Yoga DVDs

As if to lend weight to my contention that your computer can, in theory, teach you anything, along comes a pair of CD-ROMs called Wellness Yoga and Shiatsu Relaxation. Lithe young women demonstrate these ancient Eastern techniques while mellow-voiced narrators speak over somnambulant music, the better to relax you and make you all well. Most of us are familiar at least with the concepts of yoga, its slow stretching routines and its often almost unattainable physical positions. Wellness Yoga is a nicely designed program that packages 74 asanas, or positions, into several packages such as the Quick and Easy Course, the Beauty Course and the Health Course. read more..

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Yoga used to be the kind of thing someone’s eccentric aunt did – a woman with a braid wrapped around her head who entertained the children by putting her foot behind her neck. I tried screening three different yoga DVDs on a day when my neck and shoulder muscles were tighter than last year’s jeans. I had knots the size of Rhode Island that had been there for weeks. Jane Fonda’s Yoga Exercise (A.Vision) relaxed them. Kathy Smith’s New Yoga (BodyVision) warmed them up. Three hours later, after falling under the reassuring southern spell of actress Dixie Carter’s Unworkout (MCA Universal), they melted away. read more..

Trying to find well-produced fitness videos that are truly suitable for beginners can be a daunting challenge. Most yoga DVDs these days aim at intermediate exercisers, the ones who know a grapevine from a box step and a lateral raise from a biceps curl. These tapes may offer a few easier moves here and there, but the instruction clearly is geared to people who already know what to do. The few tapes that are marketed for beginners often are unspeakably repetitive, as if flabby muscles always mean a flabby brain. And too often, they provide no way to add extra challenge or difficulty to the routine, as if beginning exercisers are going to remain beginners forever. It’s nice, then, to discover Yoga Zone: Flexibility and Tone, a beginners yoga DVD that offers the depth of instruction and easy pace that true beginners need. read more..