Customer Reviews

Yoga Journal's Beginning Yoga Step by Step: Session One - Three

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

DVD 1 - Inspired Instruction

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.

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.

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.


DVD 2 - Hatha Yoga for Flexibility

I'd consider myself to be intermediate and the workout on this DVD seemed to be an intermediate workout with some challenging bending and twisting poses. It is a healing workout that may be enjoyed by intermediate yoga students who are looking for challenging backbends and twists.

I'd "highly" recommend buying two beveled foam yoga blocks (if you have yet to buy them) and a yoga strap along with this DVD. Modifying the balancing poses with props is advised.

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

A 35 minute tutorial - You explore the postures in depth
20 minutes of uninterrupted flowing practice - a vigorous vinyasa flow sequence

Begin Practice (Different from Begin Instruction)

Follow Jason Crandell - This is an excellent option if you want to use props like blocks. Jason demonstrates modifications for those who have less flexibility.

Practice with Medical Commentary
Practice without Music


DVD 3 - Finding a Balanced Life

This DVD is for students of yoga who have mastered the first two instructional sessions. The third DVD is a challenging and healing workout that may be enjoyed by intermediate yoga students who are looking for challenging balance poses that increase your focus and energy. Upper body strength will be especially important in this DVD.

During the handstand section, I had a good giggle because I could not get upside down on the first few tries and then my feet made a rather loud noise as I finally was up against the wall. I think I may have startled the neighbors. On subsequent attempts, I was able to get upside down more easily when I used a little momentum. While upside down I could really feel the weight of my body and some of the exercises may be slightly wrist intensive if you have not been doing yoga for a few years.

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 - a vigorous vinyasa flow sequence

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
Practice without Music

Natasha Rizopoulos teaches you about how to use a wall to assist with balancing upside down. She gives safety tips and modifications. I personally think this is intermediate to advanced or can be done by individuals with good upper body strength and balance.

~The Rebecca Review

I have no idea what avocat is talking about. I am wondering if we even have the same video or the person never looked at it in full. I don't see how doing a sun salutation is advanced. While to 2nd DVD (intermediate) includes stuff like shoulder stands, headstands, and crow; it walks you through the process including something called chalk talk that shows you common errors and how to fix them. While these poses do take some amount of strength and balance, there are warm-ups and modifications show. I always recommend going to an in-person beginning yoga class before using any video, this is actually one I would "watch and study" BEFORE even going to a class. Why? Because I learned more from this video than I ever did in any, of the many classes (at least 30), I took including over 10 different instructor with a least a half dozen different styles such as
Kundalini, Bikram, Iyengar, Anusara, Jivamukti and Yin.

In fact, I think watching this video should be a required by all yoga instructions on how to do poses right and help others correct theirs.
Out of all these classes I took most paid very attention to helping the class do the poses correctly. Unfortuely, In most of the classes I've been to the instructor just shows the poses without even looking up to see if people are doing it right. I am amazed I didn't get hurt in some of them, even when the instruction did pay attention to these more complex and potentially dangerous (for an unskilled, unfit beginner with limited flexibility and balance) poses. I know I wasn't doing them right and I defiantly now see how I could over time develop injures from repetitive doing poses (including the basic variety of sun salutations) wrong. It's now also no mystery to me now how people get injured in yoga so easily even when their not pushing too hard especially if they have some kind or physical limitation.

The 3rd DVD video is advanced in the selection of poses, and nothing I would encourage an beginner to do. You need lots of classes (and/or videos) and a good deal of strength and balance to do these. However, when you are ready, the instruction is excellent. However, I will say that I wish this series had more poses for the inflexible and not so strong beginner. I would thrilled to see them release another DVD (or set) with a bunch more of truly beginner poses. I can understand why they choose these however, because these are poses are often done incorrectly and that have the most chance for error and injury. All in all it's definitely worth the price for just the chalk talk. You can always buy the DVDs separately, and get just 1 and 2 or even just rent it from Netflix.

For those of you who bag on the begginers comments my chosen title was for you. Anyway.....I feel it is worth adding my two cents here; I am a very new beggining yoga student and found this is NOT for me... "yet". If I wanted a DVD that would show me all the poses for the routine to follow, without getting to the routine until much later, this would be the DVD for me. However I do not want to just do the poses one at a time for a few weeks then again try to follow the instructor as she quickly (without much description from pose to pose) moves on while I try to catch up. As a begginer I feel I have an idea of what many beggginers may expect; 1) I would prefer a slow enough pace to allow me the time to move from pose to pose. 2) a clear verbal description of what movements are necessary to enter the next pose. This way I don't have to be distracted watching every toe, arm, and leg movement of the instructor, which she takes for granted. In my opinion she doesn't take into account the actual begginers needs - for example she often gives the name of the next pose without the way to achieve the next pose. 3rd) a program that varies depending on my flexability, strength, and conditioning (asking too much here I know). At this point I am going to take a class, even though I bought this "begginer DVD set" to avoid the cost of classes and travel time. To give you an idea of my abilities; I am 41 yo 6'1" 220lbs, surfing for 25 years, mtn bike, and have been told by my tennis instructor I correct body mechanics issues quickly. In closing this DVD set will be great after I don't have to focus on watching the instructor, have the breathing technique as second nature, and poses the flexability that allows me to quickly move from pose to pose. Good luck if you buy this DVD as a begginer - just plan to take some classes too unless you spend many hours trying to overcome the above mentioned issues I have run into.

