Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing, NOT for beginners
Review: Background on me: I'm 33 years old, been practicing yoga off and on for about 3 years (classes and videos) and have practiced consistently for the last 6 months. I'd consider myself in the intermediate category and use yoga to stretch and relax but consider it a bonus if I can get a good workout at the same time.
As for the MTV Yoga DVD:
Positives: None.
Negatives: My main complaint is the speed of the poses. It moved extremely fast -- so fast that my sticky mat was rumpling up and moving with me. The breathing instruction was also very fast, probably to keep in sync with the pose changes. The instruction was alright -- if you aren't new to yoga -- but I just couldn't keep up and feel like I was performing the poses correctly.
The fastest yoga workout I've come across was Rodney Yee's "Power Yoga: the complete workout"...until now! So if you liked that video, you'll love this one.
Also, this is not a good workout for beginners. If you are a beginner, start with a slower workout that shows you how to position yourself correctly (most of the Sara Ivanhoe vids are good) and then move on to more advanced practices like this one if you really want to sweat.
Rating: 
Summary: A great DVD
Review: I love this workout. This was my first experience with yoga, and I truly believe that this video had a lot to do with my sticking with it for this long. Kristin McGee is an awesome instructor. She's down-to-earth, encouraging, and she knows what she's talking about:) She gives very detailed instruction, and she explains what to do for all levels. At the end she goes over a few poses that you may have had a problem with. The ONLY thing wrong with this DVD (and it's a small thing) is that during one of the poses (pigeon pose, I believe) she does it on one side, but forgets to do it on the other side. But like I said, it's a trivial thing, and I only noticed it after I did the workout a few times. You won't be disappointed with this video.
Rating: 
Summary: OK yoga, maddening music
Review: The yoga on this DVD is merely OK. It is not vigorous enough to be a truly challenging power yoga workout (for such a practice, please try Bryan Kest's Power Yoga 3 "Sweat" or Baron Baptiste's Journey Into Power 3), it is not fluid enough to be considered hatha yoga (for such a practice, please try anything by Shiva Rea or the excellent Yoga Mind and Body featuring Ali McGraw and Erich Schiffman), and it is not contemplative enough to be considered a meditation practice (for such a practice please try Power Yoga with Rodney Yee, Yoga for Strength and Energy by Gaiam or Candlelight Yoga with Sara Ivanhoe). What you wind up with is a sort of "hip yoga" featuring all of the athletic elements of yoga, but nothing really instructive about the practice itself.
In order to really practice yoga, you must engage your bandas and practice ujjayi breathing technique. If you are not doing those things, then you are simply performing intense stretches and simple gymnastics. There is nothing wrong with intense stretching and simple gymnastics per se, it just is not yoga.
I generally use my yoga practice as a form of meditation. Consequently, I found the soundtrack jarring and terribly distracting.
It is a decent DVD, but I do not recommend it overall since there are better ones out there, especially for the home based practitioner.
Rating: 
Summary: Great yoga workout.
Review: I love love love this DVD! For a while, I had been wanting to try yoga, but wasn't really sure where to start. I saw this, and decided to buy it just because I wouldn't really lose anything. Definitely not a disappointing buy. This gives a pleasant yoga workout using mostly basic moves, and a few more advanced ones. It has nice music going throughout it, which is good considering it's made by MTV, but it also has the feature on the DVD to turn the music off, which is nice. The instructor, Kristin Mcgee, is very personable and she makes sure to explain all the moves well, and also reminds the viewer to keep breathing throughout. This can be used by inexperienced people as well as those who are more advanced. They show how to do the move the regular way, then they have a way to do it for beginners, and then for more advanced. This is a very good idea. I've seen good results from doing this workout regularly, but a nice thing about it is you don't think you're really working out, however, the next day you're sore. If you're interested in trying yoga, and want great music to go along with it, I definitely recommend this.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: I first got this DVD MONTHS ago and did it once. It was hard, so I didn't pick it up for a long time. I just recently started taking a pilates class and decided to try this DVD again. I have done it the past three days in a row and I LOVE it. It is difficult at first if you've never done yoga before, but if you keep trying to do it it gets easier. I am POSITIVE I will see results from this if I keep it up. Not only does it give muscles you never knew you had a workout, but it's relaxing also. I also like that it has different levels you can move to as you progress on the same DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Another yoga veteran who loves this!
Review: Ok, I heard MTV and Yoga in the same sentence and I thought "oxymoron". I really had the lowest of low expectations, assuming that the poses would be wrongly named, poorly executed, etc. I thought the use of Lori Trespicio from The Real World NYC as a "host" would be eye-roll worthy. The promise of background music from a great DJ (he did the soundtrack for the movie "Go") actually was off-putting in this setting. I was surprised on all counts. I've been involved with yoga for years and the poses were named correctly and executed properly, the instruction was clear and easy to follow. Lori was really in the background and didn't speak throughout the whole thing (she was just used as an example of a beginner) so her presence was absolutely unnecessary and a weird selling point. The instructor, Kristin, turned me off at first because her mention that this wouldn't be like the yoga most people think of with it's "hokey new age music" put the fear into me (I like the meditative music the yoga schools I have been in use). I actually found the soundtrack pleasantly inconspicuous (and loved that it can be turned off so all you hear is the instructor- I can put on my own background music, yay!) The poses were poses I have done in school before and I liked their explanations of important points. Honestly, Kristin was as good as some yoga instructors I have had. This is a very good tape as long as you can fit a mat in your room. I am almost shocked. Be forewarned that you need a yoga mat before beginning this. I also think final relaxation needs to be longer, and is best done with something like a cooling mint/lavender eye bag, so you might consider lowering the lights and pausing/stopping the video when it gets to final relaxation. Also, even the beginning steps might be a bit rugged if you're really out of shape and you can skip some steps until you get stronger.
|
