Customer Reviews

YOGA JOURNAL SESSION 1

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

 

 

Yoga can help you fully relax and prepare for meditation or just feel more relaxed while reading or cooking. Your mind will be cleansed and while the world surges around you in all directions, there will be an inner calm you can carry with you all day.

While this DVD may seem to be for absolute beginners, it seems to be more for students of yoga who want to "begin" their own home practice. Yes, you can follow the instructions if you are an absolute beginner because there are variations if you are just starting yoga. I'd consider myself to be intermediate and the workout on this DVD completely heated my body and was challenging at places.

Natasha Rizopoulos has a beautiful teaching style that allows you to fully experience the body mind connection. She encourages you to experience yoga in order to balance your life. After watching her Yoga demonstration you may start to think of Yoga as an art form and not just an exercise routine. She turns yoga into ballet and her upper body strength is astounding.

This DVD has interesting menu options. There are really two main parts:

A 35 minute Instruction Session - You explore the postures in depth
20 minutes of uninterrupted flowing practice

You can follow the Instruction Menu, Practice Menu, go straight to the Yoga Chalk Talk (a great way to explore the poses) or Medical Commentary. The Practice menu has four sections:

Begin Practice (Different from Begin Instruction)
Follow Jason - This is an excellent option if you want to use props like blocks.
Practice with Medical Commentary - A discussion of the nervous systems of the body and why stress hormones can affect your immune system.
Practice without Music

If you are completely new to Yoga, you might want to start with the "Begin Instruction" for the first few days (so your wrists get used to the poses) and then move on to the Begin Practice or practice along with the Chalk Talk to master the poses.

Natasha Rizopoulos teaches you about ujjayi breathing, then teaches you how to move skillfully into downward-facing dog, cobra, upward-facing dog, simple cross-legged pose, chair pose, plank, warrior I, warrior II and extended (right) angle pose.

This is the first DVD in a series of three high-quality yoga packages. You will need blocks and a mat for the first practice session. The orange mats, rich wood furniture, lamps, sage walls, sun filtering through lavender shades and a beautiful wood floor make this a beautiful and inspiring space in which to develop your own home practice.

I can highly recommend this DVD and the entire Yoga Journal's Yoga Step By Step series to beginners (if they follow the initial modifications) and intermediate students (if they want a flowing practice session to warm and energize their bodies). Advanced students may enjoy this as a refresher course. Even after years of yoga practice, it is exciting to find out there is so much more to learn. This is a must-have series for
anyone who is interested in yoga.

~The Rebecca Review

I love this video and I love the entire series.. Great instructor,great instruction, it takes the time to teach you each move, what the name means, little tips about the poses and how not to do each pose.. if you have never done yoga this is a great video.

Though I did yoga briefly years ago, I've forgotten most of what I learned then from Richard Hittleman. Today, I exercise regularly, but find myself physically inflexible and uncoordinated. I thought yoga would help, and I've been working with DVDs for a while. While I think the instructional material in this DVD is very complete, the routine it teaches is way too hard for me. The flowing workout is hard to keep up with, and some of the combinations are extremely challenging. It's often tough to perform the combinations and watch the screen to see what's next. The pace of the instruction is very brisk. I often find myself rewinding review sections of the presentation. In addition, Natasha Rizopoulos uses the Sanscrit and English names for poses interchangeably, and I have trouble knowing what she's talking about. In general, this video presents more information than a beginner can reasonably absorb quickly, and I don't think it is a good first choice for a beginner.

Since this program is marketed as yoga for beginners, I thought it would help me develop a practice of my own. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way: Even though variations are shown, most of the poses here are very challenging if you're starting from Square One (i.e., being completely out of shape and out of practice). Also, the program's WAY to fast-paced to follow if you're out of shape. That said, if you're IN shape, you could get a lot out of this program.

I agree with Rebecca's Spotlight review.

I'm an intermediate practitioner, and I love this series. Out of all the yoga DVDs in my library, this series is used most frequently along with DVDs by Shiva Rea and Bryan Kest. It's basic enough for the beginner and excellent for those of us who would like to keep our foundation strong while experimenting with more advanced poses. Whenever someone asks for a good DVD to start out with, I always recommend this one.

If you've never done "power" yoga before this will definetly give you in depth instruction on breathing and posture. <br /> They show decent modifications for beginners with yoga blocks, although I couldn't tell if the blocks were used when you went from downward dog to cobra.<br /> I wish it had been labeled more clearly about the Ashtanga vinyasa style of yoga taught because I was looking for something that also had meditation too.<br /> It is definetly a good buy if you're mostly fit and want a beginners yoga DVD.

This whole series is a great set to have in your collection. If you are doing some type of beginner yoga dvd that is doing the poses without power and are ready to move to the next level, then this is the series for you. It will go through the entire routine step-by-step (as the title says) showing various levels of doing each pose and then there is a follow-on routine (shorter in length) that does the whole routine of what was covered in a nice flow in about a 20 to 25 minute routine.

If you are looking to begin a home practice or supplement a studio practice at home, this is definitely one of the best-if not THE best. Natasha Rizopoulos walks you through the poses step-by-step, explaining how to perform the pose and providing alternate versions if you are not able to do the full pose. There is an option to review each pose separately, and to do the entire sequence with or without music or instruction. The music is nice, and the poses are "do-able" for beginners, unlike many other "beginning" yoga DVDs. In all, I think this is the perfect intro to the practice, and one that you will actually use and feel very comfortable with and not intimidated by too many "pretzel" poses or a too-fast sequence of poses.

This yoga DVD was exactly what I've been looking for. Having just begun doing yoga about 6 weeks ago, I wanted to have a video that I could use in between my classes. Being cautious about just buying any DVD, I decided to try this one. And I'm glad that I did. Natasha was wonderful. I did the instruction segment first then moved into the practice segment. The practice segment is perfect for an early morning routine. I found her to be easy to understand and follow and she was not boring nor slow. I'm definitely looking forward to trying the other 2 DVDs in this series.

If you're a beginner and need a "first tape", I suggest this one. Natasha Rizopoulos is a great teacher: very specific, yet very understanding and forgiving of beginners. The DVD has all sorts of added value showing how to modify the exercises if you're a beginner. The medical commentary points out potential issues to be aware of as a beginner. You can get the whole three volume set if you're feeling flush, but you can start with just the first one and see if you like it. (That's what I did) This is a great and inspired DVD. I just wish Natasha taught class in NYC so I could work with her directly. Hint, hint, Natasha!