Yoga is a wonderful way to help you keep fit, relieve stress, and ease your everyday experiences. Filmed on a beautifully serene location overlooking the Pacific Ocean, these two 30-minute programs will help you realize all the benefits of yoga by unveiling a new connection between your body and mind. The AM sequence enhances basic poses with gentle repetitions to invigorate, tone, and streamline your body while reconnecting to your breathing in a new way every time you practice. The PM sequence in designed to dissolve stress as it lengthens and opens your muscles. You'll learn to use your alignment to expand your breathing capacity, nourishing your body and balancing your entire being.
About the Instructor: Elena Brower, Certified Anusara Yoga teacher, encourages you to invite yoga’s healing beneficence into every realm of your life. She is the founder of Virayoga in New York City and author of Alchemy, A Glossary. Named one of New York City’s top yoga teachers by Fit Yoga magazine, Elena’s clients include Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, Minnie Driver, Eva Mendes, Christy Turlington and Rebecca Romijn.
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Nice gentle practices perfect for waking up or winding down
Review Date: September 27, 2008
Reviewer: LCW,
I was so excited to get this product as I have another of Elena Brower's Yoga DVD's and absolutly love it. I'm happy to say that this did not dissapoint either.
The AM workout slowly warms up and opens your body and manages to pack in quite an impressive variety of poses into 30 minutes that work your entire body without making it seemed rushed. It leaves you very invigorated and is really the perfect quick workout for the morning.
The PM workout is so relaxing, soothing, and just leaves you feeling all ooey gooey good! Elena adds a lot of breathing and centering in this workout, something I find missing or lacking in many Yoga workouts. It is a soothing workout for both mind and body, the very essence of what Yoga is supposed to be!
Here's a breakdown of the poses:
AM:
-Mountain Pose w/ some gentle arm and shoulder warm ups
-Warm ups w/ cat-cow, down dog, childs pose, a down dog/plank vinyassa, ending in cat cow
-Twisted lunge
-Gentle Sun Salutations
-Standing Poses including Warrior II, Side Angle, Wide Leg Forward Bend, WLFB w. a twist, and Warrior III w/ modificaitons, side plank w/ modifications
-Then you move onto floor work with the Sphinx pose, moving locust pose, boat pose, bridge pose, seated twist
-Ending with a seated meditation and centering
PM:
-Seated meditation and moving your body with your breath to get centered and relax
-Down Dog
-Plank
-Cobra
-Pigeon Pose
-Twisted Pigeon Pose
-Down Dog
-Childs Pose
-Breathing and Centering
-Easy Twist
-Seated Stick Pose (Dandasana) alternating with seated twists
-Seated Forward bends
-Back to Seated Stick Pose
-Cobblers Pose
-One legged seated forward bend
-Savasana
Both workouts are perfect for what they meant to be: gentle and quick with emphasis on both the working and relaxing aspects of Yoga. I highly recommend this great DVD!
Very helpful for beginners :-)
Review Date: September 13, 2008
Reviewer: Little Miss Cutey, Melbourne, Australia
When it comes to yoga, I am definately a beginner and don't do it often because some yoga programs are too challenging for me. This one is great and I'm glad I decided to give it a go. I didn't get it the first time round but I'm finding it getting a little easier with each go and now I'll be enjoying the challenge of progressing to a higher level of it.
This has a gorgeous setting outdoors by the ocean and so that in itself is nice and relaxing. The AM segment is done with standing movements to help energize you and the PM segment is more focused on relaxing and elongating your muscles and nice stretches. I find down dog and sun salutation to be my two favourite moves here. Ellen is a great instructor who has the perfect soft voice for yoga teaching and the way she describes the moves, helps you visualise them without necessarily having to look at your tv set.
While I'm new to yoga, I do find this great. As I mentioned, yoga usually seemed intimidating yet this workout isn't that at all. So if you haven't tried it before (or you have and didn't like it), I think this workout will suit you. It's easy to do and relaxing. I highly recommend it.
