Gaiam Rodney Yee's Daily Yoga

Gaiam Rodney Yee's Daily Yoga

This DVD has five different workouts. They 15 to 25 minutes long.

Day 1: Build the Foundation (lyengar)

I did this one on Monday. I was really looking forward to this one. I've liked the workouts of his that I've done, but this one wasn't what I was expecting. This was more like the instructional workout from Yoga for Beginners. It was filmed in a studio and had both Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman. She did all of the moves and he did all of the instructing. I found it odd that the instructions for Mountain Pose weren't the same. In Yoga for Beginners, we were supposed to have our feet separated and they were supposed to be parallel to the mat, but in this workout, our feet were touching at the inside edges. That was the only move that I remember being different. 

I don't really remember all of the moves that we did and I don't have time to rewatch the DVD, but I remember it being quite slow. I don't remember breaking a sweat. We did some Down Dog, some Up Dog, a little bit of Warrior 1, Warrior 2, Right Angle and Triangle. We also did some stretching stuff that I'm not sure about the name. He had her do Camel. I tried to do Camel, but my hands just can't get down to my feet. If I'm on my stomach, I can reach my feet, but if I'm on my shins, I think my fear of falling makes me too stiff to reach my feet. We did a lot of Cobbler Pose and Staff Pose. We did some "Push Up Pose" or Chataranga (however you spell that). I felt nice and stretched once it was over and while sitting at my desk hours later, I felt like I had done 100 squats earlier in the day. 

Overall, I liked the work that we did, but I wasn't a fan of the whole setup of this. It was very instructional and slow. I'm hoping that the rest of the workouts on here aren't like that. The back cover shows some peaceful picturesque settings, so I'm hopeful. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the unimpressive screen shot. 

Day 2: Energize (Vinyasa)

This one was led by Colleen Saidman. It was a nice setting, but not as pretty as some of them. This was a flow. We didn't really hold a pose for any length of time which seems to be pretty common with these workouts. She did a lot of instructing and for the most part, I was slightly behind for a good deal of it. She sounded like Dharma from Dharma and Greg again. 

I did this workout this morning and I don't have time to replay it all to do a play by play. This was another slow moving one and I barely broke a sweat. This was a nice stretchy workout. It was another one where a few hours later, I felt like I had done a bunch of squats that morning.

This one had some Down Dog, Up Dog, Chataranga (however you spell that), Warrior 2, Right Angle, (it might have had triangle), Stafff, Cobbler and Mountain. We also did a twisting thing, but I don't know the name of it. We had a knee bent up and then we twisted to the side. We also did a side plank that turned into a back bend type deal. We did this move in PiYo, and it killed me. I was so so bad at this move in PiYo, but I did it in this and I did it well! I'm getting so much stronger! We also did some forward bending. I really liked this one. We had our legs out wide and we bent over at our hips. Then we reached our hands out in front of us. I really liked this one! I like anything that helps stretch out  my hamstrings because my hamstrings are so tight and need some stretching. I also like stretches that I'm good at and I think I was good at this one!

Overall, I liked this workout, but it's hard to totally get into it when there's so much talking and not as many long poses. She talked about the importance of breath and connecting your breath to the movements. This isn't the first time that I've heard this, but it was the first time that I was able to really focus on it. At points, it was hard though because she would say to do something on the inhale and then she would take forever to tell me what I was doing on the exhale. I found myself holding my breath a bit. The deep breathing was nice and relaxing. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

This is another unimpressive screen shot. I got some great stretching and it was really relaxing. 

Day 3: Strengthen the Core

This workout was led by Rodney Yee again. He was in a field on a wooden circle with a yoga mat on it. I'm beginning to wonder if this was filmed on his property and he just has yoga stations all over the place. That would be amazing! This workout was pretty short. It was only about 17 minutes. 

