Customer Reviews

Heart Flow Vinyasa Yoga, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced, a ***Practice DVD***

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Length:: 4:33 Mins

This is a video clip from the actual DVD. The musical track is one the the choices. The instructors voice track is the detailed choice (the other is less detailed and basically keeps the timing).

I have been practicing yoga for over a decade and I finally found in the Heart Yoga Flow DVD the perfect balance between a deep knowledge of physical alignment with really clear and precise direction and an inspiring spiritual theme that is carried out throughout the class. Hearing the teacher's French accent and the words she chooses is really conducive to a state of expansion and I feel totally rejuvenated each time I use this DVD practice.

Also, I like the fact that there are 4 different music tracks. Some days I am feeling mellow and I choose the music that is soft and mystical. Other days when I feel that I need to wake up, I choose the more upbeat track with a more active rhythm.

I am at a point in my practice where I need to hear the full instruction track; however, as I continue practice regularly I assume I will be able to try the timing only option where the instructions are less detailed. I can't wait to try the more advance versions when I get stronger and more open with regular practice. Basically I feel that I found a yoga DVD that really works for me and that I will never get tired of listening and practicing again and again and again choosing from all these different options and tracks. My frozen shoulder is already feeling much better. I am grateful for this DVD.

This is a great video for anyone wanting to experience Anusara yoga.
The sequence moves at a good pace and offers two or three options for almost every pose so you can chose how deep to go depending on your physical capability or energy level that day. I also love the option of choosing from four different music styles or no music at all.
The teacher and models are all beautiful to look at and the setting is very peaceful. I would highly recommend it.

Ishwari Gonnat is a long-time Anusara practitioner (according to her site and John Friend's) and it shows. The flow here is very slow - poses are held for quite a while and I love that. The instruction, though not as complete as you would get in a good Anusara class (that kind of detail doesn't make for good video I fear), is much better than you get in the average yoga media. The sequence is quite nice - strong on the standing poses, even returning to them toward the end; delightful pigeon etc. Gonnat's form is terrific, just as you'd expect from Anusara.

I've been doing yoga for a long, long time and have done some years of Anusara classes. I'm glad to see more and more available on DVD, including John Friend's Omega series and Elena Brower's recent releases. For some newish to yoga I'd advise starting with a Friend or a Brower. But Ishwari's practice is just swell if you have some experience behind you.

This DVD was the first Anusara style yoga DVD I ever purchased. The DVD is approximately 73 minutes long. There is a short mediation and a decent amount of time for savasana (final resting pose). The flow is on the slow side (as compared to vinyasa or ashtanga style yoga), but there are some poses that are on this DVD that are definitely of an intermediate to advance nature. One example of this is the back bend. A beginner can simply do a version of a back bend appropriate for themselves, or do a full back bend and extend a leg in the air, or do a back bend place a hand on the thigh on the same side and then come up to standing from the back bend. Overall, the instruction is good and music is nice. You do not need to be an expert yogi/yogini to get through this DVD, but some of the poses will make you wish you were more experienced if you are a beginner. Any skill level can try this DVD but some poses my not have a brand new beginner level of modification/adjustment for some of the poses.

I just finished viewing this class. It is a very straight forward anusara yoga class with lots of instruction. You can view a clip to get a feel for the class. The poses, as memory serves me are:

arm raises 3x, lunges, cobra, cobra with hands clasped behind back, down dog, up dog, triangle to balancing triangle, bird of paradise, warrior 1, warrior 2, standing head to knee forward stretch, half moon to half moon holding foot, pigeon, pigeon with one or both arms over head, pigeon hold foot, half or full frog, bow, bridge, upward facing bow 2x with variation for advanced students, bound angle, half forward bending, meditation, relaxation. The poses listed are not in the order practiced on the dvd but as I remember them. The practice itself runs about 60 minutes. This is a slow flow with no vinyasa in between poses. Anusara yoga is not big on sun salutations.

There are up to 3 variations for most of the poses. The class starts with the anusara invocation with the words on the screen.

Overall a nice short sweet class for days when you don't have 90 minutes for a class. A more comprehensive anusara class would be Jennifer Lynn's flow yoga dvd.

The camera work is a little funky during some of the forward bending poses, but I am assuming that the camera person assumed you wouldn't be looking at the screen at that point and therefore shot a snail coming out of its shell. Also during savasana, they included out takes where the teacher and director (I guess) were messing around. Again they assumed that you would not notice this because you are lying down, eyes closed. At the end of the class, the camera work was very bad aa it blurred and panned across flowers to settle on a flower instead of the actors. Interesting choice.

I look forward to doing this tomorrow and I will let you know how I felt afterwards. I gave it 5 stars because it has a very peaceful and spiritual feeling which I like in yoga classes. If you are looking for a very active sweaty class, then this is not the dvd for you.
UPDATE: I did this class and it is deceptively challenging becuause of the long holds. I felt great afterwards. A well cued and instructed anusara yoga class. Wish there were more of these on the market. I have John Friend's 3 live dvds, but those were more about HIM than the yoga. This dvd was pure yoga and bliss, indeed!

This is a great DVD. Gonnot blends spiritual and physical aspects of yoga so as to reflect the true essence of yoga. Several options are presented in order to keep beginners to advanced practitioners satisfied. Careful thought has been given to the sequence of poses and counterposes. Finally, the ability to vary music background is a real bonus. For those who prefer vinyasa yoga, this hatha approach offers a little more time to "marinate" the pose and become one with them. I definitely recommend this DVD even though I usually prefer vinyasa routines.

