Yoga Foundations

Travis Eliot
Year Released: 2012

Categories: Yoga



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I received this DVD to review, and I am so glad I did! Yoga Foundations has three practices. The first practice is 45 minutes long, and the next two are about 55 minutes each. The first practice begins with a brief seated meditation, then moves quickly into a side stretch and spinal twist. Next we move to out hands and legs for cat/cow, then child’s pose. The standing poses are next, and these include downward-facing dog, flat back stretch, forward fold, then rolling up to standing into mountain pose. Here we do a brief standing meditation and some relaxing shoulder stretches before moving into sun salutations, wide leg forward fold, triangle, and back to wide leg forward fold. It’s down to the floor for plank, sphinx, and cobra; then seated butterfly, bridge, supine pigeon, spinal twist, and final shavasana. The music is very calm “white noise” with an occasional flute in the background. I greatly enjoyed this very gentle practice.

Instructor Comments:
Travis does not mirror cue; some may be bothered by this, others may not even notice.

Debbie J

12/18/2012

Yoga Foundations is a Level 1 or beginner yoga DVD featuring self-dubbed "Ultimate Yogi" Travis Eliot. On this DVD, Eliot offers three live yoga classes designed to provide a foundation yoga practice for beginners. To further assist those new to yoga, he has included a video tutorial breaking down many of the postures. In addition, the DVD case includes a 36-page "Training Guide." This insert provides the sequencing of poses for each of the three routines as well as offers additional form and alignment guidelines for some of the postures. Finally, there is a brief bio on Eliot--describing him as a "rising star" in today's yoga community and noting that he is on the faculty at Kripalu yoga center--as well as a review of Eliot's 108 day The Ultimate Yogi program.

The breakdowns I have give below are taken directly from the DVD insert (times added by me). However, I should note that many poses from each class are actually NOT included on the insert breakdown--for examples, Class 2 has several more floor poses, including bridge, reclining pigeon, and shoulderstand.

CLASS 1 SEQUENCING (46 minutes)
Cross Legged Seated
Side Stretch (L/R)
Seated Twist (L/R)
Table Top Pose
Cat Cow Tilt
Child's Pose
Downward Facing Dog
Mountain Pose
Triangle (L/R)
Plank
Sphinx
Cobra
Butterfly
Bridge
Reclining Pigeon
Reclining Twist (L/R)
Corpse Pose

CLASS 2 SEQUENCING (54 minutes)
Child's Pose
Table Top
Cat Cow
Sunbird
Downward Facing Dog
Forward Fold
Flat Back
1 Arm Standing Twist (L/R)
Standing Shoulder Roll
1/2 Squat
Warrior 1
Warrior 2
Reverse Warrior
Side Angle
Triangle
Extended Triangle
Yoga Squat
Plank
Cobra
Corpse Pose

CLASS 3 SEQUENCING (53 minutes)
Child's Pose
Table Top
Sun Bird Pose
Downward Facing Dog
Forward Fold
Mountain Pose
Half Sun Salutations
Plank Pose
Crocodile Pose
Sphinx Pose
Floating Cobra Flow
Downward Facing Dog
Forward Fold
Cobra
Downward Facing Dog
Sun Salutation A
Sun Salutation B
Spread Legs Forward Fold Shoulder Stretch
Tree Pose
Chair Twist
Camel Pose
Cobbler
Reclining Pigeon
Reverse Cobra
Shoulder Stand
Reclining Twist
Corpse Pose

Eliot teaches live to a small class of background exercisers. Sometimes he briefly moves through a few postures, but in general, he is walking amongst the group. One thing I found confusing was that he seemed to alternate between sometimes mirror cuing to the viewer and sometimes NOT doing so; even the class members appeared uncertain at times as to which side they were supposed to be on. Similarly, I thought Eliot came off as somewhat inexperienced, both as a video instructor (in addition to the cuing issue, he would also sometimes have you faced AWAY from the TV, which was awkward) and also in his general yoga instruction. Regarding the latter, I just noticed that he didn't provide much detail on alignment, nor did he give cues such as to change the crossing of your hands in postures.

Eliot did have a nice, easy-going manner, and I am sure many people would find him soothing as well as enjoy the relaxed vibe of these practices. I don't believe that Eliot provides quite enough instruction for those brand-new to yoga, so I would suggest that this DVD would be best suited to those at an experienced beginner level. This video wasn't a good fit for me personally, however, and I wound up trading it.

Instructor Comments:
See comments above. Personally, I didn't click particularly well with Travis; he just came across as inexperienced to me, and I missed the excellent cuing and form pointers that I would get from an instructor like Rodney Yee.

Beth C (aka toaster)

04/24/2014