Customer Reviews

Yoga Slim

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

 

 

While the information on this DVD says you will be experiencing "Dance Yoga" I have to admit that there is no dancing during this workout. Instead what you will experience is a form of active Yoga. P.J. Johnson presents a challenging series of poses that are in constant motion. Instead of remaining still when doing warrior you are actively moving your arms up and down. This takes your practice to new levels as you burn calories and oxygenate the entire body. Breathing is a focus as with all yoga exercises but it is emphasized even more on this DVD. Since all the poses are enhanced with motion you will feel like you are getting twice the workout.

~The Rebecca Review

This workout was not what I would call a calorie burner; in fact, it is one of the less challenging Yoga DVDs I have used. I found Self Magazine's "Destress Yoga" required more exertion than this routine. That being said, the instruction is fairly detailed, and the pace is one that a beginner would feel comfortable with. This is really a Yoga Stretch routine, with one short walk portion that she calls cardio. The DVD is decent, but forgettable. I also found the intructor's repeated use of the work "awesome" a bit annoying, and wished that the two other exercises would smile from time to time. They look as if they feel they are being punished.

This is set indoors on a small stage/room w/2 backup women, one serving as a modifier. The production value is professional, the music is very low & hardly helps. PJ has a great demeanor, is calming & relaxing. She has a great mind/body workout.
That said, this workout has a lot of repetition of going in/out of a single pose so that there is very little time for a variety of moves seeming to teach the absolute beginner. She also gives a lot of instruction & very little calming time. She cues YOUR left/right & reminds you of proper posture/breathing which is great.
That said, you will bend in/out of warrior 1, 2 & chair separately many times. There is a lot of holding the arms up to work the arms/shoulders. There is a nice amount of single leg balancing w/a walk in the beginning. There wasn't much time for much else but this alone is a great workout.

This is great for those new to yoga or those who don't want a spiritual workout.

I'm not sure what Natural Journeys was thinking when they named this workout "Yoga Slim" or described it on the DVD case as a "Yoga Dance program." Both labels are highly inaccurate: this is not an energetic, power yoga-type practice likely to result in any type of "slimming," nor is it any kind of dancing workout. However, what Yoga Slim actually IS is a very nice, 50-minute yoga practice which incorporates flowing movements in and out of the postures to enhance both the stretching and strength benefits.

This practice is led by PJ Johnson, who (according to the Natural Journeys web site) is a certified personal trainer and both a Yoga Instructor and Thai Yoga Therapy Practitioner. In her brief introduction, Johnson describes the workout as a combination of yoga poses, movements, and balancing exercises combined with breath. She cues the practice live, providing mirrored left-right cuing. She has two background exercisers, Taya, who shows some easier modifications (she uses a block in a few poses), and Beth. All three exercisers have their mats perpendicular to the television/cameras. The Main Menu offers options to play the workout either with or without narration; the menu also lists Bonuses (a Posture Gallery of photo stills and Weblinks), Fitness Trailers (from other Natural Journeys productions), and Production Credits.

Johnson begins the practice with an approximately 8-minute warm-up. She encourages you to focus on your core while establishing a standing posture and then moving through several repetitions of sun breaths. This is followed by some very nice neck and shoulder stretches. Moving the legs wide, Johnson performs some wide leg plie squats, and then she continues to warm-up the body by moving the arms in and out from a "T" position, rotating the arms in the sockets, and circling both the arms and the hips (knee circles). [This final section of the warm-up reminded me very much of Miranda Esmode-White's Classical Stretch techniques.]

Immediately following the warm-up, Johnson moves into the first active sequence. She starts at the back of the mat, taking several giant steps forward and back, ending with a knee hold on either end. She keeps adding on to this movement, first adding a leg extension, then adding the knee rotating out to the side to open the hips. The next series is based on Warrior 1. Starting in a straight leg W1 position, Johnson adds in flowing movements with the opposite arm, raising the arm up straight and then bent (this doesn't sound like much, but I really felt it in my shoulder blades!). She inserts a series of chair poses before switching to the other side. A second W1 sequence is performed in the traditional W1 posture, front leg bent. This time, Johnson holds the pose while moving both arms up, then crossing them behind the back. She completes the series and further works the legs by keeping the arms behind the back to lean forward over the bent leg, then back. Another chair series concludes this section.

