Wednesday, August 17, 2011

My Love/Hate Relationship with Yoga

I love yoga.  I love the studio I have sporadically attended over the last few years.  I love the owner and the teachers she has selected for her studio.  I have benefited greatly from the techniques, instructions and challenges.  However, I cannot afford it.  As a boutique studio there is no cost reduction for students or groupon and at over $100 for an 8 week session I can very rarely justify it, especially not now when in a few weeks I will have little to no income.  

So while it is not the serene environment of a yoga studio, with its own space and aura, my bedroom or living room is now my new studio.  I have found the iTunes offers a selection of Yoga video, priced from $9.99 to 1.99.  If $1.99 even seems steep there are free pod-casts for those who are comfortable with their asanas and positioning.

I opted to try out 3 of the cheaper versions:

1. Hips, Buns and Thighs Yoga (Everyday Yoga & Pilates)
2. Yoga for Abs (Yoga Anytime)
3. Core Yoga Flow (Yogaworks: Yoga for Everyone)

Hips, Buns and Thighs I chose not because I felt like channeling Susan Somers but rather as way to combat my IT band issues.  It is a good balanced short program.  It is 20 minutes and so it is good on it's own, it is also fine combined with a run or another video.  I tried to combine the Hips, Buns & Thighs with the Yoga for Abs and found that the combination was oddly very arm focused and too tiring for me.   Yoga for Abs is a good overall 10 minute program, that does focus on abs, but not exclusively, which makes it a great post work out addition.

The Core Yoga Flow is a longer video, suitable for being used exclusively on a rest day or instead of an in studio class.  This version offers a a variety of variations depending on your comfort level.

My only complaint with all the videos is the large timer on the screen.  While we all seem to be focused on time, pace and getting where we need to go, yoga is the one time when I look forward to letting the 90 minutes or less pass by without me being aware.  Letting myself tune back into my body instead of my Garmin.

However given the cost benefit and the flexibility of being able to do it at home whenever I need it I would rate the above tested programs a solid B+/A-.

1 comment:

sharideth smith said...

i actually kind of love yoga. my former gymnast turned mom body can pull off most of what i ask it to do.