The Top Ten Yoga DVDs

A review to the best yoga DVDs for beginners and beyond. There are two secrets to maintaining a strong at-home yoga practice.

• Find a good teacher and learn the basics. Let the instructor guide you, and put you in the right position so you can “feel” what each pose is supposed to do to your body.
• Have a wide variety of yoga DVDs to choose from. This keeps you from getting bored, and ensures that you always have access to a yoga routine that meets your needs of the day.

So, here’s the list of the best yoga DVDs. Click on the picture of each DVD to go directly to the Amazon.com page.

Yoga Shakti

If you want to invest in only one yoga DVD, this is the one. Shiva Rea, a yogi of international fame, created this beautiful DVD in India and the Maldive Islands. This innovative yoga DVD contains 4 complete practices, (with adjustments for beginner, intermediate and advanced). Plus, the DVD features a unique yoga matrix, a mistake-proof system that allows you to pick and choose your practice session to suit your time and needs. Out of the 7-days-per-week that I do yoga, I use this DVD for at least 4 of those days. The core of this vinyasa flow yoga DVD are the sun salutations, dancing warrior, forward bends, lunges, hip openers and twists. Also includes pranayama (breathing exercises) and meditation. And you can set options for music only, or music with instruction. Music is Indian-New Age — soothing and great to listen to.
Power Yoga: Total Body Workout:
Rodney Yee, who has been a teacher of yoga for over two decades, created this 60-minute vinyasa flow yoga DVD as a workout to build your core through balance and strength. Beautiful scenery along the Hawaii coastline, this yoga DVD helps you detoxify your body by building heat while integrating body, mind and spirit. You can customize this DVD for beginner, intermediate and advanced.
Baron Baptiste: Journey into Power:
This video will quickly help you build your core and stamina. Baptiste gives very detailed, accurate instructions on placement, noting which fingers of your hand need to be pressing, and which toes should be pushing. Baptiste is an excellent yoga teacher, and this 45-minute vinyasa flow will build strength, while creating a reservoir of calm within yourself.
Kundalini Yoga for Beginners & Beyond:
Kundalini Yoga awakens the kundalini energy that is coiled int he base of your spine through sound, movement and breath. The goal is to move this energy up through the chakras of your body. Ana Brett & Ravi Singh, the creators of this DVD, claim Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and the Red Hot Chile Peppers as their clients. This DVD includes two 25 minute sets which can be done by themselves, for a quick, invigorating workout, or, if you have more time, you can do both together. Also includes the ‘Five Tibetans,’ exercises to keep you flexible, energetic and youthful.
A.M. and P.M. Yoga for Beginners
This two disc yoga DVD set is designed for busy days when you need to feel calm and centered. Although this video is aimed at beginners, the experienced yoga practitioner will be able to modify the poses to create the level of workout needed. However, at all levels, this beautifully-filmed Yoga DVD is designed to rejuvenate and calm the mind. I use the 20-minute A.M. yoga workout to help me build a solid foundation for the rest of the day. This very gentle workout energizes the body, and reminds you of the connection between mind and body. The P.M. session is, what Rodney calls, “a gift.” The gift of relaxation. He guides you through stretches, standing poses, and forward bends to help you feel calm and revitalized. I often am asleep before the DVD is over.

The Barkan Method: Hot Yoga
Here on DVD is Barkhan Method Hot Yoga sequence, which is a bit different than Bikram’s Hota Yoga Method.  This detailed instructional DVD set allows you to work on the postures at home, and is idea for daily practice. This DVD has a very nice feature:  You can reference a posture by clicking the select button on your remote, and it will take you to a tutorial that will examine this posture in fuller detail.  When finished, you hit select to go right back where you were.
Yoga for Stress Relief (With The Dalai Lama):
Need I say more? Barbara Benagh, the creator, has practiced and taught yoga for nearly 35 years, and opened the famed Yoga Studio on Beacon Hill in 1980. This DVD includes a 30-minute lecture of the Dalai Lama teaching “how to meditate.” The advantage of this DVD is that Barbra has created flexibility, offering a 20 or 90-minute workout, with the ability to tailor the workout to match your individual needs of the day — such as hip openers, or breath work. Truly, a unique yoga DVD, the sessions include: neck, shoulder and back issues; lower back tension; mood uplift; anxiety relief; and stomach and digestion issues. Whether you are new to yoga or not, any the 20 yoga sessions will satisfy.
Bryan Kest Power Yoga Complete Collection:
Bryan is nice to watch. But there’s a lot more to this yoga DVD than beautiful bodies. Kest teaches yoga classes in Santa Monica, California to the stars. So, you can experience what the stars do with this strength-building 3-volume set. Volume 1, Energize; Volume 2, Tone; and Volume 3, sweat. Volume 1 is designed for beginners, as each challenging pose is followed by rest. Volume 2, Tone, you hold the stretches and poses for a longer period, but Kest still gives you opportunities to rest if you need to. If you’re an advanced yogi, you will still find enough here to challenge you. In Volume 3, you build sweat with back-to-back sun salutations, and solid balance poses to help you build strength. Despite all the hard work you’re doing, this Yoga DVD is soothing, and Kest offers gentle reminders to push yourself, yet stay true to your own practice, regardless of what is going on around you. A powerful Yoga DVD, that makes you very grateful for Shavasana (relaxation).
Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss:Deluxe DVD Edition:
For some, the goal of any exercise is weight loss. But why not combine this goal, with a way to relieve stress and connect your mind, body and spirit? Suzanne Deason, the creator, and other instructors lead you through a series of asanas (poses) that will be easy for beginners, and experienced yogi practitioners. Detailed instructions are throughly covered, and gives you 4 options for modifying. This is a 45-minute program that will help you get up and move, and create a solid sense of well-being.
Shiva Rea – Creative Core Abs:
To Shiva, the abs are “our physical center, and our inner fire.” Yogi’s say, the abs are the spot of our physical, emotional and spiritual selves. Think about where you feel it when you hear some bad news — hits you right in the center. In this DVD, Shiva takes you through 3 different programs, that range from 7 to 20 minutes, with precise metaphors to take you into the pain that will bring you a solid core.The 3 sessions provide enough variety to keep things from being mundane, and the beautiful scenery and music help too.
Seane Corn – Vinyasa Flow Yoga – Uniting Movement And Breath A very good yoga DVD for beginners, Seane is passionate about yoga, and builds her instruction every step of the way around pranayama (breathing) and asanas (poses) working together.

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