Low Impact Series: Yoga Max

Cathe Friedrich
Year Released: 2011

Categories: Yoga


Somehow I approached this workout thinking it would be more advanced, sweaty, challenging yoga...you know, Yoga MAX. It's not. It's beginner level, except for a couple of balance poses for which Amanda and Jai show an advanced version. As such, it's a bit of a disappointment. Cathe is not a yoga teacher and her instruction is sometimes clunky and jarring. For example, she uses the word "aggressive" more than a few times, as in (paraphrase) "warming up the muscles so we can be more aggressive with our poses", and that word just takes me right out of the practice. The 48 minutes of yoga is mostly standing work, with some floor moves done at the end, including a few slightly out-of-place Pilates-based abs moves and a levitation hold. There are a fair number of high planks into up dog and down dog, lots of childs-pose rests between poses, but no spinal twists.

My main complaint about Yoga Max is the instruction. There's a descriptive quality to yoga teaching that Cathe doesn't have; the better teachers clearly explain that poses are dynamic, so they're telling you how to get into a pose and how to experience the pose once you're there. Cathe's description is more like cueing an athletic stretch: hands down, hips up (or whatever) and stay there until she tells you to come out of it. That style of instruction/cueing was perfect for Yoga Relax, which is really just a (very solid) athletic stretch routine masking as yoga. Yoga Max is trying to be real yoga but Cathe's instruction falls short.

The set is the basic gym, with Jai, Lorraine, Amanda and Brenda as backgrounders. Music is tinkly "Indian"/southeast Asian-sounding world music attempting to imbue some yoga authenticity.

Instructor Comments:
Cathe is in great shape but doesn't always demonstrate the best form. Her cues and instruction are much more suited for an athletic-style stretch than a flowing yoga practice.

athompson10

04/07/2015