PROs: -Has 5 different 20 minute practices. -Each practice has a specific focus: standing poses, twists, backbends, foreward bends, and hip openers. -The practices are great for beginner/advanced beginner and intermediate yogis. The poses can be modified for different fitness levels. -Each practice is well-rounded with thorough warm up time and shavasana/meditation at the end of each practice. -The flow from one pose to the next is very well choreographed with little in between pose movement. -The music is PERFECT! This yoga DVD has the most relaxing and inspiring music I have heard on a yoga DVD. -The setting is stunning. The atmosphere of the wide open desert is breathtaking, awe-inspiring and the perfect thing to wake up to! I feel so inspired doing yoga with this scenery, I feel like I am there in the wide open spaces. -Rodney Yee gives excellent and highly detailed direction. -I have had this DVD for about a year and I still use it nearly everyday. I don't always use it in the morning, the practices are good for any time of day. The point is I love it so much I am STILL not tired of it! I have a whole stack of yoga DVDs and this is one that I continue to use very frequently while others just collect dust. -Rodney gives excellent guided meditations at the end of each practice. Each meditation is different and relates to the specific practice. CONs: -Sometimes Rodney's instructions are so detailed that I am not sure what he means. How do I "release my muscles away from the bone"? Not sure what he means by that. Read more
Rodney Yee has had some hits and some misses in his yoga DVDs but mostly the former, in my book. Despite the occasional DVD that did not work, I think of him as a wonderful teacher, in fact he is one of my favorites. I dont like philosophy mixed in with physical yoga. Because of the mind+body aspect of the origins of yoga, often a new age talk track accompanies the physical yoga on DVDs. The issue with this is that every teacher of yoga has their own interpretation of the philosophy behind yoga and frequently this seems, at least to me, very different from my own readings and interpretation. So although I think yoga is holistic, I dont find yoga DVDs of physical asana practice the best medium to impart simultaneous spiritual/philosophical ideology. One of the reasons I like Rodney Yee is that he sticks to physical yoga. His talk track is form and alignment cues. Yee usually has a minimalist instruction style that is best suited for those who have some prior experience of yoga and want a DVD to follow along but not to really "learn" yoga asana. Another reason I like Yee is that his yoga is "classic" and yet features interesting combinations. AM Yoga for your Week is a bit of a departure from Yee's minimal talk track style. He provides extensive and wonderfully helpful cues. Despite some years of yoga practise I discovered help with some sticky points from his cues in my forward bends. Full marks to the DVD for cueing. It should work well for beginners and beyond as its audience. Before I ordered the DVD I had read that each 20 minute session had a separate focus - twists, backbends, forward bends, standing poses, hip openers. I typically do longer sessions of yoga with a bit of everything for what I consider a balanced practise. Forward bends are effective counter poses to backbends and so on. I wondered how separating the focus would work. I find it works very well as put together by Yee. Yee sets up with prep work before getting into the deeper poses and finishes with asanas that work as effective counter poses although they are not the typical choices. Doing 20 minutes with a specific focus each day is working as well for me as doing a long session twice a week that incorporates all the categories. This DVD is particularly useful to busy people who cross train and want to do yoga apart from other forms of exercise like strength training and cardio. The 20 minute format is easy to tag on after another workout or as an independant yoga session in the morning if you do some other stuff in the evening. The special feature of an intervew with Yee was enjoyable. I have often worndered what attracted him to Yoga since he says so little in his other DVDs. Hearing him explain in his sincere and understated style was good. He seems to have a good sense of humor. Read more
I'll admit that when I first bought this DVD a few years ago, I wasn't completely thrilled with it. But since then it has become one of my favorite yoga DVDs. I keep coming back to it again and again. the work outs are the perfect length (about 20 minutes each) for a week day: strenuous enough to make you feel you've actually accomplished some real flexibility and stamina training, but short enough to allow for daily use. Add to that Rodney Yee's wonderful calm voice and serene visage, and you leave the work out feeling both tranquil and invigorated. I am not an advanced yoga practitioner, but I have been doing yoga for several years so don't consider myself a beginner. This DVD has continued to be enjoyable, beneficial and challenging even as my skills have progressed. I highly recommend it! Read more
I have been practicing yoga with/without Rodnee Yee (DVDs..) for over a decade. I always love his calm, no-nonsense, organic approach to yoga. This DVD is exceptional for me in that 1) I feel wrung out of all toxins after each session, 2) the routines feel especially well structured leaving a special sense of wholeness and stability after moving through the sequenced poses Yee has choreographed, 3) the landscape of Arizona's red canyon is exquisite and nourishing for the eyes/soul/spirit during the practice, 4) the pacing and focus/grounding seems especially perfected among all his DVD practices. Each section is about 20 minutes and focuses on an entirely different pose type, yet after doing just one section your entire body feels well balanced and stabilized. Eventually, I will begin doing multiple segments at one sitting, but the idea is to work through all throughout the week so by week end each focus has been really worked. It's a great plan, transformative, should be part of preventative health programs everywhere. I mix it with Rodney Yee's Meditation DVD, which takes the bite out of urban living. I actually got up more than two hours earlier this morning to do his practice, since his intro requests you go to bed earlier and wake earlier and start each day with his practice. I'm feeling like that plan is an excellent program for long-term inner peace and productivity! Many Many Thanks, Rodney Yee!! Read more
