Yoga with Ateeka is filmed in Hawaii where she teaches Hatha Yoga. Ateeka starts you out with a shorth breathing exercise which slowly warms up the body. You then move to Sun Salutations (A&B), Ateeka starts you out at 2 sets for each sun salutes, and ask you to gradually work up to 5 sun salutes of A and B. You then progress to standing and balancing poses. Warrior I, II and head under your leg pose, King Dancer, Prayer behind the Back, then vinyasa to floor poses. A little bit of ab work here then Bridge to Wheel pose, to plow to shoulder stand. From those poses to seated forward bends and yoga mudra. The entire video is about 60 minutes long and flows well from asana to asana. She is constantly guiding you and reminding you how to best attain the pose. This video is very invigorating. Although no triangle or side-bend poses this video is a great work-out, especially when you start off with 10 sun salutes. I thorougly enjoy her and the program she has put together for her first video. Hope to have more from Ateeka.
Instructor comments: Ateeka is a wonderful teacher. She goes through each pose in an exact manner and guides you through. She has a soothing voice and flows from pose to pose.
Maria M. Welters
maria.m.welters@us.arthurandersen.com
02/28/00
There is already one review of this video on VF but I wanted to add
my thoughts...This is just about my favorite yoga video among the many I
have or have done. The music is haunting and is the kind that stays in
your head all day, the scenery is incredible --along the coast of Maui
or amongst a grove of trees. Ateeka is very thorough and gives good
descriptions of the poses and purposes of the poses (i.e. shoulder stand
is helpful for varicose veins). Her voice is so relaxing and she uses
words like "melt" and "bliss". The video starts out with about 6 min. of
breathwork and centering, moves into about 10 minutes of 3 rounds each
of sun salutation A and B, then back and forward bends, warrior series
(about 6 min.), balancing posture, bridge pose and full backbend, seated
postures, hip openers, and inversion postures. The workout flows nicely,
no endless sun salutations and down dogs. Of course, it ends with the
requisite guided relaxation done so nicely as Ateeka tells us to take
this feeling of bliss and love outward to others. Her website is
www.yogawithateeka.com. A great yoga video!
Instructor comments: A wonderful instructor with a voice like butter.
One could only hope to look that gorgeous in a unitard. She is very
supple and elegant in her movements.
Sandy Mascio
mmascio@stratos.net
4-4-00
Good news: Beautiful location, beautiful instructor, beautiful music...
Bad news: It was too hard for an inflexible yoga beginner like me! I think it
would be great for an intermediate or advanced person. Her voice is soothing,
she tells the benefits of the poses, but there is little instruction or examples
of modifications given. The workout really flows nicely, but I got too
frustrated to finish. Sigh!
Alta
3/6/01
Yoga with Ateeka is a visually beautiful video and
equally enjoyable Yoga session. The workout could be classified
as intermediate plus, because she doesn't hold the
moves for an extremely long time, but the duration was long enough for me. Her
graceful personality blended beautifully with
her demonstration of the postures and the gorgeous
Oceanside Maui setting (oh my!) While Ateeka performs the various
moves, her voice over encourages proper
positioning and motivation. She speaks a great deal
about going to "your edge" and not taking your stretches beyond that. Your edge is
the farthest point you are able to take a stretch to without hurting yourself or losing
all personal motivation or confidence.
Ateeka then proceeds through a seated breathing warm-up and
continues on to perform sun salutations (always lowering to
full plank to up dog and quickly again to down dog – where you take
5 much needed breathes). She then proceeds to display warriors, chair pose,
dancer for balance, triangle (not in this
order), plough, shoulder stand, bridge,
backbend, and so many more. She always
followed a strong forward fold with a back
arch/bend or visa versa, which I liked very much. For the
most part she showed beg/int/adv levels for
the majority of poses. I felt I completed a
very thorough yoga workout and the time flew by. This is a definite keeper. Grade A+
Janet O'Neil
6/7/01
Others have broken down this components of the video but I just want to add that this video is very difficult if you are not super flexible. It's not really suitable for beginners or people who are inflexible. Some of the poses she does require extraordinary flexibility - similar to a gymnast, for example full backbend and another pose where you are twisted into a pretzel shape. I had to do serious modifications on these poses.
Having said this, if you are willing to modify, this is really a great yoga video. As others have said, the music and scenery are simply outstanding and the whole video has a very meditative, relaxing feel to it. As I have said, a couple of the poses are really suitable for only super flexible people, however, most of the poses are do-able for the average person.
Instructor comments:
Ateeka is a wonderful instructor...she has a really soothing voice, and she gives clear instruction. She is really pretty and inspiring as well.
SassyGirl
2/25/03
