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Yoga Conditioning for AthletesInstructor: Rodney YeeThe fact that basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a serious yogi, played professionally for two decades without once suffering the kind of shoulder, knee, hamstring, or other injuries that hamper so many other athletes’ careers is no coincidence. Instructor Rodney Yee is therefore clearly on to something with Yoga Conditioning for Athletes, a yoga practice designed to promote overall balance, diminish the likelihood of injury, and enhance athletes’ physical conditioning and “focused concentration.” With two assistants demonstrating modifications for the various poses, Yee leads the user through a three-part, hour-long program. The first section, “Opening,” requires the use of a folding chair and includes several bends and twists for the spine, hips, and hamstrings. “Conditioning,” the second and most vigorous section, alternates basic standing asanas (triangle, warrior I and II, extended right angle) with balancing poses (tree, eagle) and several sustained forward bends; “Integration,” the third section, combines seated and reclining backbends, lunges, twists, and hip work. All in all, this is a solid, reasonably complete (but not overly taxing) program that should deliver what it promises. That said, it’s also true that almost any yoga workout is a good thing for an athlete.Quote:I am definitely NOT an athlete; I do work out regularly at home (with a recumbent bike and strength/yoga videos), but I’ve never participated in any kind of sports activity. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn’t need to be an athlete to complete the workout.Instructor Rodney Yee begins the workout with a 10-minute stretching segment using a chair. These are more traditional moves rather than yoga type moves, and they focus particularly on opening up the hips and hamstrings. Although I’m not at all flexible, I was able to do all of the stretches without modifications, but Rodney works out with a woman and another man, both of whom offer modifications if necessary. After the stretching segment, Rodney moves on to approximately 20 minutes of standing yoga poses. I particularly enjoyed this section and found it to be better than other yoga tapes I’ve tried, mainly because Rodney holds each pose longer, explaining how to increase your flexibility and move further into the pose over time. The standing toning is followed by 10-15 minutes of yoga moves on the floor consisting mainly of forward bends and twists. Finally, there is a 5-minute relaxation segment at the end.This DVD certainly IS appropriate for athletes, especially since throughout the workout, Rodney talks about how the exercises will benefit your athletic performance. However, for those us who aren’t athletes, this is an excellent, easy-to-follow yoga/stretching tape with an emphasis on flexibility and balance. I would say that virtually all of the moves are appropriate for beginners; however, because Rodney does not explain how to do the yoga poses–he simply gives the name of each pose–some prior familiarly with basic yoga would be helpful, but watching the entire tape before performing it should also be adequate. Rodney is an excellent instructor, and I found him to be pleasantly slower-paced and less new-agey on this video versus the others in the Living Arts series.For beginners, I would definitely recommend this tape over Living Arts’ “Yoga Practice for Flexibility”–although that is touted as a beginner’s tape, I found about half the workout to be undoable for someone at my level. I highly recommend “Yoga Conditioning for Athletes” for anyone looking to increase their flexibility and balance, athletes or otherwise. 60 minutes