Rodney Yee: Yoga Burn
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Movie Reviews of Rodney Yee: Yoga Burn
Movie Review: A difererent kind of burn
Summary: 5 Stars
I picked up this DVD at Target for 15 bucks and I really like it. All my other Yoga DVDs feature women as instructors, and I was nervous that a man instructor would focus too much on strength moves. I don't know how that applies to Rodney's other DVDs, but in this one he only does easy beginner poses.
The key is, he does each pose in a set of three. You do the moves slowly, which took me awhile to actually DO, as I am used to each pose at the speed I have been already doing them.
I did not feel much of a 'burn', but i did feel a definite heat in my core during the hour-long workout. I honestly felt GREAT - my blood was nice and warm and I felt very strong. So maybe this is the kind of burn that is referred to, instead of the typical aerobics burn of using a muscle group until fatigue. This DVD is not like that at all, even though it's what I was expecting.
Some of his sequences were very fluid and creative - I liked his warrior vinyasa, for example. And some of his forward bends really encouraged my body to loosen to a far greater extent than I had done previously. I found the repetition of each pose (the three times) to be boring at first. Then I noted that each time I repeated the pose I was able to go significantly further into the stretch.
I did not find that much strength was needed in the hour, but then, I like downdogs and planks. There are also some updogs halfway through that got exhilarating/tiring, but one can always replace them with cobras if needed.
Rodney has a very nice yoga instructional voice. Soothing. He does not talk too much - the instruction is just enough, as long as you know what each pose is named (he uses the English terms). Rodney is also enjoyable to look at.
The setting is quite nice - set in a yoga studio - some kind of very cool Zen one. There are rice screens behind him; he is on a bamboo floor platform, and the platform is set above a Zen rock garden. The beige sand is raked around the rocks like one would expect. Very peaceful to look at, with some Zen-like, low music in the background that does not distract.
I found the DVD a bit sparse in options. No matrix or sections to choose from - you just start the program and an hour later you are done. So if you don't have that much time, you'd have to do only a part of this DVD from the beginning, or fast forward to another section and go from there.
There is an intro by Rodney that i still need to watch. There is a choice of playing the hour with less instruction - ie, just voice prompts. The full-on instructional option is not for novices, however. Rodney assumes you have some experience and can follow along by going into downdog, boat, warrior one and two, etc, without having to be told anything about them. He provides no postural tips or even breathing assistance. I think at one point he reminds us to breathe and relax our faces, and that's all we get. I would have liked more direction about when to breathe in and out, myself.
So this DVD would be good for experienced beginners and for intermediates looking for an easy burn. Anyone expecting any arm balances, pigeons or wheel poses won't find them here. I assume for that we'd have to buy his Intermediate Yoga DVD. I actually probably will at some point!
Movie Review: cultivate patience, stillness and strength at the same time
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an intermediate level yoga practitioner, having done both hatha and kundalini for many years, and I generally favor a vigorous, moderately paced vinyasa flow class or kundalini class so this was a whole new experience for me. True, I love and do the original Power Yoga series by Bryan Kest and he holds the postures for long stretches of time, but the entire tempo of this DVD is uniquely and intentionally slow. Now often it's easy to associate slow with easy, and all yoga is essentially easy because you should only be doing what you can in the moment, but this practice is actually very challenging and a valuable tool for building physical strength. Being a reformed gym rat, I compare this to training with heavier weights for very slow reps (emphasizing the negative resistance) and just a few reps per move as opposed to using lighter weight and higher reps. One builds a base of strength, the other develops stamina and sculpts. Both are immensely important aspects of physical training of any kind.
This DVD begins with seated ab-work and twists, and I love that he does navel poses right away when you have your full strength for maximum safety. He gradually moves you into standing postures and it's really a new experience for me to not just hold poses a bit longer, but to move in and out of them with such stillness, slowness and mindfulness. That last aspect strikes me as a somewhat hidden benefit here as well; you are absolutely forced into maximum presence when you move this slowly, just to keep your form in tact, thus making this into both a physically strengthening series and a powerful form of moving meditation. I found that my daily frustrations melted away as I had to intently focus on my movements with this, and that feels truly liberating.
I also enjoy the unobtrusive and lovely music in the background. The set is aesthetically pleasing and you even have the option of either detailed instruction by Yee or just hearing him call out the basic posture names/descriptions if you would like a more quiet practice. And of course, as always Rodney demonstrates every pose and every graceful move in and out of them with perfect form. I find him inspiring without being intimidating, he never radiates ego like some teachers.
I think beginners can do this DVD safely if they do listen to what he's saying on the detailed instruction track, and I also think that an intermediate practitioner can benefit greatly from this class as a form of muscle confusion and slowing down their practice to focus on form. I find that even after over 20 years of practice, I personally fall prey to the tendency to rush through a vinyasa or a class at times and when we do that, we can lose crucial form factors very easily without noticing and we also miss out on the benefit of moving in and out of poses more mindfully.
I plan to alternate this with the vinyasa flow classes I also enjoy, and in that have the perfect yin and yang energies in my own home practice.
