Yoga Zone: Yoga for Fat-Burning

This workout is part of the Yoga Zone series based on the tv shows. It features two 20-minute workouts both led by Jeanne Kerner. They are filmed outdoors at a resort in Jamaica.

Douglas assists with the first session, designed to ‘create’ heat. It features sequences where you move with the pose. I really enjoyed these. We begin with a cat/chatarunga section, then a lunge section featuring twists, forward bends, upward dog and downward dog. Then a warrior and triangle section with forward bend, floor tabletop sequence, quick seated twist then final relaxation. There were not too many poses because you had to repeat on each side. I am finding I tend to prefer yoga routines structured this way because they feel shorter.

Suzanne assists with the second routine, which is designed to ‘build’ heat. Again, it is structured around flowing sequences where you do one side at a time and build on base moves. The first little section is a lunge one with chair and forward bend. Then we get a standing warrior sequence with arm variations and triangle, then some forward bend stuff. That’s pretty much it: again, we get fewer poses because we have to do both sides.

I loved this routine a lot. I think it is my favourite of the several I have tried in the series. It went by so quickly because of the one side at a time sequencing, and none of the poses (except maybe tabletop) were above my level. Jeanne is good at showing simpler versions of the poses (for example she drops her knee to the floor for all the lunges) and she cues the poses adequately. I also felt like I really improved as the workout progressed. The base poses we come back to often are chair, which builds strength, and forward bend, which stretches the legs. By the end of the second program, my knees were significantly, noticeably less bent in the forward bend. For me, this was huge---I have very poor flexibility and was using my tall step as a block in forward bend, yet my knees were STILL bend. By the end of program two, they were almost straight.

Jeanne does have funny pronunciation of a few things (noticeably the word ‘forehead’) that irked at first. But I am so happy with this routine that I don’t care. This is the best workout I have tried in this series. It will definitely be a staple in my stretching routine.

Instructor Comments:

Joanna