Review: HeavyWeight Yoga

So last weekend I wripped off the plastic wrapper of my new fitness DVD: HeavyWeight Yoga. I was in a rush, so only did the warm up and cool down. I was not impressed, but I thought that was probably b/c I didn't do the "real" poses sections. So this weekend, while Rand cleaned the house, I settled down on my mat in the living room to do the entire workout.

The workout consists of 4 parts: warm up, poses 1, poses 2, and cooldown.

oh yeah, check out my big ol' butt in yoga pants.

I don't care. I'm working out and they are comfortable.

Warm Up

It is a nice slow warm up, loosening your back and joints, with some stretches and minor ab work. She shows you modifications to make things easier or harder, and she definitely takes into account the fact that larger people have to deal with their guts and hips being the way for some poses. And she does it in a way that is unobtrusive. You don't feel embarrassed that your belly fat needs to be moved in order to bend over. And trust me, I could get embarrassed of that alone in my living room, and I refuse to think I am the only one. I like the Warm Up.

Poses

The poses are nice and simple, and again take into account needed modifications. But there are too few, and she spends too much time explaining. It's perfect for the first time you watch the DVD, but I don't want to spend 3 minutes between poses listening to her explain how to not fall over. This brings me to another point; she talks throughout the entire DVD - pretty much non-stop.

Cool Down

As I said last time, the cooldown is ridiculous. Maybe b/c I am not a yoga devotee I just don't get it. But sitting cross legged on the floor for 20 minutes, breathing while watching flowers on my TV just doesn't do anything for me. I've cooled down after about 2 minutes. Plus, to be honest, I never really warmed up too much. Too much yakking between poses, so I never really stayed warm.

My Opinion

The DVD is great on so many levels. She has different options in the menu where she will tell you what equipment you need, or you can select which parts of the workout you want to do, or you can select preset workouts. All great options. I wish she just had one more where she talked to you about all the little modifcations and poses in advance so that you didn't have to listen to them during the workout.

I will probably use this DVD occasionally, but most likely with the sound off. And I will fast forward through the non-pose jabbering, or I will just start the next pose early if I remember what it is. I will NOT use the cooldown. Enough said on that topic.

I think it's a good starter DVD for overweight people who want to get into yoga, but I think that most people will quickly outpace it