Bryan Kest Power Yoga Complete Collection

Rating:
Summary: What's All the Fuss About
Review: I bought this video years ago. I didn't know anything about Brian Kest. I hadn't done yoga in 20 year. I was able to get right into the poses.(as well as I was able to). Why are the main complaints about the tape soooo shallow ie: his hair, the room, perfect people? I want to see the beautiful people, I take the way they look as inspiration. I'm finally going to get the next 2 tapes.

Rating:
Summary: Erotic power yoga 90s style
Review: The good point about this tape is the price,that you have 3 practices,and that this is REAL Power Yoga..This stuff hurts..I can almost guarantee if you do these tapes daily you will see results...yesterday the UPS man told me I had nice arms,and I am positive I am now leaner as opposed to that bulky weight lifting nautilus look I had.Ok,Level 1 is for Total Newbies,Level 2 is the HARDEST,and Level 3 although hard is NOT as hard as level 3...My butt is sore everytime I do the tapes....I myself as a former fashion student love the lighting and music,but here is the thing I find made it hard for me to concentrate in the beginning...Bryan Kest is a long haired stud muffin and we see 90s video type shots of his lovely face,him in a leather jacket,and him doing handstands half naked in black tights..Wonderful,but nothing to do with the instruction practice...Also,Mr.Kest is perpetually shirtless during the class,showing off a beautiful body (obviously from yoga) wearing strategically sexy yoga attire, and adjusting a cast of women with 6 pack stomachs and gym god men..I do not think I am being immature for noticing this (I am 39)..but it does give the tape am erotic vibe..Now I have gotten past it,because this is a must have for a collection,at a decent price...I would recommend this tape along with Roddney Yees Power Yoga (make sure you get the 75 minute tape) and also watching Steve Ross on Inhale on The Oxygen channel at 6 am,and in 6 months you WILL see a new body as long as youre also watching your diet and adding cardio .

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Summary: My favorite power yoga!
Review: This set was the first set of yoga tapes I purchased several years ago, and it is still a favorite, joined by the Power of Hatha Yoga Ultimate Series with Naader Shagagi. I've been doing yoga for some time now and am still even challenged by the first one, so I can interchange all three. The greatest part is that this doesn't feel like the "fad"-type power yoga -- Kest's soothing voice and reminder to only go as far as you can while remaining equanimous keeps the tone down but makes this a powerful, yet smooth-paced workout. Great for both beginners and those more advanced at yoga!

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Home-Use DVDs to Own
Review: Bryan Kest's "Power Yoga Complete Collection" is among the two best home-use Yoga DVD in the marketplace.

Not only were its Ashtanga-rooted flow sequences (vinyasa) well instructed for the intermediate to advanced student, Kest's prep messages were inspirational and his workouts challenging and highly motivational even to the fit and regular yoga practitioner.

Unlike many dull home-use yoga DVDs in the marketplace, Bryan Kest's workouts were choreographed in the fashion of a yoga MTV, offseting what would have been a bore to users on repeated viewing. I have been practising Ashtanga yoga in the past year with a qualified yoga personal trainer and finds Kest's collection to be the next best thing to having my PT around - the DVD offers well-structured and time-efficient sessions (50 minutes for what are essentially full-body workouts from intermediate-beginner to advanced). Definitely a must-have yoga DVD to supplement your workouts when you have no time to hit the gym or when your yogasana is closed for the holidays!

For maximum benefit, I would highly recommend combining this DVD with Shiva Rea's Yoga Shakti - while Kest's 1995 collection offers the intermediate-beginner substantial aerobics workout from his well structured vinyasa routines, Shiva Rea's Yoga Shakti offers a matrix system where viewers can mix and match routines to the tune of their body/moods. Combining the two gives yogis the best of both worlds - strenuous workouts on perky days and less demanding yin yoga routines on "moon" days.

PS Digressing but having tried and tested many yoga mats, the black sticky mats used in Kest's DVD are also the best (non-slip, sturdy and cushioned) mats aficionados should lay their hands on!

