Jul 06 2008
Rodney Yee: Yoga Burn [DVD]
I picked up this DVD at Target for 15 bucks and I really like it. All my other Yoga DVDs feature women as instructors, and I was nervous that a man instructor would focus too much on strength moves. I don’t know how that applies to Rodney’s other DVDs, but in this one he only does easy beginner poses. 
The key is, he does each pose in a set of three. You do the moves slowly, which took me awhile to actually DO, as I am used to each pose at the speed I have been already doing them.
I did not feel much of a ‘burn’, but i did feel a definite heat in my core during the hour-long workout. I honestly felt GREAT - my blood was nice and warm and I felt very strong. So maybe this is the kind of burn that is referred to, instead of the typical aerobics burn of using a muscle group until fatigue. This DVD is not like that at all, even though it’s what I was expecting.
Some of his sequences were very fluid and creative - I liked his warrior vinyasa, for example. And some of his forward bends really encouraged my body to loosen to a far greater extent than I had done previously. I found the repetition of each pose (the three times) to be boring at first. Then I noted that each time I repeated the pose I was able to go significantly further into the stretch.
I did not find that much strength was needed in the hour, but then, I like downdogs and planks. There are also some updogs halfway through that got exhilarating/tiring, but one can always replace them with cobras if needed.
Rodney has a very nice yoga instructional voice. Soothing. He does not talk too much - the instruction is just enough, as long as you know what each pose is named (he uses the English terms). Rodney is also enjoyable to look at.
The setting is quite nice - set in a yoga studio - some kind of very cool Zen one. There are rice screens behind him; he is on a bamboo floor platform, and the platform is set above a Zen rock garden. The beige sand is raked around the rocks like one would expect. Very peaceful to look at, with some Zen-like, low music in the background that does not distract.
I found the DVD a bit sparse in options. No matrix or sections to choose from - you just start the program and an hour later you are done. So if you don’t have that much time, you’d have to do only a part of this DVD from the beginning, or fast forward to another section and go from there.
There is an intro by Rodney that i still need to watch. There is a choice of playing the hour with less instruction - ie, just voice prompts. The full-on instructional option is not for novices, however. Rodney assumes you have some experience and can follow along by going into downdog, boat, warrior one and two, etc, without having to be told anything about them. He provides no postural tips or even breathing assistance. I think at one point he reminds us to breathe and relax our faces, and that’s all we get. I would have liked more direction about when to breathe in and out, myself.
So this DVD would be good for experienced beginners and for intermediates looking for an easy burn. Anyone expecting any arm balances, pigeons or wheel poses won’t find them here. I assume for that we’d have to buy his Intermediate Yoga DVD. I actually probably will at some point!
Stumble it!
