Yogalates For Weight Loss (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Educational Value	Excellent
How good are the presenters?	Good
How good is the content?	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Split into 3 sections, good for all levels, great price
Disadvantages:	None come to mind

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

As a keen Yogi I bought this DVD on Amazon after reading some good reviews. I was not actually looking to try yogalates, but I was buying something else and only had to spend anothe fiver to get free delivery- hence my purchase of this DVD.... so to me this DVD was free as I would have had to pay for postage and packaging... by now I am hoping that you have worked out that the DVD cost me about £5.

The work out is divided into three parts and focus on toning different parts of your body. The first workout is all floor/mat work and concentrates on the upper body and abs. The second body concentrates on the lower body and has standing and balance postures. The final part is an abs workout. Each of these sections is about 10- 15 minutes long.

The idea of this DVD is to do it a few times a week and if you do you will see a healthy weight loss. I did not buy this DVD as I need to lose weight, but love Yoga and thought I might do a little extra at home rather than paying an fortune to go to an extra class. After a month of doing the DVD... if i'm honest only once a week, I have not lost any weight. I have felt some increased toning though in ceratin parts of my body. I am not suggesting that you cannot lose weight by doing these workouts, but I am the kind of person that thinks oh i've done a bit of excerise now i'm going to eat chocolate.

I personally find Yoga very relaxing and gives me a bit of 'me time'. I found that this DVD has actually helped me to relax even further than when I attend one Yoga session a week. I did not however find that it gave me any me time. Realistically what it achieved was for my other half to take photos of me without me knowing (whilst i'm in odd positions) and show them to out friends- nice! I would suggest that if you are looking for a DVD to give you 'me time' then make sure everyone is out.

To me Yoga is as much about relaxation as it is about losing weight and toning the bod (although of course I do it for these reasons too). Yoga is a very spiritual thing and to many a way of life. I found that Yogalates is less about this and more about the body.

I like the way the dvd is split into sections. This means that if you are pushed for time you can just do the section you fancy, it also means that you could alternate the routines and say do a different one each day. On the DVD you will see a number of different people doing the the postures and you have a choice as to whether to follow the more or less advanced postures. I think this is a great thing about the DVD. It is also not pretensious like some other Yoga or PIlates DVDs by some famous characters.

I have never done pilates before, by like I say am a regular Yogi of probably an intermediate- higher standard. I followed the harder postures and the thing that I found the hardest was learning new postures by watching on the screen and doing them at the same time. It does suggest that you watch the DVD first before doing it and I guess this would solve that problem- I was keen and jumped straight in (not reccomended i'm sure). Once I got the hang of them, I would not say that I found the DVD easy, but at the same time it was not really hard. The reat thing about Yoga or Pilates is that you can always push yourself a little bit further, but you do not have to strain yourself and that is certainly not suggested. This is the kind of thing that with time will get easier, but even so when it does get easier you have the option to push yourself further. I think the different sections in the DVD and the different postures for different standards give this DVD workout flexability which others may lack.

Compared to some types of Yoga the pace is quite quick, but compared to Pillates this may be quite slow. I did find at certain points that my heart rate had increased- but not to an uncomfortable breathless amount.

Its unpretensious nature and seemingly normal people doing the Yogalates is anything but offputting and I would say for a fiver whether you're a beginner or you can put your legs behind your head and stand on your head at the same time then it's worth a go........