I love Rodney Yee. In fact, I have quite a few of his DVDs in my ever-growing collection of exercise videos. Why do I love Rodney Yee? There's just something weirdly soothing about him. In fact, if there were a male equivalent of a phone sex voice, Rodney Yee would have it. Talk yoga to me Rodney, talk grrrraarrrr...
More from Elastic Waist: On the mat with heavyweight yoga
Okay, so I did Gaiam's Yoga: Core Cross Train this week. The DVD comes with two 30-minute core-centered workouts: one geared on strength, the other on restoring (which I guess means relaxing?). Honestly, I found the restoring workout to be much harder, and more focused on traditional yoga poses than the strength-building workout. The strength-centered workout had some very quick transitions and was very similar to--although a simplified version of--some standard Pilates core poses. I am aware that many Pilates poses are adapted from yoga, but I'm just sayin'.
Yoga lovers can wind up with serious and scary injuries: slipped disks, torn tendons, even strokes. SELF reveals common poses that can be treacherous—and shows how to keep your favorite healing habit from landing you in the hospital.
The fact that both workouts are only 30 minutes is a boon to me, as I tend to have a very small attention span when it comes to non jumping-up-and-down-aerobic exercise. Although I found the strength building workout to be relatively easy, I still felt a little bit of soreness the next day. The restoring workout, while core-focused, also incorporated standard poses that stretched the rest of the body, and I could definitely see it as a quickie yoga session alternative.
A firm, fab, yoga butt can be all yours! These poses will get your rear in gear—fast!
I have professed my hatred of voiceover instruction in exercise videos before, and that remains true; this does have voiceover, but if it's going to work anywhere it works in yoga. I did find that sometimes his direction was much earlier than his changing of positions, which lead me to think: "Oh, Rodney, do I do what you say or do what you do? Why do you toy with me like this?"
The Good
- Quick. Express-lane yoga is my kind of yoga. Sometimes 30 minutes can seem like an eternity, but this really did just fly by.
- Not particularly complicated. This DVD utilizes basic yoga positions--the kind that even if you've never taken a yoga class before, you already kind of know. Yoga: Core Cross Train is very suitable for beginners.
- Beautifully shot. Okay, so this isn't a good enough reason to run out and buy the DVD, but here is this calm peaceful man being all bendy and enlightened atop an Arizona canyon with water streaming in the background.
- Nifty biodegradable packaging.
Check out another Elastic Waist exercise dvd review: Pilates Bodyband Workout from Gaiam
The Bad
- Honestly, kind of boring. Sorry, Rodney.
- The transitions in the strength section were awkward and quick. I felt like i wasn't in the pose long enough to get a stretch or contract my muscles.
- Rodney didn't make any 'silly instructor quotes' that I so look forward to. He did, however, roll up a blanket into a tube and place it in front of his groin, which made me laugh because deep down inside I'm a 13-year-old boy.
You can preview clips from this DVD at Collage Video.
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