Sacred Yoga Practice: Vinyasa Flow for Beginners

Rating:
Summary: life-changing yoga practice for beginners
Review: i absolutely love this dvd. rainbeau mars is a wonderful guide on the journey to inner and outer peace. this is the first dvd or class to really get me into yoga, and it has honestly made a huge impact on my daily life. the reason for this is that it's primarily (for me, anyway) a spiritual, meditative practice - not just stretching. for a beginner with little to no experience with yoga, i would highly recommend this dvd. it will help you relax and "let go" of day-to-day struggles and just appreciate BEING. other reviewers have mentioned the lack of real physical challenge in this practice, but i've found it challenging because i was very inflexible when i started using it. again, for a complete beginner with an inflexible, stress-ravaged body and mind, this practice can work wonders.

Rating:
Summary: life-changing yoga practice for beginners
Review: i absolutely love this dvd. rainbeau mars is a wonderful guide on the journey to inner and outer peace. this is the first dvd or class to really get me into yoga, and it has honestly made a huge impact on my daily life. the reason for this is that it's primarily (for me, anyway) a spiritual, meditative practice - not just stretching. for a beginner with little to no experience with yoga, i would highly recommend this dvd. it will help you relax and "let go" of day-to-day struggles and just appreciate BEING. other reviewers have mentioned the lack of real physical challenge in this practice, but i've found it challenging because i was very inflexible when i started using it. again, for a complete beginner with an inflexible, stress-ravaged body and mind, this practice can work wonders.

Rating:
Summary: Great Beginner Workout
Review: I love this DVD. The workout is easy to follow, yet challenging enough to make it worth your time. As long as you're in reasonable shape it is absolutely do-able. She focuses on connection to breath as she guides you through the postures and movements. Rainbeau is soothing to listen to and the music and scenery in the background is relaxing. Best of all, Rainbeau manages to keep the workout spiritual. When I am done I feel re-connected to the sacred, cleansed, and ready to move into my day.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely and Beautiful
Review: This is a fabulous yoga practice! Rainbeau, the instructor, is clearly a beautiful person from the inside out. Her beauty just shines through while she instructs with a picturesque and serene view of the ocean as her backdrop. The exercises flow nicely as she directs you to either challenge yourself, or to take it easy on yourself by showing you alternative postures. The thing I love the most are the lovely and beautiful mantras she interjects throughout the video, reminding us of what is truly important in this life, in this body. Which is without a doubt, the challenge of life itself now days. If I couldn't do the exercises, I'd play it just to listen to her lovely and beautiful messages. Enjoy your breath!!!

Rating:
Summary: Lovely and Beautiful
Review: This is a fabulous yoga practice! Rainbeau, the instructor, is clearly a beautiful person from the inside out. Her beauty just shines through while she instructs with a picturesque and serene view of the ocean as her backdrop. The exercises flow nicely as she directs you to either challenge yourself, or to take it easy on yourself by showing you alternative postures. The thing I love the most are the lovely and beautiful mantras she interjects throughout the video, reminding us of what is truly important in this life, in this body. Which is without a doubt, the challenge of life itself now days. If I couldn't do the exercises, I'd play it just to listen to her lovely and beautiful messages. Enjoy your breath!!!

Rating:
Summary: A nicely flowing basic practice to introduce the series
Review: This is the first video of Rainbeau Mars' Sacred Yoga Practice: Vinyasa Flow series. Although it is labelled as a "Beginners" workout, I would not recommend it for those totally new to yoga, as 1) the instruction is not overly detailed, and 2) some of the poses present a bit of a challenge and require some strength. Beginners might also find more helpful to start with Mars' "Pure Tranquility" video prior to using this one.

Rainbeau begins the practice lying on the floor in relaxation pose--a nice change--and slowly leads you through some basic breathing and warm up stretches. She then moves to an all-fours position (table pose) for some nice back stretches: there are several different sequences involving cat pose plus a few downward dogs, some of which are held for a fairly lengthy period of time. From here, Rainbeau guides you into a standing forward bend with bent legs, gently encouraging you to open up further into this pose with several repetitions. She also spends a bit of time in a mountain pose variation before moving on to a single sun salutation. This series is done at very slow pace: Rainbeau goes through lunges on both sides and then lowers to the floor in push-up pose, which brings the practice to an end at 28 total minutes.

Rainbeau comes across as sort of a young, hippy chick. She is obviously very knowledgable about yoga--she sometimes uses the Sanskrit names for the postures and provides detailed anatomical information--and she is gently encouraging throughout the practice. Although she cues well, at times her voiceover cuing was slightly out-of-sync with her on-screen movements.

Overall, I enjoyed this practice, which I would describe as gently challenging rather than gentle per se. This is not the video I would choose for pure relaxation, but I definitely will reach for it again when I want a moderate-length, not-too-difficult practice.

Rating:
Summary: Yoga
Review: Too easy. Even for a beginner, this is a slow and very simple video. I did not find it challenging at all, not even the first time. If you are looking for just a few stretches then check this video out, but if you are looking for a full yoga workout, this will be a disappointment.