Yoga Journal's Yoga for Strength and Energy

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Daily Practice
Review: I love Rodney Yee! He is so refreshing and inspirational. My favorite part of this DVD is the "Yoga for Energy" practice. There have been weeks when I have done this practice every single day. It never disappoints. I really like the lack of verbal instruction (although it does help if you are familiar with the poses before doing this practice) and the simple format. I like that the practice is balanced and very inclusive. You work every part of your body during this practice. It is helpful that he has an appendix of useful modifications for people at the end of this section. It is worthwhile to watch the entire 45-minute practice first, before trying it along with Rodney and friends. The "Yoga for Strength" section is also excellent and provides a good way to learn many of the poses before moving on to the more flowing Energy practice.

I think it is perfect for the person who has had a few classes or done a beginner tape and is ready to establish a daily routine.

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Daily Practice
Review: I love Rodney Yee! He is so refreshing and inspirational. My favorite part of this DVD is the "Yoga for Energy" practice. There have been weeks when I have done this practice every single day. It never disappoints. I really like the lack of verbal instruction (although it does help if you are familiar with the poses before doing this practice) and the simple format. I like that the practice is balanced and very inclusive. You work every part of your body during this practice. It is helpful that he has an appendix of useful modifications for people at the end of this section. It is worthwhile to watch the entire 45-minute practice first, before trying it along with Rodney and friends. The "Yoga for Strength" section is also excellent and provides a good way to learn many of the poses before moving on to the more flowing Energy practice.

I think it is perfect for the person who has had a few classes or done a beginner tape and is ready to establish a daily routine.

Rating:
Summary: DVD Be DVD,please.....
Review: I'm a 3rd Dan Taekwondo practitioner who uses yoga as an excellent adjunct to my study,and practise yoga at an intermediate level. While I LOVE the material and it's presentation in the discs, I must agree with the comments from "Philadelphia" regarding the lack of DVD chapters that would actually optimize the use of the vinyasas,especially the Energy cycle as it tracks through the day. I purchased the DVD because I figured the DVD version made such technologic options available-wrong! It's actually easier to use the VHS, as I can readily park the tape where I want to start the next session,instead of a total restart,as on DVD. While Rodney and his material rate 5 stars,the DVD issues drop it to 3 for me. Come out with REAL DVD, Living Arts, and I'll buy it..... hey, anybody out there know what the music used in the Centering section is from? I'm sure it's Peter Davison, but don't know which CD..... [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: chaptering
Review: Like the rest of Rodney's videos/dvds, Yoga for Strength and Energy is great, visually beautiful, and physically challenging. I'm glad they combined these two videos on one dvd. I am primarily writing this review to state that the chaptering is actually fine. In the first menu you can pick whether you want to do Yoga for Strength or Yoga for Energy. If you pick Yoga for Strength, then you go to another menu where you can pick between either of the two Strength practices. If you pick Yoga for Energy, then the next menu is for any of the 5 10min. Energy sessions, or you can just start with the first session and go straight through for a complete practice. I'm not sure why these other reviewers complain about chaptering- Gaiam did a great job with this dvd. I routinely use this dvd because I can mix and match sessions from Strength and Energy to get a slightly different yoga practice according to what I feel like doing that day.

Rating:
Summary: definitely not for beginners
Review: Perhaps someone more advanced would have a different opinion, but as a person fairly new to yoga, I cannot recommend this program.

Aside from the fact that many of the moves are just plain impossible for a novice, there are other faults: The directions are very limited, the breath pattern that he seems to follow just doesn't seem realistic or at least even and steady, and I don't enjoy having to sit through or FF through 7 minutes of him showing off at the beginning of the dvd. And as the other reviews stated, there are no chapters, so we've basically paid for a dvd with all the limitations of a vhs tape. I think this one will be collecting some dust on my shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Strength/Energy -- a longtime favorite.
Review: These yoga practices have long been available on VHS. I've been working with Yoga for Strength for over 10 years and it remains one of my favorite recorded yoga sessions. It includes 2 sequences, one focusing on inversions (just over 1/2 hour) and the other on arm balances (just under 1/2 hour). The instruction is detailed and careful in the Iyengar manner and Yee's form is impeccable.

Yoga for Energy has been on VHS for almost as long and it's another long-standing favorite. It contains 5 short (5 min. to 15 min.) sequences that correspond stages in the day, starting with a lovely gentle warm up, an energizing balance flow, a vigorous full body routine including wheel, a relaxing series of seated forward bends and final relaxation. Instruction is minimal so this one isn't for those new to yoga.

The combination of these 2 practices on one DVD is really hard to beat. Seems like a natural balance to me.

I've been practicing yoga for over 10 years, supplementing my home practice with Iyengar and Anusara classes.

Rating:
Summary: Two great workouts
Review: This DVD includes two very different workouts that have both become staples in my practice. Yoga for Energy is a perfect am workout, slowly warming up the body, progressing into more challenging vinyasa (flowing sequences) and ending with deep stretches to relax and calm the body. It is well balanced between flexion and extension and covers all the movements of the spine. Note that you will need to be familiar with the poses to follow this workout. Yoga for Strength is a slower, deeper workout developing muscle strength, balance and stability. It is appropriate for all levels and includes some introductory inversions.

Rating:
Summary: Content: A; Delivery: D
Review: This DVD is essentially a combo pack of two previously existing Living Arts programs, "Yoga for Strength" and "Yoga for Energy", bundled with an interview with Rodney Yee.

The content of both programs is quite solid, as can be seen in other reviews here for the VHS versions of the individual "Strength" and "Energy" components. While I love the convenience of having this as a DVD that I can play anywhere on a laptop computer, someone needs to clue in the folks at Living Arts/Gaiam about how to produce DVDs and take advantage of the DVD format. My gripes:

(1) Lack of logical chapter selections
Two examples: (a) The "Yoga for Energy" component is comprised of five separate segments, each shot against a different natural backdrop. Rodney himself is shown on elsewhere on this disc saying that practitioners may wish to choose a particular vinyasa, or pose sequence, to correspond to a time of day or a specific need (focus, calming, etc.). Are the vinyasas encoded as separate chapters that a user can jump to? Nope. Same problem with the separate vinyasas in "Yoga for Strength". (b) There is no option to chapter-forward directly to first exercise portion of the "Strength" program. While I (thoroughly!) enjoy watching Rodney's "pose ballet" at the beginning of the program, it's really inconvenient and silly to have to fast-forward past it every time I'm actually ready to start doing yoga myself -- after all, this is not VHS.

(2) Tape-to-digital transfer
If a producer is going to go the the trouble of creating a DVD, then they ought to go back to the original hi-resolution, broadcast-quality source material. While fast-forwarding through this DVD (see above), I'm repeatedly seeing interlacing lines. What this tells me is that the DVD is essentially a next-generation copy of the VHS tape, rather than a new, "remastered" production.

Rodney Yee is a really outstanding instructor, and doing good yoga is hard work. I only wish the production values on this DVD reflected the thought, care, and expertise that went into the high-quality content. Let's hope for better on upcoming Rodney Yee DVDs.