Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28505 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-12-19
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3

Synopsis
Three practical programmes with renowned yoga instructor Katy Appleton, designed to harmonise both body and mind. Includes FREEDOM SPACE FLOW, JOY RADIANCE BLISS and STRENGTH POWER SOLAR.

Customer Reviews

The Joy of Yoga
This DVD is exceptionally high quality and great value. If you enjoyed the routines that Katy did with Geri Halliwell, this DVD is a godsend - you no longer have to listen to Geri whilst trying to enjoy your yoga!

Each routine is a joy to do and Katy's teaching style is delightful. As she says herself, there is nothing worse than an overly serious yoga practitioner. Katy's approach is warm, friendly and encouraging and her explanations are crystal clear. The DVDs include breathing techniques and introductions to sound vibration and chakras as well as exercises.

Each DVD builds on the other with the first being suitable for beginners. However, even if you have been doing yoga for some time, Level 1 is a beautifully flowing routine that is a pleasure to do and will leave you feeling a major natural high! Level 2 will build your strength and Level 3 is a challenge, and includes poses for more advanced levels.

The exercises are listed individually on the menus so that you can put your own class together. However, if you do one entire routine the time simply flies by!

Additionally, the DVD is lovely to look at and there is terrific music to accompany you. Even if you normally do yoga without background noise, the music is so well chosen that you are sure to find it enhances your routine. A fantastic DVD.

Makes my yoga practice a pure joy.
Katy Appleton's teaching method is one of pure enjoyment. She is naturally calming, very clear in her instructions, and a joy to practice with. I've always enjoyed my yoga practice, but never as much as now, and I roll up my practice mat feeling totally revived, peaceful and calm. Each of the discs is set out in sections allowing you to choose which you do for each practice, or you can just follow through the whole dvd for a full and envigorating yet blissful workout. Katy covers everything from breathing, to chanting, flowing poses to some very interesting and challenging ones, and finishes up with meditation and relaxation. If only Katy Appleton was in more peoples lives, this world would be a much calmer one!!! If you love yoga, you'll love this set.

A praiseworthy effort
I bought this set on foot of Katy's work on the "Geribody yoga" video. I liked her teaching style and sequencing on that DVD very much. I wasn't disappointed with this set, but I do have some reservations.

First, I'll give an idea of the content of these discs:
Disc 1 is called "Freedom, Space, Flow", and contains a lying warm-up, sound vibration and chanting, seated warm-up, all fours warm-up, sun salute warm-up, sun salute, standing postures and guided relaxation/shavasana.
Disc 2 "Joy, Radiance, Bliss" has a short lying warm-up, intro to chakras and sounds, standing warm up, a 45 minute flowing class, backwards bends, twists and inversions and relaxation.
Disc 3 is titled "Strength, Power, Solar" and covers chanting, pranayama, short warm-up, 45 minute flowing class, forward bends and hip openers, abdominal cultivation, twists, headstands and meditation.

A good feature of this set is that each disc is chaptered not only section by section, but pose by pose, which makes for a lot of flexibility.

Disc 1 of this set is pitched at a pretty basic level. I tried to do it as a single practice but started to feel irritated at the seemingly endless warming up. A half hour into it I was wondering if we were ever going to get to the actual yoga. Possibly you're meant to pick just one or two warm-ups and then move on. In my opinion, Disc 1 would suit complete beginners and/or very inflexible people.

Disc 2 is more my level (roughly: advanced beginner - beginning intermediate). The lying warm-up is similar to the one on the Geri Halliwell DVD: reclining twists, leg stretches, half bridge - with the addition of some hip-openers like happy baby. The 45 minute class goes from sun salutes to warrior 1 and 2 woven into a vinyasa flow, finishing with some twisting lunges and eagle pose. Pigeon pose leads into a short, fairly standard backbends section, followed by some nice, well-cued inversions and a pleasantly long shavasana.

Disc 3 includes a stronger, faster sun salute, introducing jumps and a lot of press-ups/chaturanga dandasanas. The dancing warrior sequence I can only aspire to - it looks beautiful, moves fast, and gives me something to aim for. I applaud Katy for including Headstand preparations and Headstand on this disc - very few yoga DVDs attempt this.

Despite the fact (or indeed maybe because of it!) that there is so much well demonstrated material in this boxed set, I found it difficult to structure a full yoga practice for my own needs, without a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with the remote, and some hopping between Discs 2 and 3. This is fine when I have time for it, but I still turn to Geribody yoga when I want a readymade practice to follow through from beginning to end.

I didn't find the cueing and visuals to be hugely out of synch - there may be a slight delay between the two, but it wasn't marked enough to bother me. The setting is a beautiful park, the music is unobtrusive - almost inaudible at times in fact, and Katy Appleton projects the `feel' of each disc - peace, strength etc. very well. Overall there's something for everyone here, including some material not covered on many other dvds out there, but be warned you may have to hop and skip about a bit to tailor the perfect session for yourself.