Rating:
Summary: couldn't get past his voice
Review: Well, I can't speak to Bryan's great cueing or his holding poses for the right amount of time. This is because I was so put off by his voice that it was impossible to continue. Imagine a grating, annoying, nasal voice telling you ad nauseum how important breathing is..." And you gawda remembah that da breath is very impooortent..." I applaud the others for braving that for a workout. But I couldn't do it. I wish someone had mentioned this in a review before I bought 2 of his DVD's. I returned both Bryan Kest DVD's the same day!

Rating:
Summary: kick my butt
Review: I love yoga, and I have many dvds since I am always experimenting, I also workout 6 days a week but this dvd just made me sweet like crazy. I thought I was in good shape and I thought I was pretty flexible until I tried this. It is really good and you don't have time to look at the tv and you don't really need it. The cues are really good and Bryan holds the poses long enough for you to feel something going on in your body unlike other videos I have when the instructors rush from pose to pose and you end up confused and tired. I highly recommend this video to anybody.

Rating:
Summary: Great deal, great workouts
Review: First and foremost, this DVD is a great deal, with three rigorous 50 minute-ish workouts for the price equivalent of some single-workout 50-minute dvds/tapes. The instructions are clear and helpful and not at all distracting. The pace is good - i would identify myself as an intermediate yogi who still tips on balancing poses and can't quite get crow pose. The three workouts definitely have their own distinct feel and although some of the poses are the same, the duration of holding them, the order in which they're done, and other modifications make it so that I can rotate the three different segments throughout the week and not get bored.

One warning is that I found the second segment, "tone," MUCH more difficult than the 3rd, "Sweat," which is supposed to be the most advanced. He really has you hold the poses for so long, demanding a LOT of stamina and endurance for what was described as intermediate.

Another note - because these were tapes transferred to DVD, they got a little lazy with the skip function, and "skipping" brings you to the next workout, not the next set of poses (whereas other dvds divide the workouts into segments you can skip to, like "sun salutations," "twisting poses," "balancing poses," etc.) This is somewhat annoying. The lack of skip function also means that the viewer is subject to a montage of Bryan skulkily pacing around an urban roofdeck that somehow contains tumbleweed.

While the commentary is not distracting, the visuals definitely are. As many have said, the "help" Kest provides to the students is hilariously akin to fondling. also, I prefer not to count the ribs of the female students who wear little more than skimpy bras, and the thong leotard worn by one student is just wrong. So if you prefer not to punctuate your yoga practice with chuckles, try to avert your eyes from the TV after you have the routine down pretty well.

Despite it's quirks, the workout is challenging and invigorating, and definitely worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: This DVD Kicked My Butt!
Review: This is a great Yoga DVD. I am quite new to Yoga but had tried another beginners Yoga DVD and was extremely bored with it. This one is great and will give you a good challenge. I am still on the first level and am looking forward to moving up. I am unsure how good the instructions would be if you have never taken a yoga class before. However, I have only gone a handful of times and felt that his instructions were very good.

Rating:
Summary: Great for beginners
Review: This DVD collection is great for beginners who are in fairly decent shape. I hadn't stretched in at least a year and have suffered chronic back problems in my lumbar spine. This DVD helped me to slightly remedy that pain by enabling me to stretch the surrounding muscles. In addition, it's a great workout for those of us who haven't been to the gym in a while.
The instructions are very easy to follow and soon enough the DVD just becomes a guideline. I just take the poses from this
DVD and do my own thing. If you're new to Yoga this is a great place to start.

Rating:
Summary: Good direction, great workout
Review: Brian Kest leads three workouts of increasing difficulty in a studio-like space with a number of "students." While, of course, both Brian and all his hand-picked students have perfect bodies, he does go out of his way to explain some easier versions of poses and stresses that no one should push themselves to the point of injury.

The best part of his yoga program is how Brian explains what you should be feeling in all of the poses - it's this essential component that is often missing in many books or videos that simply explain the "ideal" form, and it's what makes the difference in real yoga classes.

If you have any questions or don't understand, Brian and his students are there in live action to show you exactly how to do some of the more difficult transitions.

I really like a lot of Brian's ideas and combinations and have added some of them to my basic, wake-up sun salutation.

All-in-all, this set is a good buy.