This morning I decided to spend 45 mins with John Friend. I just bought this vid from my yoga studio. John is the founder of Anusara style yoga.

The video is a series of chest, leg and hip openers to make ready oneself for seated meditation. This isn't a video for building heat.

If you're at all turned off for whatever reason by New Agey lingo, this isn't one for you. I want to stress he doesn't say lots of New Agey things--he says ONLY New Agey things. Be ready for "bathe in the light of the divine" et al. He also tells you to smile from time to time. During one hip opener when he told me to smile and be equally happy on both sides I did feel a level of hatred for him, I'll admit it.

So it's not my favorite one, but I will say this--by the time we got to seated med at the end I was feeling pretty doggone comfy sitting there. If you're really stiff, or have big time DOMS from lifting the day before and can't face a morning with Bryan Kest this could be a good pick.

If you have Yoga for Meditation with Rodney Yee, it's a similar video except it's not broken into segments like Y4E is and it doesn't have the gorgeous scenery. Also, this is picayune but John tends to wear shorts that are too short in his videos (I also have his Alignment and Form video) and Rodney he's *not*.

There are a few shoulder openers, but mainly the video consists of forward bends and hip openers with a couple of twists. I really felt the twists with his form directions--I got nicely wrung out from them.

Lisa TV