Exercising at home has numerous advantages. You can easily enjoy it on your own time, you may cut down travel time, save membership and class fees and the hassles of sweaty gym rats. It is in fact very simple to spend quite a lot of money on expensive household gear that might just take up valuable space and remind you how out of shape you happen to be as it gathers dust in the corner.
A fantastic, low-cost alternative is to use equipment you already have: a DVD player and TV. There a wide range of varieties of home exercise DVDs, but in this particular article, I will talk about doing yoga in your own home using DVDs that happen to be easy to acquire from Amazon, your neighborhood library or many stores or web sites offering exercise videos.
There exist wide ranges of yoga DVDs. You should choose carefully based on your fitness goals, experience level with yoga and yoga style preference. Common fitness goals that may be achieved through yoga are:
1. Stress Control 2. Lose Weight 3. Enhance Flexiblility 4. Increase Strength 5. Build Endurance
Keep in mind that these goals usually are not exclusive and often complement one another. The key for choosing the ideal video is determining which of the above your primary goal is.
Experience with yoga and general fitness level is an additional important aspect. This is generally broken down into the following categories. Do not feel bad in the event you at the limited beginner level. Everyone has to start somewhere and beginning in a level too difficult will undoubtedly discourage you from continuing.
1. Limited Beginner – No fitness experience, dealing with injury or limited flexibility/mobility. 2. Beginner – A healthy body but little if any experience with yoga or group exercise. 3. Intermediate – Some yoga experience or other fitness experience, fairly active and mobile with average level of flexibility and strength. 4. Advanced – Have a regular yoga practice, fitness experience or seasoned athlete with reasonable amount of flexibility.
This is not a definite list of where you should be as far as challenge for a yoga class as there is some flexibility. For example, if you’re fairly active and limber, equipped to climb stairs, walk regularly and perform normal daily activities but have never took part in a group exercise program at a studio or fitness center, you may do fine by using a Beginner or Intermediate yoga video. If you are limited in your flexibility or have knee, wrist or back issues you may fare better with a slower paced video for a limited beginner where you will have enough time to make adjustments to meet your requirements. On the other hand, if you are a marathon runner with tight limbs and no yoga experience, a Beginner video may be the best place to start.
Regardless of what your level of fitness, yoga is extremely personal. The beauty of yoga is you should be encouraged to modify your positioning, whether in a class setting with a live instructor or with a yoga video, to best provide what you need. If you might be limited in positioning you can adjust to a simpler posture to attend a routine. A proficient athlete should have the skills necessary to adjust any class to challenge themselves, whether through tightening up muscles in any area or strengthening your body and mind in focusing on the yoga positions, breath and the entire body alignment.
Whatever your fitness goals are, finding the appropriate yoga video starts with matching a relevant video to your needs: finding what type of yoga you aspire to practice, versatility of the workout, instructor style, options offered for varying levels, scenery and music.
As a certified yoga instructor with over 20 years of experience teaching yoga and other group fitness classes, I have seen many teaching approaches and reviewed many exercise videos. For more help in deciding the best home yoga video for your particular needs, consult Yoga DVD Reviews.