someone already familiar with yoga, or other similar practices, could learn the routines fairly easily from this video.

This all serves to make it more difficult for a rank beginner who might want to start learning yoga from this video. The routines are great, and would be a wonderful addition to one's yoga regime. Just don't make the mistake of thinking you will jumpstart your study of yoga from this video.

With that caveat to warn off absolute beginners, I find this to be a nice presentation of a couple of great yoga routines for those already familiar enough with yoga to add to their practice.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful for beginners :-), September 13, 2008

By 

Little Miss Cutey (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Element: Am and PM Yoga for Beginners (DVD)

When it comes to yoga, I am definately a beginner and don't do it often because some yoga programs are too challenging for me. This one is great and I'm glad I decided to give it a go. I didn't get it the first time round but I'm finding it getting a little easier with each go and now I'll be enjoying the challenge of progressing to a higher level of it.
This has a gorgeous setting outdoors by the ocean and so that in itself is nice and relaxing. The AM segment is done with standing movements to help energize you and the PM segment is more focused on relaxing and elongating your muscles and nice stretches. I find down dog and sun salutation to be my two favourite moves here. Ellen is a great instructor who has the perfect soft voice for yoga teaching and the way she describes the moves, helps you visualise them without necessarily having to look at your tv set.
While I'm new to yoga, I do find this great. As I mentioned, yoga usually seemed intimidating yet this workout isn't that at all. So if you haven't tried it before (or you have and didn't like it), I think this workout will suit you. It's easy to do and relaxing. I highly recommend it.