Description

David Swenson – The Practice Ashtanga Yoga The First Series DVDProduct details: This DVD contains the complete First Series of Ashtanga Yoga preceeded by a 30-minute introduction explaining the foundations of the practice. David’s delivery of the basic principles is clear and down-to-earth. He opens this practice to a variety of levels by offering varying degrees of approach. After the introduction there is a fully guided First Series practice in the traditional flowing rhythm inherent to Ashtanga Yoga. The session ends with a guided deep relaxation. Ashtanga is a set series of poses (ie the same poses every time). It is an active, moving type of yoga. You get very hot and sweaty as you simultaniously build strength and flexiblity.You should learn yoga under the guidance of a competent teacher. Ashtanga is a daily practice but if you can’t make it to class every day this DVD is an excellent way to practice at home.This DVD is not for Novices and Beginners and for Advanced users. If you are new to yoga there is no substitute for a live teacher. Either take a class or better yet a few private lessons so you develop a strong foundation from the beginning.It is an excellent DVD for those with previous Ashtanga experience who want to do a led practice. Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Ashtanga-Yoga-Practice-First-David-Sw…Reviews:1. A great Ashtanga DVDI’ve practiced yoga for many years and Ashtanga yoga, specifically, for about two years. I still go to class at a studio once or twice per week, as a DVD cannot substitute for an actual teacher. However, classes are pricey, so I purchased this DVD to motivate myself and friends to do the practice at home. This DVD has been perfect.The beauty of this DVD is that you don’t have to be familiar with the Ashtanga practice to follow it. Prior yoga practice is recommended, however. A friend participated who had never practiced yoga, and he joined in and followed through the entire primary series. However, he thought it was difficult and would have preferred starting out at an easier level. That said though, you can watch the intro which explains the poses before doing the practice itself, which is a separate video on this same DVD.Also, beginners and advanced Ashtanga practitioners can practice TOGETHER using this DVD since advanced and beginning poses are cued throughout the practice. This is wonderful because my friends and I are all at different levels but can follow the DVD together each week at my house. I LOVE THIS!! Typically, this is not possible in a class; I notice that when new students show up for class, the teacher tones the class way down, leaves out poses, etc. Now the option to do beginning and advanced versions of each pose is available.One reviewer mentioned that this DVD gets hard at the end. Yes, the primary series is a difficult practice. But, the great thing is that you can do just the sun salutations at the beginning and consider that a full practice as long as you follow it up with corpse pose. So don’t be intimated! Just stop the DVD and fast forward to the finishing sequences if you get to the point where the practice is too difficult. This is how Ashtanga is traditionally taught – you begin by adding one or two poses in the sequence at a time until you’ve memorized it and are able to do it.. then move on. So this DVD lets you do that, too.In addition, the instructor is very encouraging and doesn’t push the student beyond his/her limits. Alternative poses are always offered and he encourages you to sit out the vinyasas if you become tired, etc., not intimidating or making you feel bad at all if you are not in tip top shape or at top performance that day.I highly recommend this for beginner and advanced ashtanga folks. This has really allowed me to deepen my practice without having to spend a ton of money at the studio.2. I love his asana breakdown and encouragement for listening to your…As other reviews have posted this is the full primary or first series of Ashtanga yoga, which gets progressive harder as you go through the series. For those who haven’t practiced under a live instructor, I make the following recommendation: go as far as you can through the practice then skip to the closing sequence, this is how the practice is traditionally taught. As you keep up the practice you will find you can move further and further through the series. I love his asana breakdown and encouragement for listening to your own body and only going as far as it will let you that day. If you need a guide through the primary series this is a great tool to add to your Mysore practice.3. Excellent paced Ashtanga routineLike other reviewers mentioned–if you do not know many yoga moves and feet positions then this video is probably not right for you. You should at least be very familiar with how to properly do the triangle pose, side angle pose, tree pose, and do a chatteranga in good form. My yoga experience is that I’ve been practicing basic Hatha yoga for five years at the gym. Ashtanga yoga is a very challenging practice and I can only get through the Sun Salutations and Standing Poses in the video which is about 30 minutes. The rest of this video (about an hour longer) you need to be quite flexible and very strong to do the poses, which I am unable to do…I can do Crow but I cannot do any headstands, handstands, jumping from downward dog into sitting pose, or other difficult poses. So I just practice the 30 minutes each day which is a great basic workout for me. I really like his instruction and pacing of the video as I’ve tried other kinds of yoga videos and I feel they are very slow due to too much instruction and talking. He gives just the right amount of quick, simple instruction and keeps the workout at an excellent pace. Yes, some reviews mentioned this video is “pixel-y” on tv and I don’t mind it as it’s still clear enough.Studio: Ashtanga Yoga ProductionsRun Time: 120 minutesPrice: $11.85