I don't normally leave reviews, though I do rate many of the movies I rent on Netflix. I started doing yoga several months ago after seeing the show Namaste Yoga on FitTV. I followed it every day for a few weeks and felt that I really needed more instruction on understanding the poses and making sure I was doing the poses correctly. I've rented movie after movie after movie on the subject of Yoga, and I must say that I have enjoyed it the most.

This is a beginning Hatha yoga instructional movie which teaches the building blocks of the Hatha yoga asanas (poses). There are two other DVDs as part of the series, each with progressively more challenging poses. The instructor (Natasha Rizopoulos) is absolutely perfect. Her voice is calming and relaxing, yet firm. There are two main sections: 1) instruction, and 2) practice. The instruction section features Natasha and two other individuals, Autumn and Jason. Each asana is very clearly demonstrated by Natasha, who then has Autumn repeat the asana. Autumn shows how to position each part of the body correctly, and also illustrates incorrect alignment versus correct alignment - in essence, helping you pay attention to what is correct and what is not correct. Jason modifies each of the asanas with simple props so that individuals who are less flexible and need assistance flowing into each asana can follow his lead. I really can't think of a more clearly illustrated and wonderfully presented instructional series for beginners to Hatha Yoga. Now, when I follow along to the Namaste Yoga show on FitTV, I enjoy it so much more as I am confident that my positioning for the asanas are correct.

I found the #1 DVD at the library, and watched the instruction last night. Let it be known that I am a TOTAL beginner, with no prior yoga experience except for what I have done on the Wii Fit, which really can't be called yoga.

I find it interesting that so many of the positive reviews for this DVD claim it's great for beginners, but at the same time, they also say they have previous experience in yoga and/or fitness!

Well I am truly a beginner, and while I enjoyed the DVD, I found it to be way above my abilities.

I found it very difficult to "watch Jason" as he was rarely in the actual instruction shot. It would have been nice if she showed Jason's demo BEFORE she started the pose. Jason did the demo after I had already tried it myself, and it was frustrating because I wasn't sure if I was doing the poses correctly.

She moved much too quickly, and I found myself needing to rewind to keep up. At that point, I gave up, and figured I would try it again if and when I gain more flexibility and experience.

If you are already in really great shape with great flexibility, then you will find it easy to start this series. If you are like most people who are just beginning your fitness journey, then hold off on this DVD until you gain more experience.

There seems to be a good amount of controversy over whether this is a "beginner" DVD, and I think it's a question of how you define beginner. I think this is an appropriate DVD for someone who has taken four or five classes *at least* and preferably worked with a simpler beginning DVD at home. Even then, it will be most appreciated by Type A people who want a good foundation in proper yoga form and are interested in a more athletic, and less meditative, type of practice.

I first tried this DVD after having taken one class. I'm a fairly athletic and ambitious perfectionist, and even I was simply overwhelmed and frustrated. I was shouting at Natasha "you BITCH," and I finally turned it off and did a simpler enjoyable video at my level, the one by Ann Richmond, also on sale at Amazon. I tried this video again today after two more yoga classes (I've taken a total of three) and after having done the Ann Richmond DVD with great pleasure four times. It was hard work, but I was able to follow the instructions and get something from the DVD, and I did enjoy the 20-minute routine. I only cursed at Natasha once, and I will do the DVD again.

The video is clearly aimed at people who already have some foundation in yoga. Natasha focuses obsessively on proper form in each pose, but gives little help to the actual beginner. In the three classes I have taken (all at a resort with a very mixed level of student) the instructor always started by saying something like, "leave your inner critic at the door," and "don't push yourself" or "each person will come to his or her expression of the pose for today, and that's okay." Another thing I learned from the classes and another video is that you can start in a less extreme version of the pose, and gradually move further into it with each exhale. This has been the single most important thing for me in starting my practice--and Natasha doesn't explain that.

She creates a fairly difficult routine, then she turns to the camera and says basically, if you can't do what I can do with my amazing body, here is what Jason does. And then the video shows Jason looking awkward and dorky. I felt like the dunce of the class, there in the corner with Jason. For my first approach, I would have much preferred a simpler routine I actually could do!

However, if you've been doing yoga for a few months or years and want to do rigorous work on basic poses, this is a great video. I will be using it and working with it intensely for the next few months. I have to breathe deeply and meditate first so that I don't shout obscenities at Natasha.

Iam 72 years old and have done some yoga. The program I ordered is absolutely wonderful. This gal is very good at explaining procedure. The program she offers is very easy to follow. Like I said, Iam 72 and I can follow her to a T. I would recommend this beginning yoga program to anyone.

In my opinion these DVD's provide excellent descriptions and demonstrations of each pose which is a great help to anyone practicing at home and needing a little guidance. The guidance provided is really clear and easy to understand.

For a newcomer I do not think that they are a substitute for the guidance of a real live tutor but once you have some experience they are great as a reminder of how you should be working in a pose.

Personally I find the actual workout time of 20 minutes is really a little short and would be better at 30 or even 45 minutes. However, I bought them specifically for the detailed pose overviews.

As someone fairly inexperienced with yoga I find this trio of dvds fabulous. I am still at the first one and have plenty to learn but Natasha's voice is soothing and her instructions clear and easy to follow. I am enjoying these dvds greatly.

I borrowed the first video from my library and really liked it so I decided to buy the entire set. It is easy to follow along, especially when telling you how to position parts of your body for each pose. It's great for becoming more flexible - I am a runner and it is helping other areas that I neglect. I do agree with another reviewer that you do have to be 'in shape' to do this - you should be involved in some type of exercise.