Friday, February 27, 2009

Podcasts and more yoga reviews

Yoga Zone-Gentle yoga for beginners. First, I rented this at the local Family Video so no money wasted buying it. Just a buck for a week. There are two sessions on this dvd. I have only done the second session once. Last night, after doing my regular yoga routine at the Y, which includes leg and ab pilates at the end, my back, neck and shoulders were very sore. All the kids were in bed, dh was out for the count and I decided instead of reading my boring book (must pick up that last twilight book from Misty, yes I'm a closet Twilight fan) I would try this dvd. I looked at the two session menus and thought session two sounded about right. I wanted something easy, not too energizing (bedtime ya know) but would bring peace to my shoulders. I really liked it. I found the poses easy and gentle. I did not like the "clock" which is basically pelvic tilt nor the one were you lay on your back and bring your legs straight up and back to your head. That hurt my back. I thought I'd come on here and do a 2 thumbs up review. I did a google search so I could provide a link (click the title of the post) and began reading the Amazon.com reviews. Hmmm...there are several technical complaints about the first session on the dvd that I haven't done yet. Then there are the usual complaints of "too hard", "too easy", "too fast" and "too slow". Those are all based on a person's knowledge, skill and expectations I suppose. Keeping in mind that I've only done the second session, I've only been doing yoga since October but am always reading everything I can about yoga and practicing every chance I get (not often I tell ya!) here is my review: It WAS gentle, I think it would be easy for a beginner yet a nice, relaxing practice for a more experienced yogi who's looking for a light workout. It certainly did the trick for me. My back and shoulders felt great and I was able to go right to sleep. Until the 4 y/o coughed from midnight til 2:30. I was very happy to have had a chance to relax and destress before dealing with the middle of the night coughing spell!

Now, on to podcasts! I had a brief love affair with my Creative Zen Vision M a couple of years ago then put it away and forgot about it. Getting into knitting introduced me to knitting podcasts such as Knitpicks and Lime and Violet. Not having enough time as it is to knit and having no cd player in my van (I know, I know it's freaking 2009 and I don't have a cd player) I really didn't get into podcasts. Then along came my love affair with yoga and my desire to learn more and expand on my pose database. I found yoga podcasts!! Free, downloadable videos and audio practices!! OMGOSH MUST HAVE THESE. I now have some 15 hours worth downloaded into iTunes. Dug out the mp3 player, found my old computer speakers, stole the power cord to Livie's portable dvd player and I have a huge library of yoga podcasts! WOOHOO. My favorites so far are Yogadownload.com. You can download directly from their site or you can go to iTunes store. There are even more at the apple itunes store than on yogadownload.com's site. Heaven!! I have probably 200 podcasts downloaded now between knitting and yoga! Told my husband he HAS to get me a cd player that will connect to my mp3 player for my van.

Uhoh I just added about 90 more to my podcast download. Lucy will be waking from her nap soon so I must sign off and ....whaddid I tell ya? She's calling for me now.

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