wearying of Ultimate Yogi...day 89

[macska]

I completed the first week in maybe 9 days. I'm very bad at rotation, but I actually enjoy this a lot and looking forward to the each DVDs. I combine it with random weights, kettlebells and some tapouts.

[Loleen]

Hi Tracey - I am on day 96 (going to do Balance as soon as I post this). I find it hard to start each practice lately but once I get going I really enjoy it. Congratulations on making it this far! Which practice is your favorite?

Loleen

[Tracyso2]

Wow, Day 96...I'm jealous, since you're about a week ahead. Hmmm...well, I can tell you that without question, my LEAST favorite is the one I have on the docket today: Balance. I suck at it, and I don't seem to be improving in the slightest. Damn you, weak ankles!! Oh, wait, I also kind of hate Mountain Pose, although slightly less than I did at the beginning. My favorites are probably CrossTrain (because I think it's thorough & also maybe easiest), Cardio (surprising; I hated it the first time I did it but now find it invigorating and relaxing after the half-hour mark), and Detox (except the "under-the-fence vinyasa"...I could absolutely give that a miss). I'm also getting to like Yin. What about you? Anyone else have favorites or anti-favorites?

[Loleen]

Cardio and Strength have become my favourites. I have grown to dread Hardcore. Yin was an early favourite but now can feel a bit long.

[bubbles76]

I want to try this program, but egads his voice! I commend all of you for staying with it.

[toaster]

Originally Posted by bubbles76

I want to try this program, but egads his voice! I commend all of you for staying with it.

I tried Foundations and didn't really like it--Travis was nice enough, but (compared to other yoga instructors I've had, both live & on video), he came across as very young and inexperienced to me. His voice didn't bother me per se, but what drove me crazy is that he sounded like someone to me, and I couldn't quite put my finger on who.

[Tracyso2]

I can tell you exactly who, Beth--Bryan Kest. Travis does almost a line-reading of the best of Kest; same cadences, same verbiage, same vocal tricks. It drove me crazy at the beginning --I'm a huge Bryan Kest fan, and I just kept wishing he had made a program like The Ultimate Yogi, instead of only 2-hour yogastravaganzas that I can't fit into my schedule-- but I got over it. Travis is actually --dare I say?-- a better sequencer than Bryan, I think.

[toaster]

Originally Posted by Tracyso2

I can tell you exactly who, Beth--Bryan Kest. Travis does almost a line-reading of the best of Kest; same cadences, same verbiage, same vocal tricks. It drove me crazy at the beginning --I'm a huge Bryan Kest fan, and I just kept wishing he had made a program like The Ultimate Yogi, instead of only 2-hour yogastravaganzas that I can't fit into my schedule-- but I got over it. Travis is actually --dare I say?-- a better sequencer than Bryan, I think.

Tracy, it could be Bryan, expect that I have never done one of Bryan's videos, so I don't think I know what he sounds like!

[yogapam]

When you are in a long rotation like that, I think it is perfectly fine to give yourself permission to take some time off here and there to rest or do something different especially if a dread factor is setting in. I am in my first week of P90X and plan to do just that every few weeks as I know doing the same thing for months will start to drive me nuts after a while.

[laurajhawk]

Originally Posted by Tracyso2

I can tell you exactly who, Beth--Bryan Kest. Travis does almost a line-reading of the best of Kest; same cadences, same verbiage, same vocal tricks.

Travis has studied with Bryan and picked up a lot of his mannerisms and even exact phrases. What Travis *doesn't* do is Bryan's shock-value schtick, the F-bombs and so forth. On video and in person, Travis is a *much* more relaxed guy than Bryan, who seems to me to have a chip on his shoulder most of the time. I love them both, but I'm not sure I could spend an hour a day with Bryan (on DVD) for 108 days, as I did with Travis.

A funny thing happened at Denver ChantFest, where I took a class with Bryan -- he used a phrase that I recognized from Ultimate Yogi! Of course I've no idea who picked it up from whom.