This workout was all about the core, but we did it in a really calm way. We worked our abs without a lot of effort. It was calm and relaxing, but it was hard work at the same time. We did a lot of Cobbler's Pose and Staff Pose. We did Down Dog to Plank a few times. I'm getting so much better at Plank! I'm thinking of challenging myself to a 3 minute plank to see how far I can get. I'm not sure if I can do 3 minutes, but I'm pretty sure that I can do at least two so if I challenge myself to three, maybe I'll figure out how long I can really go. 

We also did some V-sit stuff. I think he called it Half Boat and Full Boat. I'm going to get a book about Yoga poses and see if I can learn some of this stuff. I want to do some meditative yoga stuff before bed. Last night I slept great after my foam rolling yoga stuff. Okay, I'm totally losing focus. Okay so the V-sit stuff is hard! With PiYo, we did it with bent legs unless we wanted to do the advanced stuff, but with this, we did it with straight legs. It was a bit rough, but I got through it. We also laid down on our backs and bent our knees up to our chests and then rolled our knees to one side and held it. Then we went back to center and did the other side. Then we did it with one straight leg and one bent leg. Then we did it with both legs straight. It seems really simple, but it was hard! It felt good though. It felt really good that I was able to do it. I'm really amazed with how  much stronger I've gotten in the last few week/months. I'm not sure when it happened. I've just been noticing it while doing these Rodney Yee workouts. 

I don't remember what else we did, but nothing was crazy hard, but it all really worked my core. I wish this has been a longer workout, but I needed these nice short workouts this week. I needed a recovery week. I love these calm workouts because I don't need a rest day. I was planning on taking a rest day yesterday, but decided I didn't need one because these workouts held keep me in my workout routine, but they aren't bouncy and stressful on my body, so I can recover from everything I've doing recently. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is another unimpressive screen shot. It was still a good workout and my abs definitely felt it. 

Day 4: Clean It Out (Ashtanga)

This workout was supposed to detoxify my body and leave me with a feeling of lightness and clarity. I'm not really sure how or why, but that's what the back says. I think the detoxing was supposed to be because we did some twisting stuff. When I did the Twist Flow with Daily Burn, she talked about twisting helping to detoxify the body. 

I did this workout this morning before work. I didn't feel particularly clear or light, but I did enjoy the workout. We did a lot of stuff that I've done before in PiYo and Daily Burn. We did some Sun Salutations that involved some forward folding, then jumping back to Plank, doing push up position, then UP Dog and then Down Dog. There was some Chair involved in there someplace. We did a few different variations of this and some involved Cobra. One of the series included Warrior 1 as well. The first section was pretty much just a flow where we did each move on the inhale or exhale. This resulted in him doing a lot of talking and me being a smidge behind the whole time. We also did some standing poses including Warrior 2 (I think we did that one) Right Angle, Triangle, a modified Reverse Right Angle (I think that's what he called it). We had a knee on the floor and then we twisted and our hands in prayer pose. We held these poses for a bit. We also did a Pyramid pose with our hands behind our back in reverse prayer pose. That was hard to get my hands going the right way. I really liked this one once we got to the standing poses that we were holding. 

Overall, I liked the workout. It had things I liked more than others, but nothing was crazy hard. I felt all stretched out and good after it. Once again, I felt like I had done a bunch of squats.

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here is another unimpressive screen shot, but I don't care about that. I'm getting more flexible and my balance is better! 

Day 5: Calm Down (Restorative)

This said that it would relax the body and clear the mind. It was relaxing, but it didn't really clear my mind. I was too focused on trying to get the poses right for some of them. This was a nice short little "workout." It involved a lot of laying down, some Constructive Rest pose and Child's Pose (the real Child's Pose which I can't actually do!), We did some cross legged pose while trying to put our face on the floor. This one was done in a studio, and I just don't like those as much as the ones out in nature. Not much else to say about this one. 

BodyMedia Screen Shot

Here's the screen shot. Probably the most unimpressive one to date, but you can't expect much from lying down for 15 minutes.