Rodney Yee is a well known yoga instructor who has put out many yoga DVDs. Yee was originally a professional ballet dancer before studying Iyengar yoga. He teaches yoga workouts and retreats around the world and is known as one of the most respected instructors in the United States.
There are two components to this DVD, the core strength and restorative practices. Each is about thirty minutes long. You can choose to do one or the other, or do the strength practice, followed by the restorative, if you want a full hour long workout.
The core strength practice is not too intense, but you do feel the muscles in your abs the next day. This practice focuses on the core using seated poses or lying on the back. The pace in the seated poses, particularly moving between wide angle seated pose and cobblers pose are a little fast and are more designed for conditioning and toning than for really taking the time in the stretch. This is followed by some standing poses and chest opening poses. The practice ends with a short relaxation segment in corpse pose.
The restorative practice is great for relaxing the body, stretching the muscles and releasing tension. The pace of this practice is much slower than the core strength practice. Some of the poses used in this practice are cobra, child’s pose, cat, downward facing dog, standing forward bend and wide angle seated pose. A blanket is used as a bolster to aid in relaxation and releasing tension. At the end, you do feel restored, so the title is accurate.
An added bonus can be found in the special features with an interview with Rodney Yee. If you are interested in the spiritual benefits of yoga, meditation or learning about the breath in yoga, there are some gems of wisdom here. This may be especially useful for beginners.
The instructions for each of the two practices are clear and concise. Rodney Yee gives the instructions via voice over. One thing I appreciate about this DVD, and Yee in general, is he gives the necessary instructions for performing the poses, but doesn’t talk excessively. I don’t think I’m alone in being annoyed at yoga instructors who talk excessively, particularly on a DVD, where you have to hear that same commentary over and over, each time you practice. That is not a problem with Yee, which is one reason I own several of his products.
There are a few props used in these practices. In the core strength practice, Yee uses a yoga strap briefly for leg raises. The use of the strap is optional, but beneficial for beginners. In the restorative practice, he uses a bolster made by folding a blanket for a good portion of the practice. If you plan to do this practice, have a blanket handy.
Intermediate to advanced level yoga practitioners may find this DVD is not challenging enough to suit their purposes. Beginners will find this a good workout or people getting back into a yoga practice. When I started yoga again in an attempt to tone up the core and get back in shape, this is one of the DVDs that I got and actually used a lot.