I am a new practitioner of yoga. I am interested in what is called “power yoga” and would appreciate any book or DVD recommendations.
Hi, YAZ! Welcome to the forums!
I have a book, “Power Yoga for Dummies”, written by Geo Takama, and I tried out a Rodney Yee power yoga DVD for a colleague who wanted my opinion on it. They seemed to deliver what they advertised.
Um, launching into power yoga as your first foray, without a teacher, it will be difficult to detect and learn a bunch of important elements for the asanas. That is, as a beginner you probably won’t be able to imitate the images absolutely. So then you need to decide what parts to try for and what parts to let go. As someone who began with a book and got to a teacher eventually, I can assure you it’s easy to choose incorrectly. (he, he – revolved triangle pose was an amazing revelation in class. I had thought I was good at it, too, because it didn’t stretch very much.)
Let me know how it goes!
Thank you Techne for the recommendations. I saw a clip of the Rodney Yee DVD on you-tube and it looks good. Reasonably priced too. As to “Power Yoga for Dummies” - I looked it up on Amazon and the book by that name I found was not written by Geo Takama but by Doug Swenson. Is that the book you were referring to?
After checking . . . . Aha! I don’t have the ‘for dummies’ book after all. I have “the complete idiot’s guide to power yoga”, written by Geo TakOma.
Apparently, one of the appellations applies to me ; ).
I’m a fan of Baron Baptiste and Bryan Kest’s power yoga DVDs. They are challenging, but not so impossible that you will give up. I recommend starting with a DVD rather than a book because the class is sequenced for you, and the DVDs usually show multiple examples of what the pose should look like. Ideally, you would start with a class so a teacher can adjust you in poses and give you specific pointers though. I did yoga for years with DVDs before taking a class, at which point I finally realized I’d been doing downdog wrong. Would’ve been nice to learn the proper way from the start!
[QUOTE=LikeBarryBonds;22594]Don’t waste your money on anything. Be strong like bull… poses that strengthen the thighs[/QUOTE]
That’s why I do weights and kettlebells. I don’t need yoga for that. I am presently doing a kbs. instructor course. The course instructor also has a yoga background and he introduces yoga elements into the course. His experience is that most male kb. trainees have an imbalance between strength and flexibility. We do a little yoga during the warm up and the cool down. I also do it at home and I feel that my flexibility and overall well being has improved. I want to improve my flexibility and from the research I’ve done, power yoga is more suited to me.
It sounds like you are proficient at finding what is appropriate for you. Please let us know which power program you find suitable.
gordon
[QUOTE=LaLuz;22639]Rodney Yee also has a Power Yoga for beginners DVD. I’ve seen it on Amazon.com[/QUOTE]
Yes I’ve seen it and I intend to order it. Thanks.
OK, got the “Idiots Guide to Power Yoga”. Actually, it looks quite comprehensive. Will go thru it and then try to come up with a good program to supplement my other activities. Thanks Techne, and I’ll get back to you.