Movie Review: burning awareness
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a beautiful, mindful, and potentially powerful yoga practice. It is true that there are no big surprise poses in this sequence--all are well-known, fairly basic level poses. The main audio option contains some instruction, but mostly about moving into and out of the poses; there is not much about alignment within the pose. Complete beginners may need more instruction and modifications than available here. The other audio option omits instruction at all, containing only prompts for moving from one pose to another. The basic poses, simple instruction, and deemphasis on speed makes this dvd a good place for advanced beginners who have some knowledge of the poses to deepen their understanding of them, and for anyone, irrespective of level, to work on the mindful awareness aspect of their yoga practice.
The intensity in this dvd comes, not from speed or difficulty of poses, but from deep, slow, conscious repetition of fundamental asanas, with the time to build awareness of movement into, within, and out of them. Yoga is not meant to be a purely physical activity. The awareness aspect of yoga is rightfully considered advanced practice, and the familiar poses presented here allow the mind to take precedence. The point is not merely physical endurance (though, if done right, this sequence will also challenge the body in that way). The purpose is at least twofold: physically, to develop long and lean muscle through slow repetition of simple postures, and mentally, to use the simplicity of the poses as a platform for developing presence and awareness with each pose. Yoga is, after all, about the mind-body connection, and this practice aims at allowing the time and space for working on this crucial element. For those ready to move their yoga practice beyond the physical dimension while still developing the body, this is a lovely practice dvd.
The asanas are presented in small cycles of three poses or so with about three repetitions each, so it is hard to present an exact sequence, but here is a list of poses, roughly as they appear in the practice: Staff, Flying Crossed Legged Pose, Cobbler, Half Boat, Boat, Simple Crossed Leg Twist, Cat, Down Dog, Plank, Cobra, Single-legged Down Dog, Triangle, Warrior 2, Standing Forward Bend, Chair, Standing Side Stretch, Warrior 1 and 2, Low Lunge with backbend, Low lunge with hands in reverse prayer, Bow, Cobbler with forward bend, Head to Knee forward bend, Wide Angle forward bend series, Seated Forward Bend, Back Stretch, Reclined Bent Knee Twist, Bridge, Reclined Leg Stretch, Reclined Crossed Leg to Chest, Corpse.
Movie Review: a slow flow that challenges the core....
Summary: 5 Stars
In Yoga Burn Rodney Yee takes standard yoga poses and slows them down to a fluid and graceful flow. Each move is done three times and then flows into the next position. Now don't get me wrong, slow and precise does not mean easy; when you are slowing down repetitions where your core (abs) are engaged you are building some mighty strong muscles, and you do feel it. This dvd was excellent. I felt like the poses were well chosen for the workout: chair poses, forward bends, bridge, triangle, seated twists, boat pose, bow pose among other others. I felt very loose and relaxed when I finished this dvd and felt like I had a good practice. My mind felt calm and my muscles felt loose and well worked.
I do yoga a couple times a week along with many types of exercises and would consider myself an intermediate practitioner. Though the dvd states beginner to advanced, I would recommend watching the dvd all the way through if you are an absolute beginner and don't feel like you have to go as deeply into the poses if you are not quite there with your flexibility. I started with very elementary dvds for practice at home first so that I had practiced quite a bit before moving on. I would say this would be perfect for intermediate and above as you are already familiar with the poses and already know how to flow from one pose to the next.
The instruction is calming with light instrumental music in the background that is pleasant and never distracting.
I enjoy yoga by Bryan Kest, Alan Finger, Sara Ivanhoe and Shiva Rea among others and liked the idea of getting something a little different with my practice. I felt much like I do when I practice Pilates-I felt that due to the slow and precise movement I worked my body very efficiently.
An excellent addition to your home yoga practice!
Movie Review: One of Rodney Yee's Best!
Summary: 5 Stars
I did this one this morning, and I love it! It's an hour and really is quite a bit different from Rodney's usual stuff...it's not that the poses are held any longer than usual, but they're executed really slowly (though not TOO slowly, at least for me, lol) and repeated 2-3x.
It's hard to describe, but it almost feels like a dance, the way he puts it all together...he's soooo graceful anyway, and this really showcases that fact. I was able to get into wide-legged forward bend much deeper than I usually am able, and I think it's the way he sequences this pose with others...i.e., he twists (slowly, of course) to the right, holds the pose, drops down to the left with right arm extended overhead, turns into left one-legged forward bend, then comes through into wide-legged forward bend (hope I explained this well enough! lol). It's all done so gracefully it makes me want to be just as graceful.
Some of it felt pretty challenging...he does a very slow 10-count-up, 10-count-down cobra pose 3x that I really felt. He also does "baby cobra" pushing into downward dog (again, very slowly) with knees bent, gradually extending the knees into full downward dog. This one really felt good to me.
Also, there's an audio option to turn off all talking except for his announcing each pose as he goes into it...I didn't use it, but it's there for anyone who'd be interested in such a thing.
I usually do from 30 minutes to an hour of some kind of yoga a day, usually following my cardio or weights, or whatever I'm doing that day, and I found this to be at a moderate level for me. I really love the way it's all put together and the way it flows at a nice slow pace, yet still feels challenging enough in all the right places...can you tell I really like this one?