The title claims that this DVD is suitable for beginners, but I have to say that it isn't. I've been taking yoga classes at a local studio for about a year now, and before that I practiced with DVDs for many years, and the poses that this video claims are beginner's poses are often beyond my ability. And the instructor is not good at letting you know how to modify a pose if it's too advanced for you. If you are truly a beginner, I would recommend the YogaZone videos instead.

As others have noted here, Ishwari is a gifted instructor. Her detailed attention to body dynamics is consistent throughout the practice, and if you don't like that level of detail, you can choose the option of having the poses simply prompted. Her instruction is motivating and engaging, and gently reflects the spiritual nature of her practice, without being pushy. She also has a sweet, soothing voice with a great accent. While it is true that the three practitioners demonstrate different levels of difficulty, I disagree that this DVD is suitable for a true beginner; a basic familiarity with the asanas is a prerequisite here. It is, however, a great DVD for intermediate students who want to approach some of the more advanced poses, because Ishwari continues her detailed instruction through the transitions, for example, when going from bound side angle to bird of paradise. The missing star is for the abrupt edits between the musical selections which I found distracting; otherwise I'd have given this one the full 5. To be fair, there are 4 different musical options, and I've only listened to one of them so far, so the editing might be better with the other options...

SUMMARY:
Although it has many good points, "Heart Flow Vinyasa Yoga" is talky, slow-paced, and takes up more time (70 min) than I'm willing to allocate to a daily practice DVD. My favorite practice video continues to be David Swenson's Astanga Yoga "Short Forms" which offers 15, 30, and 45 minute options together with a moderate amount of instruction.

REVIEW:
With its emphasis on attitude and alignment, Anusara yoga is a joyful practice that can be as full and satisfying for the beginning student as the advanced practitioner. The awkward corollary is that Anusara classes sometimes become cluttered with inspirational messages and excessive instruction.

"Heart Flow Vinyasa Yoga" falls into the "chatty" category of Yoga DVDs. The "instructional" sound track is peppered with inspirational messages delivered in Ishwari Gonnot's somewhat muddled non-native speaker syntax: "open to the bigger energy which then sees within you in the form of the breath." The helpful alignment instruction (and there are many) are diluted by Anusara catch-phrases such as "engage legs with remembrance" that may seem like gibberish to beginners.

PROS:
* Ishwari Gonnot has a beautiful practice. Watching her come in and out of urdva dandarasana is an inspiration, while the "less advanced" options presented by her assistants allow every yogi to fit in.

*The DVD offers an "Asana Timing Track" version with less (but still quite a lot of) instruction.

*Three selectable music options include a gorgeous soundtrack by Benji and Heather Wertheimer, called "Benji" as well as tracks called "Jesse" and "Regani." There is also a "no music" option.

*Good options for beginning, intermediate, & advanced. Camera spends time on all three yogis.

CONS
*Slow paced for a home practice CD. Many things that seem fine in an Anusara class like beginning the sun salutation sequence with reaching up repeatedly before going into a forward fold seem to really drag in the video. 70 minutes is a long time to devote to a daily home practice. I would have liked to see a more condensed, 45 minute version.

*Not HD: Although the setting is beautiful, this 4:3 DVD looks grainy and unattractive. This may or may not be an issue, depending on how much you look at the screen while you practice. The soundtrack on my DVD seemed fine.

*Awkwardly Divided into Chapters: An attempt was made to divide the DVD into tracks by asana. This works reasonably well for later tracks (see below), but not so well during the initial sun-salutations. There is no index of tracks (on the DVD or on the box) and tracks are not labeled or subtitled by asana. To find a particular track, you have to skip forward manually.

TRACK LISTING:
Because I could not find an index either online or on the box, I'm including a list of chapters (with starting times in hour : minutes : seconds). Please note: description (and spellings)are approximate!

Chapter 1: (00:00) Introductory sequence.
Chapter 2: (00:38) Title and two-minute centering
Chapter 3: (03:10) Anusara Invocation, Tadasana
Chapter 4: (04:51) Sun Salutation
Chapter 5: (14:50) Sun Salutation including Salabhasana
Chapter 6: (18:57) Sun Salutation including Parsvakonasana
Chapter 7: (21:18) Sun Salutation including Uttanasana, plank, cobra
Chapter 8: (24:50) Sun Salutation including Virabhadrasana (warrior) I
Chapter 9: (27:00) Sun Salutation including Virabhadrasana (warrior) I
Chapter 10: (29:26) Parsvakonasana with advanced option "bird of paradise"
Chapter 11: (33:00) Trikonasana with advanced option. Right side Virabhadrasana (warrior) II to Ardha Chandrasana (half moon)
Chapter 12: (37:40) Left Virabhadrasana (warrior) II to Ardha Chandrasana
Chapter 13: (39:53) Eka pada rajakapotasana (pigeon) prep
Chapter 14: (42:32) Eka pada rajakapotasana (pigeon)
Chapter 15: (45:23) Ardha bekasana (half frog)
Chapter 16: (46:51) Ardha bekasana (half frog) continued
Chapter 17: (47:28) Dhanurasana (bow)
Chapter 18: (49:02) Setu Bandha sarvangasana (bridge)
Chapter 19: (50:40) Urdhva Dhanurasana
Chapter 20: (54:27) Standing forward fold (long hold)
Chapter 21: (56:25) Parsvottanasana
Chapter 22: (58:00 Baddha konasana
Chapter 23: (59:23 Janu sirsansana
Chapter 24: (61:30) Balasana (child's pose)
Chapter 25: (62:20) Meditation
Chapter 26: (65:00) Savasana (corpse)
Chapter 27: (70: 30) Closing