Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss Transform Your Body

A great, manageable yoga DVD for daily practice
This video spent some time gathering dust on my shelf before I finally tried it. When I finally did, I loved it, and this may well become my “go to” yoga video for busy days.I happen not to like “flow” videos so much, and it seems most yoga DVDs out there are exactly about that. I love the feeling of breathing into a pose, and the challenge of using my muscles to maintain a strong pose for a little while. Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss gives me just what I need: a good combination of standing, sitting, and lying poses; lots of twisting poses (which I’ve also found lacking in flow videos); a few poses which gently, but powerfully, build abdominal strength.The video allows you to do the workout at different levels of modification, which means that you can measure yourself to someone at your level as you check your position. It’s hard to know if you’re doing a pose right if the only model you get a yoga master, or if the modified pose is somewhere behind the yoga master (hard to see on a small screen). Almost every breath is cued, which I also appreciate, and Deason keeps up a running commentary with advice on what you should be feeling and doing during each pose. Her voice is soft enough that you can ignore it if you wish, but I found her suggestions very useful for working on strength and balance, especially during standing poses.And, the entire thing is only forty-five minutes long! It really fits into a busy day, and is wonderfully restorative. I’m not sure what it does for weight loss, but I can tell you that I feel physically good after doing the video, with just the right combination of energy and pleasant fatigue.

Excellent overall, but not effective for weight loss
I am in average shape, but was not at all familiar with yoga. This was an excellent DVD to begin with because each pose is clearly explained, and the Personal Instructor feature allows you to break from the program to get specific instruction, and then return to where you left off.In addition to the poses being clearly explained, the instructor continually reminds you to breathe and focus. The setting (in an Arizona desert) is stunning, and the music is calming and fits the workout well. Specifically, at the end of the workout when you are instructed to stay in Relaxation/Corpse Pose for as long as you like to relax, the instruction ends but the program continues with music so you don’t feel any discountinuation.The only negative comment I have for this DVD is that it is too short. If you do all three sections back-to-back, it only amounts to about 40 minutes of activity. Most advanced students of yoga I know practice for 1-2 hours at a time. I always feel at the end like I could have continued for much longer. I have not been able to find a DVD that lasts more than 45 minutes anywhere, though.Because the program is short, I have not experienced noticeable weight loss after about 8 weeks, but I have noticed a significant increase in flexibility, strength, and serenity.

I’ve got a few yoga DVDs, and this is one I go back to all the time.Don’t know about you, but I’m not terribly fit, or a stick, and that was one of the reasons I got this DVD over others. One of the best things about it is that there are four levels of workout, which one can work through depending on flexibility/ fitness/ how you feel that day. This makes it a fitness DVD with great potential to grow with you as you improve. Plus there are additional tips you can access to improve your practice throughout the DVD.Suzanne Deason is a very good instructor, she talks through the postures with care and attention, but without being annoying or doing that terrible ‘look at me and how supple and fit I am’ thing that many fitness DVDs do. Nor is it simply an excuse to wear pretty yoga clothes and look at the scenery as so many are. It’s practical and achievable, focusing on mind-body connection to bring well-being as as much as fitness, which is very important for those of us who see gyms, aerobics and treadmills as mechanical processes which don’t help us to want to get fit. This is a practice you will want to do, because of the sense of relaxation and being in the body which it leaves one with.

This is the best yoga DVD I have bought so far. It has four levels of ability catered for on the DVD. You can choose to fallow a fully modified workout, 1/2 modified, 1/4 modified or expert level. Or follow a workout that shows all four instructors, There is a warm-up level, Active Yoga conditioning, and a cool down section.The poses are challenging because they are held for a 60 seconds or longer, I was used to the fast paced Rodney Yee Yoga.Suzanne gives lots of pose advice along with safety tips (never turn your head in bridge pose) A great DVD for the first time yogi.