Home Exercise with Yoga   by Susan Pokorny

in Health / Fitness    (submitted 2010-11-24)

Exercising at home has many advantages. You can do it on your own time, you can save travel time, save membership and class fees and the hassles of sweaty gym rats. It is still easy to spend a lot of money on expensive home equipment that is likely to just take up valuable space and remind you how out of shape you are as it gathers dust in the corner.

A great, low-cost alternative is to use equipment you already have, a DVD player and TV. There are many types of home exercise DVDs, but in this article, I will focus on doing yoga at home using DVDs that are easy to acquire from Amazon, your local library or many stores or web sits that offer exercise videos.

There are wide ranges of yoga DVDs available. You should choose carefully based on your fitness goals, experience level with yoga and yoga style preference. Common fitness goals that can be achieved through yoga are:

1. Stress Management
2. Lose Weight
3. Increase Flexiblility
4. Increase Strength
5. Build Stamina

Of course, these goals are not exclusive and often complement each other. The key for choosing the right video is determining which of these your primary goal is.

Experience with yoga and general fitness level is another important factor. These can be broken down into the following categories. Do not feel bad if you are at the limited beginner level. Everyone needs to start somewhere and beginning at a level too difficult will only discourage you from continuing.

1. Limited Beginner - No fitness experience, recovering from injury or limited flexibility/mobility.
2. Beginner - Good health but little or no experience with yoga or group exercise
3. Intermediate - Has some yoga experience or other fitness experience, fairly active and mobile with average amount of flexibility and strength.
4. Advanced - Have a regular yoga practice, fitness experience or seasoned athlete with reasonable amount of flexibility.

This is not definite list of where you should be as far as challenge in a yoga class as there can be some flexibility. For example if you are fairly active and limber, able to climb stairs, walk regularly and participate in normal daily activities but have never participated in a group exercise program at a studio or health club, you still may do fine with a Beginner or Intermediate yoga video. If you are limited in your range of motion or have knee, wrist or back issues you may do better with a slower paced video for a limited beginner where you will have time to make adjustments to suit your needs. If you are a marathon runner with tight limbs and no yoga experience, a Beginner video may be the best place to start.

No matter what your fitness level, yoga is very personal. The beauty of yoga is you should be encouraged to modify your positioning, whether in a class setting with a live instructor or with a yoga video, to best meet your needs. If you are limited in positioning you can adjust to a simpler posture to participate in a routine. A seasoned athlete should have the skills necessary to adjust any class to challenge themselves, whether through tightening up muscles in any area or strengthening the mind in focusing on the yoga positions, breath and body alignment.

No matter what your fitness goals are, finding the right yoga video starts with matching a video to your needs: finding what type of yoga you would like to practice, versatility of the workout, instructor style, options offered for varying levels, scenery and music.

About the Author

Susan is a certified yoga instructor with 20 over years of experience teaching yoga and other group fitness classes. She offers assistance with choosing the right yoga program to meet your specific needs at Yoga DVD Reviews