Yoga is a great way for families to have fun together, enhance bonds and exercise. If you don’t have a family yoga class in your area, you can enjoy yoga at home with a DVD. While, many adult yoga DVDs are too advanced or complicated for kids, there are DVDs on the market that are specifically designed for families.
One good choice is Rodney Yee’s Yoga Journal’s Family Yoga. Rodney Yee is one of the best known yoga instructors and his DVDs are known for providing a quality practice. This one is no different.
Family Yoga is a 40 minute practice that is designed to help parents and children enjoy yoga together. The practice is set on a beach in Hawaii with the sounds of the ocean combined with New Age music.
Yee is joined by his family for this practice. Yee’s wife and children take turns demonstrating the asanas and show families the fun that can be had when you all practice together.
There are a variety of asanas in this practice, which is great for introducing your family to yoga. The practice begins with sun salutations. The practice goes on to standing poses, backbends, crow, crane, handstand, and several seated poses. It ends with corpse pose and a short seated meditation.
This practice includes beginner and intermediate asanas. Not all children will be able to do all the poses, but that is fine. You can modify for younger kids or older kids who have never practiced before. In this way, they can grow into the full practice. Older kids and teens will enjoy this practice, unlike many beginner DVDs that are designed just for younger kids, but are boring or too childish for older kids.
The seated poses use straps, so you will need yoga straps for your family and mats for each member of the family. If you aren’t sure if your kids will enjoy it and continue, you can use belts from robes or dad’s old ties. After you are sure they will continue to practice, you can invest in more props.