All the Right Moves with Grace Lazenby

This does indeed seem to be a love-or-hate it workout at VF, and there was an interesting thread a while back as to whether the workout "flowed" well. Since the aim of the the tape is to put together elements of yoga, pilates, and dance work into one workout, there is indeed the possiblity of a harmonious and complementary blend of these elements - or an unhappy and awkward one.

But, I'm in the "love it" camp. I must say that even when I did it the first time it did flow for me, at least after the standing leg segments were over. I agree, the first few segments seemed awkward, alternating the sun salutations with the standing leg work. And I do agree, her instruction is not very detailed - she seems to suppose (perhaps correctly) that you've learned your sun salutations elsewhere. So I tended to follow my own breathing rhythmn here and was lucky to find it coincided with hers.

By the time she reached the lunge segment, it really did feel like it started to flow for me. And by the end of the workout, I thought "I love this! I must do it again!"

It actually does have all the right moves for me - all the things I love to hate because they address my flexibility limitations. The lunges, the pigeon, the shin-over-shin at the end. My hips really felt opened up after this tape, and that's what I really need to work on. I also liked the way she did a down-dog/tripod after working one side - I don't know if lactic acid really was flushing out of the glute there, but it sure felt good.

I was put off when I first previewed this tape because I realized it was more of a "compilation" than a fusion...I felt like I could have cobbled this workout together by combining bits of various yoga and pilates tapes I have. After I did this tape, I realized this is actually a good thing - all the bits I really need to do, without all the rewinding and popping tapes in and out, with one instructor.

Some people were irritated by Grace's comments like "beautiful", I didn't notice that as much as the "uh-huh". I *guess* it's like she's reassuring her students that they're doing it correctly, but it just sounded like a Barry White-ism to me (I love you baaaaby...uh-HUH).

All in all, if you can get past the gushy intro where Grace's students sit on the floor and praise the workout (including one guy who says he's tried Pie-laytes before, and looks like he's hoping to be the next Hugh Grant), and you don't mind the grindingly repetitive music, and have had enough experience with other yoga and pilates to have learned something about form, I find this is a thorough and enjoyable workout.

Instructor Comments:
Grace has a competent, no-nonsense style and cues her workout well. However it would have been nice to see a little more warmth and some rapport with her class (I mean, during the workout, not the introductory rap session)

Sophie