Elle Make Better Series: Elle Workout Yoga Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is likely to appeal to those seeking athletic yoga as well as those who only want "purist" yoga. The issue with some athletic yoga done by instructors who do not specialise in yoga is that the lack of "yoga depth" is apparent to purists. Tara Stiles, young though she is, seems to have a mature appreciation of yoga as an exercise form. She is devoid new-age woo-woo talk (at least on this DVD) - this is a yoga "workout".
The DVD has two short routines - great as a tack-on or for those with limited time for yoga. Routine 1 is 20 minutes and is more flexibility oriented, but with some strength thrown in. Routine 2 is more challenging - it works on strength and has a heart rate elevation effect and takes 25 minutes.
What I liked:
-> Tara Stiles is spectacular to watch at yoga. She is limber, tall, and it seems like her body was designed for yoga. I find her on-screen personality very likeable.
-> The flow is pretty different from the typical yoga vinyasa workout. No sun salutations. She starts Routine 2 with a one minute plank. Near the end, you find yourself in plank again and she makes you hold it again for one minute. When I do planks I am mentally counting down seconds. She cues you to take ten deep breaths. Planks seem a whole lot easier when you count down 10 rather than 60.
-> She manages to cover a lot of ground in a limited time. She works in crow, bridge, wheel, shoulder stand, plough, planks, bow, cosmic dancer, half moon, garland, down-dog variations, splits and some standing poses if you do them both end to end. A cool balance flow is incorporated (one legged, standing) too.

Factors to consider:
-> Moves fast at times. If you like to take time to find your alignment, there will be opportunities in some but not all poses.
-> Plank and down dog intensive, if these bother your wrists
-> She over-uses "go ahead and.." and "from here...". For example, if she wants you to move from your current pose into a lunge, instead of saying "Move into lunge", she will say "From here, go ahead and move into lunge"....and then...."From here, go ahead and step your other foot back".... Since you are constantly moving from your current pose into another, you need a high tolerance for the phrases "from here" and "go ahead"!
I have no idea who the girl following along (Brooklyn Decker) is, and did not notice her much. I find Tara Stiles likeable from her youtube clips and on this DVD. She seems very promising among the younger yoga instructors.

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