The last standing sequence starts from Warrior 2 pose. For the first series, Johnson simply moves in and out of W2 (i.e., bent leg to straight leg). Before moving to the other side, she performs a wide-legged forward bend, flowing in and out of this posture and adding a twist at the end. Returning to W2, this time, Johnson introduces a flow that moves from reverse warrior to standing to extended side angle. She concludes with a wide plie squat, again moving in and out of the posture and finishing with lunges from side to side to stretch the inner thighs.

The final section of the workout, which includes core work, finishing stretches, and relaxation, is about 10 minutes long. Johnson first comes to her hands and knees to do some gentle hip circles and calf stretches. From here, she moves into plank work on the forearms. The difficulty level of this segment was definitely up a notch from the rest of the workout, as Johnson does a long hold in plank, rocking planks, and leg lifts in plank. But the plank series ends fairly quickly, and soon Johnson is telling you to come onto your back, where she moves the knees back and forth a few times in a revolved stomach pose variation. She follows this with a nice hold of reclined cobblers pose before moving into savasana, or final relaxation; Johnson remains here a few minutes before coming back to seated to finish.

I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed this practice. Although it has been out for several years now, it reminded me of several other recent yoga DVD releases, particularly Leslie Kaminoff's Breath-Centered Yoga with Leslie Kaminoff DVD, which is based on principles of viniyoga and includes similar flowing movements in and out of postures, and Body By Bethenny with Bethenny Frankel, in which Kristin McGee leads a more strength-based yoga practices which has sequence flows similar to the ones here. This practice would be very accessible for most beginners, but it does presume some prior yoga experience; therefore, I would recommend it for experienced beginners and above. In summary, if you are looking for a yoga practice that is a bit different--one with a flowing feel which very gently stretches and strengthens--then this DVD might be right for you.

I'll be honest. I'm REALLY out of shape and severely overweight, but have been working on my body for a few months now with good results. I noticed that I was seriously lacking in the flexibility department and figured I would give yoga a try. I was worried about being able to move in and out of some poses, but went for it anyways with this DVD.

If you are experienced (or even intermediate) this may not be the workout for you. However, if you are new to yoga or want to ease into it, this video is awesome. I was able to do all but one pose without a modifier. They do suggest a yoga block to help with one pose, but I didn't have one and managed fine. I felt the burn in my arms and legs and liked that the instructor continually reminded me of my breathing. The transitions are plentiful, but very at ease. In all honesty, I didn't realize that we were at the end. I didn't realize an hour had gone by until I came to Amazon to look for more DVDs by this company! I thought it was maybe 30 minutes! Not realizing how long it is and not wishing it would end is good news for a fat chick, let me tell you ;)

Also, just a heads up, I didn't buy this. I rented it from Blockbuster online.

I keep thinking I'd like the toning benefits of yoga, but I find yoga a bit of a bore, what with holding all those poses and getting in touch with my mind and/or body and all that. But I keep trying different workouts hoping one will inspire me.

Well, this one finally did! Yoga Slim doesn't feature endless sun salutations; instead, the instructor sticks mostly with Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 poses in which she "flows" back and forth from lunging/stretching over the front knee to lifting/stretching over the back straight leg. There were some other forward lunges as well in which she kept the arms in constant motion, both up over head, then floating down to circle in front of you into prayer position. The constant motion was a nice fusion of toning and stretching.

After about 40 minutes of different flowing moves, we move down to the floor for about five minutes of plank work for the core (midsection.) These hurt my toes, so next time I am going to substitute either push-ups or crunches. After this is a V-E-R-Y nice 10 minute relaxation segment, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I felt that I had gotten a good, moderate toning workout, and I'm sure I will reach for this DVD again and again!

I really enjoyed this DVD! PJ kept me motivated the whole time and was really fun to work out with. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in staying in shape and having fun while doing it.

I will not blame P.J. for my not liking this DVD at all, which is why I still gave it three stars, but the description presented by Natural Journeys is totally incorrect. I am an intermediate yoga instructor and there is really not any yoga here. There is a very slow, breathy, stretch. Yes she does incorporate the following poses: modifed triangle, tree, warrior one and two, but that is it!! Not even a downward dog. The stretching was so slow that I wouldn't even use the DVD for a good stretch. The slowness of it would put me to sleep. Just be aware of that before you buy it. It may be right for you but I am selling it first chance I get.

I was expecting the DVD to be more challenging. I found it as a walk in the park. I would not recommend the DVD.

I have to admit that I was skeptical about this product. I got to tell you..after I used it, it was not bad. I really like how it moves at a pace that I could handle.