Yoga Basics: Beginner/Intermediate Level (2002)

Rating:
Summary: Great Video
Review: This is a really great video for getting more flexible and destressing. I recommend it for anybody who needs to take a break each day to 'zen-out' and unwind their bodies.

Rating:
Summary: love it!
Review: This is already a firm favourite - and I have quite a collection. Good selection of poses, excellent instructions, lovely lakeside setting, and really possible for beginners, although progressive in nature. What's unusual - and likeable! - about this tape:
a) she does a graceful warm up - something I've never really experienced in yoga videos - standing, lots of hand and arm movements and some knee bends. I liked it. Makes a change from sun salutation warm ups, speaking of which -
b) no sun salutations! Makes a change. You don't always want to do endless sun salutations. And this is a Baron Baptiste/All the right moves fan speaking. I have a recurring problem shoulder and don't always want to do planks, up dogs and down dogs in continuation - as in most power yoga tapes, and even non-power yoga tapes like Total Yoga, or the Buns of Steel Yoga mind/body - which is my staple for "shorter" days. So this is great for bad shoulder days.
c) unusual music choices, from classic to ethnic to slightly jazzy, but never too loud to make her voice unintelligible - a fault on MANY videos.
d) Although this is aimed at beginners as well as intermediates, there is no time wasted hanging around in between poses as in so many other tapes, where you are kept in eg. downward dog for ever while they explain the permutations and effects. The poses move at a good pace - and are kept for satisfying amounts of time, in classic hatha yoga style.
e) No need for endless props - she does have a segment at the end where she demonstrates how to use blocks or straps if you want to - but shows how you can hold your thigh not your calf - encouraging - I don't like to be bothered with having to grab various objects in the course of my search for flexibility and inner peace, it has the opposite effect!
f) She mirrors - leans to her left and tells you to move to your right - something most fitness instructors but very few yoga instructors do (wonder why?) - very helpful.
g) Lastly - I learnt a couple of things about my positioning that I didn't get from other tapes - which impressed me.
So - unless you are rather advanced, this is great, go for it.