I just finished doing this dvd this morning. My first impression is that this a hard workout and the physical benefits are worth the effort. However since, power yoga is not my normal practice, I felt like I was missing something. Perhaps the spiritual aspect of the yoga. That aside, this a great yoga class to get you into shape. Lots of planks and up dogs AND lots, I mean lots of ab work.
Setting: Bare studio with concrete looking floors. Sadie is set up in front of a window with a heating vent beneath it. Very stark. She is on a black mat and is wearing black. When the camera pulls back, it is hard to distinguish her body from the mat.
Production quality: I read the back of the dvd cover and it said that you can pick from 2 views, one normal and one 3D where you can see the poses from different angles???? I didn't see that option on my dvd?? The camera was to the side of her throughout most of the class. Also when I first watched the dvd, I chose the beginners option. About 5 minutes into that I realized that there was absolutely no cuing, just wah wah wah commentary. I thought, oh no , another dvd to return to amazon! Something told me to go back to the menu and just press play. Aha, cuing, such as it is. Her cuing is often late and doesn't match the movement. I don't know how these dvds are made,but I am assuming the audio is added after the video while watching it. How hard is it to match up the instructions to the movement? Several times I had to crane my neck to see what was going on only to realize that she had moved on to another pose.
Wow factor: As I said physically, this was challenging. If you are a beginner as I am when it comes to vinyasa yoga, you will not be able to keep up. I wasn't able to. As such, I didn't feel really good after the practice, not like I did after Jennifer Lynn's flow yoga dvd. It moves really fast and is over in 60 minutes (gratefully!) Will do it again, only because I am trying to get back in shape and power yoga beats lifting weights any day of the week.
Simple suggestions: I know she is producing another dvd due out in February (checked out her website). A couple of suggestions. Pretty up the space a little. Cover up the air vent. Black clothes, different color mat, or vice versa. Fix the cuing. This is so important on yoga dvds. Try different camera angles on poses, it helps, alot.
To me these type of classes are always better when there is more than one person in the class. Perhaps someone who is less flexible with a diffeent body type. Just my suggestions for whatever they're worth :)
Overall good dvd. Good class. UPDATE: I returned the dvd. I went to her website and saw a video clip of her upcoming dvd. It looks much better and more comprehensive than this one. I couldn't see owning them both.
