Gaiam Rodney Yee's AM & PM Yoga for Beginners

Gaiam Rodney Yee's AM & PM Yoga for Beginners

This DVD had two workouts on it and you can also download a AM&PM Meditation video that's 12 minutes long. I haven't done that part. I did both of the Yoga workouts on this DVD though. The AM one is led by Rodney and the PM one is led by Colleen Saidman. The workouts have very basic moves in them that just about anyone should be able to do. You have the option of playing these with just the music or with the full instructions. I played them with the full instructions since I had never done them before. They talk pretty much through thing. It's all about where to move next. In the PM one, she was a little bit ahead on the voice over part which was weird. I'm usually behind, but I found that I was ahead of her on the screen even though I was a little behind her cues. She still sounds like Dharma from Dharma and Greg though which is just weird for me. 

AM Energize

I did this in the morning, but I didn't feel particularly energized when I was done. It was a very calm routine. I don't think I broke a sweat. The music was calm and his voice was calm. It was filmed along the ocean. He was on a yoga mat on top of a board or something on top of the sand. I like having the nice serene settings like this, but I did most of this with my eyes closed or looking at the ceiling. This was a slow moving stretchy type yoga. We started out on our backs and alternated pulling our knees to our chests. We did this for what seemed like a long time. We did some other stuff seated. I think we did some Cobbler's Pose and some Staff Pose. We also did some Dog Dog and Cobra. We also did some forward folds. We did a brief Warrior 1 segment. We did a little bit of Chair (or Powerful Pose as he calls it). We did some Mountain Pose and Volcano Pose as well as some back bends with a bit of a twist to them. We also did some stretching and twisting on the floor. One of them had us cross one leg over the other than then lay our knees down on the ground while we held our back flat on the floor. My back cracked during this one and it felt sooooooooooo good! What pain was left over last night was gone after that crack. I will have to remember that one later! I will try to incorporate it into my back rolling/stretching session. 

Overall, I liked the workout, but it was a bit slower and more calm than I was expecting for something that was supposed to energize me. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is my unimpressive screen shot. 

 

 PM Unwind

This one was filmed in a field. She was on a yoga mat on some type of board just sitting on the grass. This one was even more calm and relaxing than the first. We did a lot of stretching and not a lot of holding any specific pose. We did some Child's Pose, some Cobbler's Pose, a bit of Staff Pose and even some Down Dog. We used a yoga strap for this one. We had it on the ball of one foot as we stuck that leg straight up in the air and stretched out our hamstrings. Mine are super tight so this one always hurts, but hurts in a good way kind of thing. We did a seated straddle stretch as well as a straddle stretch while standing up. Yesterday I did the one standing up and was able to touch my head to the floor. My feet were pretty far apart to get  my head that low, but it didn't matter. My head touched the floor! It felt amazing! I was pretty shocked that I was able to get my feet so far apart and I was shocked that my head hit the floor! LOVED IT! I actually squealed or something and my husband just couldn't understand what I was so excited about.

Overall, I liked this workout, but it wasn't really what I was in the mood for at that point. I'm really looking for a workout where we hold the poses for an extended period of time. I want to be shaking when I'm done! These have all been pretty low key workouts. I have a few more to get through, so we'll see how it goes. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is the screen shot. Those steps and that minute of activity were from my jaunt into the bedroom to get my yoga strap. I cleaned up the living room today because we had a couch getting delivered. I made sure to leave the mat and the blocks, but I didn't think I would need the strap so I moved it to the bedroom that is getting converted into a workout room. Guess I jumped the gun on that one.