Yoga for Weight Loss DVD - Beginners and Beyond. Great Beginners Yoga Video Workouts to Lose Weight, Increase Strength & Flexibility, Reduce Stress.

Having done yoga both with videos and in a class, I found this video to be a step above most other yoga videos. It is arranged in three sections, each having multiple workouts. The first section is designed for beginners, with one section teaching a basic set of poses, and two sections with flow-style practices of varying length. That is, the poses flow from one to the next for continuous, slow movement. The pacing is great - slow enough to allow good form in each pose, but fast enough to allow you to move along with the breath, as you breath in and out. However, it is clearly not "remedial," and includes poses requiring some flexibility, balance, and strength (e.g., downward-facing dog with one leg raised, as well as some balancing poses). If someone lacks flexibility or strength, I'd definitely recommend starting instead with "Essential Yoga for Inflexible People," which a friend tells me is perfect for beginners. The second section (the one I use the most) is a little more challenging and also has several different flow-style practices that vary in focus (arms, legs, total body) and length. It's surprising how much your heart gets beating and you really feel your muscles working. They are the ideal every-day workout. The third section is an interesting twist - yoga along with light weights or a resistance band to get even more strength training work. Again, there are several different practices that vary in focus and length. Very clever and fun. The instructions on how to work in each pose are extremely well done. Usually, the biggest downside to learning yoga from a video rather than a well-conducted class is that you can't get individualized instruction, and so you can learn the poses incorrectly and not get the full benefit of the practice. However, the instruction is so well-done that I found this video to instead help me refine and improve my use of the various poses. Finally, the filming is simply beautiful, with a gorgeous ocean landscape. This is quickly becoming my favorite yoga video!

I have bought this DVD about 2 months ago now.I had only done one class of yoga before, and wanted to start practicing on my own at home, as it was much easier to fit into my schedule.I weighed 130 lbs, and wanted to lose a little weight and mainly tone my body. By practicing 4-7 days a week (just 20-30 mn and 60 mn once a week), I have lost 6 lbs within 2 weeks and have seen spectacular results: my thighs have significantly reduced in size, as well as my buttocks. It has shaped my body in no time. I had a car accident about two years ago, and have had higher back pain since then. The pain has well reduced and I can feel I am sitting up straighter, and fell much better with my body.The DVD is well done as it has 3 different chapters that enables to evolve in your practice. However, I was a little disappointed when moving to the "As you progress" chapter, as there were no new poses to learn from. There are just 3 (challenging) flows with the same positions learned before.I have recommended this DVD to all of my friends, as I think it is perfect for a beginner. I am now looking for another DVD (still for weight loss) but it seems to be pretty difficult! Once you start with Maggie Rhoades' soothing voice and the beach scenery, it's difficult to go back!

I am an amateur ballroom dancer and have been working out regularly (cardio and weights) for most of my life. Recently, I had to give up running because the high-impact was causing me excessive lower back and neck pain. I was seeking a low-impact way to still achieve cardiovascular fitness, but also help me gain more flexibility and strength in muscles that aren't recruited in running (but may be helpful in dancing). I figured an introductory DVD in yoga would be a good place to start, although my past experiences with yoga (Bikram, or "hot yoga") weren't entirely pleasant (I got very dizzy and nauseous, and the continuous up-and-down poses didn't help)...and, I always poo-poo'ed the ability of yoga to actually be much of a vigorous workout, especially one intended to help with weight loss or weight maintenance. The first time I tried this DVD, I thought it was rather hokey, got dizzy from doing the downward-facing dog positions that is used so much, and figured that yoga really wasn't for me at all. I then stashed this DVD away for several months, feeling sorry I had wasted my money on it. However, I saw one of the professional dancers at the ballroom studio who had the most amazing dancer's body, and I asked her partner how she maintained it at such a lean and lithe form; he responded that she did a lot of core work (I supposed that meant Pilates, though, not yoga). I actually then ordered a "Pilates for Dummies" DVD, but while waiting for it to arrive, I pulled out and dusted off this DVD, figuring I'd give it another go just to see if I might respond to it more favorably (plus, my hour-long early morning treadmill workouts were getting rather boring). Surprisingly, making a conscientious and sincere effort to take yoga seriously was all it took to help me enjoy and appreciate this DVD much more than I did the first time. It is essentially still a beginner's yoga DVD, and I've tried pretty much all of the extended workouts (those greater than 30 minutes), including the ones using weights and resistance band incorporated into yoga. Though it isn't the type of heart-pumping, sweating-bullets sort of workout you'd expect from a true cardio workout, it does integrate stretching, balance, strength, calisthenics, and coordination. I've used this DVD consistently for the past 2 weeks so far, and now it is becoming a bit easy for me...however, this doesn't discount its effectiveness as a good beginner's introduction to yoga (especially for a beginner like me, with a rather disdainful initial view of yoga!).I am already exploring other more advanced yoga DVD offerings, all because I rather enjoyed the different type of conditioning yoga is offering to my workouts (and my, ahem, aging body and joints). I think the balance training it teaches will help with my dancing, and combining yoga with Pilates will benefit the dancing as well by making me more flexible and my core stronger. Maggie Rhoades (the instructor in this video) has a very non-pretentious, open, down-to-earth simple and sincere demeanor in her voicing of the movements, and the fact that she DOES NOT look like every other "fitness queen" (i.e. fake silicone breasts, impossibly thin "Barbie" proportions, self-indulgently chirpy "motivational" attitude, and muscles so ripped it looks like she's been taking a combination of ephedrine and diuretics weeks before the shoot) makes it a much less intimidating learning experience. The scenery is also quite nice, I must admit, and the soft music in the background is not distracting at all (though it is used in all the workouts and gets to be predictable, though this is hardly a problem). Some of the movements are a bit repetitive, especially during the full-body flow vinyasas, but I guess that's how yoga is, especially at a beginner's level where more advanced movements have yet to be learned and mastered. I will keep this one as a good novice reference on yoga, or when I want just a slower and more relaxing workout in general.

Great DVD for beginners, definitely got me toned, and strengthened for more yoga! Have some poses you definitely have to work towards. I wish they had a few more routines.

The timing was good, and just as expected. Thank you!

Didn't workNot suitable for UK use apparently

Great videos easy to follow, worth the price.

I purchased this DVD along with a few others to expand my at-home yoga practice, and I am pleased with it. It strikes a nice balance between beginner and intermediate yoga, since there are a variety of sequences of different lengths and skill levels. I have done the 50-minute fundamentals-and-beyond routine several times now and look forward to advancing further. The instructor/narrator does an excellent job of explaining the poses and form. It has made me appreciate foundational poses such as Mountain/Tadasana, and Downward Dog more than I used to, and understand the nuance of even simple poses. There is a lot of time spent in Downward Dog in this dvd - at first I really noticed it in my shoulders and arms, but feel a bit stronger now. Other challenging poses include Half-Moon.