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90 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommended!, May 21, 2004
This review is from: Wai Lana Yoga: Beginners Workout (DVD)
I found this easy series just right for me as a beginner and this "Beginners Workout" DVD is my favorite in the series. I have had to do some for less time than shown and have over the last couple months strengthened incredibly. This is really the only exercise I do and my muscles are firm and movement is coming much easier for me. When finished I feel like I've had a full body workout. It is refreshing and energizing. Wai Lana has a soothing voice that my husband calls monotone, but I find is slightly melodious and very easy to ignore when I'm doing something else, but easy to hear and calming to listen to when I do. She moves between poses rather quickly, but after a while I got used to this. If this is bothersome to you at first you can do the "One Asana at a time" or just do the poses in less time to give you time to rest more between poses. Wai Lana has beautiful outfits that change throughout each session and a variety of beautiful backgrounds. Her outfits are very modest and not form fitting (a plus for men who don't want distraction). She wears an elastic belt around her waist, which helps you see what she is doing with her waist. She is very descriptive of how to do the poses and what benefits you are getting. Because her voice is non-intrusive it isn't irritating that she talks most of the time. She says nothing extraneous that would distract you from the pose and over a long period of time of using the DVD hearing her say the same things each time also doesn't get irritating. On the main menu you have "Start Workout", "Extras", and Introduction (which is the same on each DVD). The "Start Workout" is the entire work out for that DVD. The workout itself consists of about 35 minutes of asanas. After that is a time of music and meditation. Under "Extras" it lists "One Asana at a time", which does as it says; "Customize your workout", this lets you do the asanas (poses) in any order you wish with 17 asanas and 20 slots for your choices, so you can do one more than once or some not at all as you don't have to fill all the slots; "Guidelines" this is a basic rundown of things to do and not to do to get the most out of it and prevent injury; "Wai Lana's Little Yogi's", this includes some snippets advertising her children's DVD; and "More from Wai Lana", which covers all the things she has to sell - her other DVDs and tapes, her music CDs, mats, etc. You can also see those things on her website: www.wailana.com. The DVD comes with an illustrated book showing a picture of each asana, its English name, and what it physically benefits most. This is useful if you are going traveling and don't have a DVD player, doing the set outside, or if you want to do the set at your own pace. There is also an option on the main screen of each that allows you to change from English to Spanish. This Beginner's DVD includes these asanas: Blowing tree, Hummingbird, Folding Triangle, Wraparound Twist, Diving Pose, Krishna Pose, Churning Butter, Easy Arrow, Boomerang, Easy Wheel, Easy Spinal Twist, Easy Bow, Mini Sit-up, Head Roll, Cannonball, Yoga Nidra, and Meditation. Side note: the asana Wai Lana is doing on the front of each DVD cover is not included on that DVD, so don't pick the DVD(s) you buy by the asana pictured on the front.
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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite Yoga Teacher, March 8, 2005
This review is from: Wai Lana Yoga: Beginners Workout (DVD)
I've been doing yoga over 3 years starting with Rodney Yee who helped to get yoga more mainstream years ago with Oprah. I started with him & tried at least 20 others, but only liked Rodney Yee & Rainbeau Mars the most. With their help, I went from unable to each touch my feet to doing full splits by only doing 20-30 min a day 1-3x/week. In the extras menu option, there is a guidelines option to get more detailed infomation about each asana, with her demonstrating, how to do it & what to watch out for to avoid injury. Also you can Customize your workout by deciding how many & which asnanas to do for your workout. Grass Tiger wrote the asanaa in the 3 DVD Easy Series which this dvd is part of: Blowing tree, Hummingbird, Folding Triangle, Wraparound Twist, Diving Pose, Krishna Pose, Churning Butter, Easy Arrow, Boomerang, Easy Wheel, Easy Spinal Twist, Easy Bow, Mini Sit-up, Head Roll, Cannonball, Yoga Nidra, and Meditation. I wish I known about Wai Lana earlier. Her beginning DVDs are not easy for those who are very out of shape, but she gives modifications. She's one of the only ones who tells you the benefits & what conditions it helps you treat as you do the poses to keep you inspired. I wish more of them did that to keep you going & not be bored & reminded why you're doing it. When this workout was done, I was actually upset it was over rather then relieved like I normally am with most yoga workouts. After each pose/exercise, I really felt the stretch & the energy/blood circulation after, I always feel lighter & more graceful & more aware. She also does poses that most don't do that really feel awesome. Some may be considered Kundalini yoga style such as shoulder rolls, leg lifts in some of Wai Lana's workouts, but they really help you stretch more. Any moving exercises are done slow so you feel the joints losening up. Most yoga DVDs I've gotten have been the same exact poses in almost the same sequence (so many sun salutations!), but she's totally different. I loved her relaxation workout, my back feels much straighter then it has in years. I can't wait to get her toning workout of her easy series. 2007: I own ALL her videos now & love them all. I believe her asanas really are authentic & have Qi Gong/Chi Kung martial art healing exercises in them that really build up your energy deeply. There are great pictures of her in poses on her site wailana com
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding, April 14, 2005
Got it today, did it today! Wai Lana doesn't dress like the other video yoginis and the video covers are colored somewhat like kid videos so I bypassed her for WAY too long. She doesn't demonstrate modifications but even without prior yoga experience her instructions and encouragement to do the best you can are enough, imo. This video starts off with the shoulders which is wonderfully different, especially since mine are extremely tight and the beginning postures completely release them and the upper back. The asanas have different names than you're probably used to but the pacing is perfect so there's absolutely no stress or straining. I don't think you can call this gentle yoga because you will be doing much more than mild stretches with Wai Lana but the music, scenery and her voice overs make it so accessible that it's quite relaxing. Okay, I thought, so she leads a thorough session, how's she going to do with the relaxation at the end? Fortunately, it was wonderful (woo-woo free) and if you peek you'll see tranquil and uplifting scenes of happy people, wildlife and water. All the visuals are superb throughout and now I'm thinking the other yoginis have been shortchanging me! If you're want something slower and with little heat, Wai Lana may be what you're looking for.
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