Nice start for a true beginner
Review Date: September 25, 2008
Reviewer: GLENN LEVY, Chicago
I wanted to start yoga for a while now, but was not sure where to start. I am self conscious about my body image, so taking a class in person was not really something I wanted to do. I have major health issues with my neck and back. I found this video to be easy to follow,understand and do the exercises. Ellen has a relaxing voice, that is clear and she explains each movement in detail. I like the way the video is split into 2 parts AM & PM, each with its own purpose.
I'm hoping this allows more flexibility and less pain, so far so good. I felt good after doing the routine a few times so far. I think this will make it easier for me to go farther into yoga as exercise without putting the stress on my body that other exercise progams have. I believe that's the idea here, and this video is a great help to start out with. I'm glad I decided to get this video. If you have any interest in starting yoga, this is a good place to start in my opinion.
Extensive help in body awareness & very calming w/o ever thinking it's boring
Review Date: December 28, 2008
Reviewer: Lena, LMT, Nassau, NY
LCW on September 27, 2008 wrote a great detailed review explaining the moves in the 25-30 min each two sessions.
Elena Brower did a great job here of creating flow & keeping the pace calming, slow enough for you to be able to feel how the poses benefit your body, yet fast enough that today's rushed feeling population won't feel bored. She has a great voice that is never irritating or forced slow voiceover like some other yoga dvds. She teaches YOUR left/right so you can mirror her image & follow easily. I've tried over 150 yoga dvds & there are not that many I feel have body awareness like Elena. She has done a great job of telling you what body parts to be aware of in terms of changes & she's very accurate. She will ask you which lung feels more open & to breathe and put focus on them so they are both more open & I never realized my left lung felt soo tight & in the several seconds it really helped open up my breathing capacity. Everything she said was perfect, not too much info, not too little. Even though I was in a rush & normally I'll FFW through child's pose or simple resting sitting poses, I didn't want to miss anything she might teach/say.
This is for beginners, the AM will be more likely to make you sweat, though it's for beginners. If it's not hard enough, you can always go deeper into the pose, hold harder poses longer (replay portion/pause dvd as well), do downward dog with only 1 leg 3 legged down dog), etc. Yoga dvds are very versatile depending on endurance level & beginner dvds tend to have more rest periods, so you can hold or re-do a hard pose while they are resting. If you want it easier, you can get out & rest sooner then the instructor. The PM is more about easy stretches that won't make you sweat & to relax you to help you sleep.
I find any workouts that don't incorporate body awareness is a waste as well as boring. To be taught to be more aware is empowering as well as feeling of more benefit other then calorie burn or muscle building & positive feeling during & after. This feeling will carry over to mood as well & effect your interaction with the world around you in a better way.
The only yoga dvd instructors I love that are very calming w/o being boring or annoying w/TRUE body awareness are:
Rodney Yee, Rainbow Mars, Seane Corn, Gurutej Kaur, Kristin Mcgee, Wai Lana, Kristen Strohecker, Max Strom, Teigh McDonough, Ateeka, Jacquie Noelle Greaux, Shiva Rea (only for those with endurance) & now add Elena Brower.
Non-yoga/non-belly or latin dance fitness body awareness instructors:
Duncan Wong, Kari Anderson, Liz Gillies, Stephanie Herman, Rael Isacowitz
If you want to take charge of your health, not just lose calories/build muscle (though yoga does that great as well), more body awareness w/o feeling it a mindless workout, give this a chance.
wonderful
Review Date: July 16, 2009
Reviewer: Joelle Foisey-Breau, Massachusetts
Elena Brower's AM/PM Yoga for Beginners is wonderful. The postures are simple, yet challenging and Elena's voice is soothing as she explains what you need to do.
I found myself concentrating on my breathing, which I often end up neglecting for holding a posture longer. I felt centered and calm after both practices and look forward to added them to my daily routine.
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Nice gentle practices perfect for waking up or winding down