Title says it all. I want to start doing yoga but don’t have time or money to take classes. Anybody know of a good instructional DVD to start off with? Thanks.
Yoga for Dummies is a pretty good one. It’s about 50 minutes, and it goes through 10 or so poses. This is a pretty slow, steady routine. Challenging–especially for a newbie–but not overwhelming. It offers “beginner variations” for the poses too, in little pop-ups. Eventually you’ll grow out of it, if you like yoga enough to make it a habit, but it’s a pretty decent foundation video.
I like Alan Finger’s Yoga Zone DVDs. There are a few in his beginners series - Introduction, Conditioning/Stress relief, Meditation, and Flexibility. I got mine in a box set, but I think you can get them separately. There are several different levels of students shown at the same time though, so you can pick whichever you feel most comfortable with.
I’m not a yoga person myself, but my wife really likes Rodney Yee’s stuff.
Thanks a lot folks. I’ve got Yoga for Dummies on order now, and I’ll take a look at the others. I appreciate your suggestions.
I’ve used Yoga for Dummies and the Advanced Yoga for Dummies DVD and I liked them both. Unlike some of the other DVDs, Yoga for Dummies will explain exactly how you should be moving into the position and what you’re stretching and then give you enough time to try it out and give it a good stretch before they move onto the next stretch. It was very helpful as an introduction but I found that I grew tired of it after 2-3 weeks since it feels really slow after the first several times.
I liked the Rodney Yee DVDs, but the way he talks is really distracting. A decent half hour workout though.
You can get good, free video and podcast downloads here. They include downloads of the poses so you can study them a bit. I really enjoy the podcasts.
Yogamazing has a beginner’s video podcast that’s free as well. I like their Yoga for Runners especially, but a lot of their specialized yoga routines end up feeling more like disjointed stretching routines instead of free flowing yoga practice.
For me, my favorite has been the Yoga Step by Step 3 disc set from Yoga magazine. The instruction menu is thorough and nicely paced, there’s a chalk talk section that really focuses on form, and then there’s a twenty minute practice section so you don’t have to listen to instruction each time and just do it. I worry about messing myself up by doing something “wrong” so this set was perfect for me.