Yoga Zone: Power Yoga for Strength & Endurance

Lisa Bennett
Year Released: 1999

Categories: Yoga


I’m revisiting many dust bunnies now and dug out this gem of a power yoga tape. When I pushed it to the back of my shelves I didn’t exactly regard it as a gem – my issue at the time was the sequencing in the standing poses, which at the time seemed annoying and repetitive. However, on this re-visit, I found it flowed beautifully, definitely challenged both my strength and endurance, and was an extremely enjoyable practice.

Instructed by Lisa Bennett and demonstrated by two students, Gina and Charles, this 55 minute routine is filmed, like many Yoga Zone videos, in an outdoor setting in Jamaica. Again, the atmosphere is relaxed and breezy. Lisa’s instruction is very much like that of the Yoga Zone founder, Alan Finger – friendly, accessible, and reassuring.

Unlike many other power yoga tapes, the practice doesn’t begin with the seemingly requisite Sun Salutations A and B. Rather, after a preliminary simple sun salutation, Lisa begins building a sequence of standing poses. Each pose is introduced and held as she explains and instructs proper form, then returns to the up-dog down dog point. Each time you go through a sequence, you are given relatively detailed (for power yoga) instruction for a new pose, then you flow through the ones you’ve already learned. The part that bothered me earlier about this tape is that you do them all on one side, eg. Warrior 1, then 2, then right angle, etc all on the right side of the body, building the full standing sequence on one side before starting all over again on the other. Previously, I found this TIFTing-like repetition annoying, but this time, it flew by quickly, and the emphasis on one side before going to the other certainly brought out the endurance aspect of the practice.

The balancing sequence too was challenging, also due to flowing through several one legged poses before moving to the other side.

The seated poses round the practice off well, with good hip openers like pigeon and its variations, bridge with variations, as well as seated forward bends and lying twists.

Charles and Gina demonstrate advanced and modified variations of the poses, but even Charles wobbles in some balance poses, which is very reassuring. The demonstrators seem quite “real” to me. Lisa, while clearly showing similarity to Alan Finger’s teaching style, nevertheless has her own personality. She seems enthusiastic, and emphasizes the internal awareness of the breath over muscling your way into a pose. She’s kind of perky, too – at one point, coming out of the balance pose, she exclaims “Thank God, right? That’s Charles’ favorite pose” She sounds almost Cathe-like.

I’m glad I hung on to this tape and plan to revisit it again soon. It’s a nice practice for someone with some experience at some flow-type or power yoga, and probably suitable for experienced beginners upwards.

Instructor Comments:
Fresh and perky. Good as long as you've had your cup of coffee that morning. More importantly, well focused and clear in instruction.

Sophie

09/06/2004