The Ultimate Yogi Program is a DVD set which includes 12 yoga classes. Most of which are power yoga, but some include pranayama (breath work), meditation, and more gentle yoga or yin type classes to increase flexibility, as well as the Mountain Pose series which I feel is a practice geared towards opening the shoulders and learning to “hear” your body.

The music in this series is great. It goes right along with every practice. Each practice is about 60 minutes long, except for the Mountain Pose Series, Meditation, and Pranayama which are around 15-30 minutes each. The program comes with a schedule to follow for all 108 days. Ideally, you want to practice 108 days in a row, but there are “built in” rest days where creator Travis Eliot has you do a Yin Yoga or Gentle Yoga day and there is a day every week where you do Mountain Pose Series. The first 36 days you do 10 minutes of meditation daily, the second 36 days 20 minutes, and finally 30 minutes daily. The guided meditation will help you create a meditation, you can focus on one part of it or find other guided meditations or self-directed. In this way the program is similar to Eoin Finn’s Blissology, except for the practices do have a lot more variety. The practices are mostly filmed indoors I believe in a yoga studio/set, except for Mountain Pose, Pranayama/Meditation, and Sun Salutations. On day 36 you do 36 Sun Salutations, day 72 you do 72 and day 108 you would be doing 108 Sun Salutations. I remember thinking “there is no way I’m going to do 36” but I did. By the time day 72 rolled along I knew I would be doing 72, and I did do 108 which was very empowering. I cried and am finding out that is a common reaction with many people who have done Ultimate Yogi 108.

The practices are varied. The “power” yoga practices are similar to Bryan Kest’s practices, but also varied enough that you see some different flows in there. Cross Train has a little of everything. Cardio moves fast and I must admit scared me the first two times, but it turned out to be something I could see great improvement in relatively fast. Strength is always tough and upper body oriented. The Flexibility practice is not what I expected, I expected a slow Yin Yoga-type practice and it’s not, it’s power and yet you get deeper and deeper in the poses. Balance is probably the most difficult practice. We all lose our balance as we age and this I feel is probably the most important DVD of the set for the majority of people. It will show you your weaknesses, and also when you improve those weaknesses you feel awesome! Detox is a wonderful twist filled practice, but Travis guides you GENTLY building up, as well as Vitality with the back bend/heart opening positions. There is no “jamming” involved and if you listen to his cueing, listen to your body, and have some knowledge of yoga—these are wonderful. Hardcore is a 20 minute “core” oriented routine. It is tough, but easily modifiable as well. Yin Yoga…wow. It is a great shorter practice reminiscent of Long, Slow and Deep by Kest but shaves about 45 minutes off. I love this practice. You can do it before bed without being too hyped up to sleep or first thing in the morning. Gentle Yoga is similar, but poses are not held quite as long and it’s more dynamic. I think it’s a perfect practice for a day where you are not 110%, but you don’t want to just slack off.

The schedule is set up so you do meditation almost daily, Hardcore three times a week (although sometimes I substituted other core workouts), and they build upon themselves. Most of the practices (except for Hardcore, Mountain Pose, Pranayama, Mediation and the Sun Salutations) end with a lovely savasana and I always felt wonderful after each one. You do a different practice each day which is similar to Blissology, i.e., the same practices for a few weeks almost in the same fashion. It is different than American Power Yoga 60 as that program you do a different Morning Blend daily 6 days a week (7th day is off) but the same class daily. I feel both series are good because with APY60 you can really go deeper and notice by really day 3 that your practice is a lot different than day 1. However, the same applies to Blissology and of course Ultimate Yogi because like I mentioned above by about the third time doing Cardio I noticed a huge difference in my stamina.

There is also a dietary component to the program which is simple for people with any knowledge of nutrition. Basically eat as close to the earth as possible, avoid alcohol, stimulants, and fried foods. There are also built in fasts. I didn’t follow the food program closely; however, lost about 23 pounds during my journey and did make better food choices as far as quality. The biggest change I think for me is that I take a breath before reacting to things. This is something Kurt Johnsen talks about a lot during the American Power Yoga 60 Program and he also studied with Bryan Kest. I also find this to be a perfect series for those that want to go to classes, but for whatever reason can’t attend live classes, and yet have a program set up to improve their bodies and spirits. I don’t think people who are draw to “hardcore workouts” will enjoy this program as it is set up, but it is a good addition to their collection and maybe will open them up to new things. I also feel you have to have some degree of understanding of asanasa/poses to get the most out of the program. Travis has a new DVD series called Yoga Foundations which I have not viewed yet, but is supposed to be for beginners and I think would be a good start for those new to yoga before advancing to Ultimate Yogi.

Instructor Comments:
Travis is pretty thorough with form pointers; however, sometimes he shows modifications and the camera is not focused on them. I have read that people don't like his voice during previews, and that was something I did notice, but once I was TWO MINUTES into the first workout--it never bothered me. He does make the occasional joke, but nothing offensive AT ALL. He interacts with the other yogis with occasional adjustments and talking...and I will always remember Elizabeth getting into the wrong pose at the beginning of a practice :)

Stephanie_B