Yoga for Beginners: Boxed Set (Yoga for Stress Relief / AM-PM Yoga for Beginners / Essential Yoga for Inflexible People)

I have been using these DVDs for 6 months. I am not new to yoga practice but found that the "Essential Yoga for Inflexible People" DVD provides excellent step by step guidance about how to perform each pose that is lacking from the other DVDs that I have been using for the past 2 years. I will admit that I was annoyed a bit by the repetition once I was familiar with each routine but stuck with it because I wanted to make sure I did not hurt my back. Her consistent reminders to lift the spine before moving further into a pose have become habit for me and I feel that I no longer risk injuring my back by pushing into the poses. Working through these routines has enabled me to practice yoga with more advanced DVDs because I know the correct way to get into (and out of) many of the poses. A downside is that they use cut and pasted sequences to create the full routines (less expensive to produce) so if you do a focused routine (leg work, for example) and then a full routine, there will be repetition. However, the variety of routines on the 3 DVDs is very good, almost too much in the beginning, but a lot to choose from once you become familiar with the offerings. I use stickie notes to remind myself what is on each DVD so that I can choose the one that suits my needs for each yoga session. These DVDs attempt to provide the more spiritual side of yoga with the beach setting but are really more for someone who is trying to learn the poses and/or strengthen specific areas of the body. I rated this set a 5 because I believe that they deliver what they promise for a very reasonable price.

After four months of using this Box Set, I am extremely pleased with the purchase as someone new to yoga. The Box Set consists of 3 DVDs - Essential Youga For Inflexible People, Yoga For Stress Relief and AM PM Yoga. Needless to say there is a lot of variety between the videos and plenty to work with. The Inflexible title has routines that range from 5 to 10 minutes to up to around an hour or so (for use as you get better/stronger) and includes ways of making things earlier as you learn. The Stress Relief has a TON of poses and workouts to help you target problem areas, such as headaches, and is very good and effective. The AM PM focuses more on things to help you energize and relax. The teachers provide enough verbal cues and reminders on positioning and breathing so that I feel that I am really learning how to do things properly at a good pace. Just love it.

These DVDs are great. The one for inflexible people modifies the poses into easier versions.for people who aren't too limber just yet. Even I can manage to do the easy routines on this disc, and I'm an obese couch potato, trying to lose weight, at 260lbs. I've had to choose the easiest parts of each routine and put them into action, because my heart and weak sedentary-life body can't handle the more demanding poses just yet, but someone who ISN'T obese and keeps at least a somewhat active lifestyle, should find all these routines a breeze to complete. The voice over is pretty straight forward, enough that you can follow what it says and not have to constantly look at the screen to see what the model is doing. Sometimes the voice over is a bit behind the actual motions in the video, but I think this only happens in the second time around for certain poses. I like how the people who do the Yoga in these DVDs, aren't the perfect-body, slender, sexy, zero body fat, model types. But instead, they are regular, middle aged women (one of them is the Yoga teacher who's famous, yet her name escapes me), with average bodies and even if they are incredibly flexible and strong, you can also make out a lil belly fat on them and that very lack of perfection is something that I find very interesting and useful for one of these DVDs. I can actually RELATE to these people. The AM-PM yoga is amazing as well. Again, some poses are too demanding for me, but for a younger, less chunky person, it should all go easy and once you master all these, you'd be well on your way to a better, healthier body and mind. My favorite is Yoga For Stress Relief, because it has relaxing guided meditations and breathing exercises that truly put you in a mood that can't happen without such sessions. It puts an easy smile on your face and your body feels amazing. Corpse pose is a godsend. Highly recommend this boxset, as you may notice.

Barbara Branagh has a great way of explaining things, calm, nice, nothing too difficult, with different options within the same pose to make it easier or more challenging. Much of it oriented towards relaxation, with lots of sitting and lying down poses, but I suppose that may be the "beginner" part of it. Suggested uses of pillows, blankets and blocks make it easy enough for my inflexible husband to join in! Great that it's divided into sessions of 10, 25, 30 mins, etc... because they you can pick and choose what you feel you have time for that day. Makes it easy for me to do yoga every day, even if it's only for 10 mins. Find the Inflexible people DVD less useful, the routines are too short to give any real yoga effect. However, there are so many routines to choose from on these 3 DVDs, that there is bound to be something for everyone. I've stopped going to the class I was going to with the male teacher with his over-complicated moves that he did just to show-off, and am having a brilliant time with these DVDs in my own home. Only downside, they will not run in my DVD player, but do play on my Laptop. Wish there was an "intermediate" version of these with the same teacher!

Ideal tanto para principiantes como para avanzados. Contiene tres DVDs con rutinas muy variadas que se pueden combinar a gusto. Algunas rutinas son cortas para aquellos días en los que no tenemos mucho tiempo. El DVD para personas estresadas también incluye ejercicios de relajación y técnicas de respiración. Muy bueno!

I am very pleased with the purchase of Yoga for Beginners and Beyond. The instruction is well paced and easy to follow with ongoing support and guidance not to push beyond my current capabilities to prevent injury. I also appreciate the suggestions for alternative positions since my physical limits prevent me from performing some of the moves at this point . But best of all is the way I feel after the sessions; focused. relaxed and flexible. The physical and mental benefits of each session lasts well into the day or evening depending when I did them. Since I started just over a month ago, I already feel the benefits. My step is lighter and my walk is taller.

Good set of yoga moves, ideal for beginners and advanced level students

Bought this for my fiancée and we use it everyday. Mostly the PM yoga during the week as it is tough to do it before an early work morning lol. I have no complaints. Positions are described in detailed as the yoga instructor is doing poses. Especially for me not knowing one position, the descriptive details help.