Intro to Yoga - Yoga Zone - Dv

The instructor's voice is very soothing and relaxing, and the poses are challenging but definitely not unattainable for the beginner. What's more, there's always room to grow. When I started to feel like I really had a pose down and might feel bored by that section of the video, instead I started really examining the pose to see how I felt, or noticing that I could be relaxing a particular part of my body more, or breathing better. Someone else in these reviews mentioned that they felt bored during the explanations if they'd done the video a while -- what I've begun to do is simply start doing the pose while he's explaining. I get more workout that way and I'm growing in my ability to do it.

I highly recommend this video for any beginner interested in yoga.


Low-key.   February 26, 2002
Rabia (Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

If you are looking for the most basic yoga video possible, you will like this. I on the other hand can't imagine watching it for a second time, a full hour, because it moves so slow and I'm sure I'd fall asleep from boredom. The music is so low, it's practically inaudible. The demonstrators hardly ever crack a smile. If your looking to get energized and pumped up to learn yoga, this is not the way to go. But if you just want a no-nonsense, very low-key type video, you can handle this.


Excellent introduction to yoga   November 4, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This was the first yoga video I purchased when I began yoga a few months ago. Compared to other books and videos I have used since, this tape was by far the most comprehensive and complete introduction to yoga I've seen. I had never done yoga before this and found that it gave an excellent introduction to many of the basic poses used in other programs. It also moved slowly enough that I could learn the poses properly. Other videos I've used (like Suzanne Deason's Gentle Yoga for Beginners) move too quickly for a beginner like me to follow and don't provide enough time to really feel and practice poses. I didn't have this problem with the Yoga Zone tape.

I also liked Alan Finger's instruction. His voice is very calming and he spends a lot of time describing how poses should feel and encouraging students not to strain themselves. I like that he emphasizes that not everyone's going to be perfect at first and to just do your best. I especially liked when one of the students in the video fell over during stork pose! Made me feel a lot better. I also liked that there were four models/students, each showing different variations of the poses, from beginner to advanced.

The only drawback I've found to this video is that as I learned the poses, I started to feel that the video moved a little slowly as the instructor spent a lot of time introducing and explaining each pose. However, that's why I'm now looking for a more intermediate video. I still love this video and highly recommend it to all beginners in yoga.


Absolutely Excellent!!   August 5, 2001
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I first discovered yoga in the late 70's when I had the good fortune to learn from a teacher who had studied with a bona fide yoga master from India. That was long ago and far away and soon afterwards I moved to New York City. Due to the hurly burly of trying to get established and live here, my yoga practice gradually slipped away.

I have made several attempts to rekindle my initial enthusiam by purchasing over a dozen books and videos and taking numerous classes. Up until I saw this video, I had failed to find anything that replicated the quality of the instruction I first experienced.

It is unfortunate that two prior reviewers of this tape called it "boring" and one went over the top and panned everything about it, ending the review by citing preferred videos made by people in the fitness industry.

First of all, if anyone finds this video boring, I suggest the problem may not be with the video but rather the person. Even though now there are many styles of yoga to choose from (Bikram, Kundalini, Ashtanga, Kripalu, Iyengar, and so forth)--and I have tried several of these--the fact remains that classical hatha yoga is supposed to be slow, deliberate, precise, meditative and mindful. Anything that deviates from that is usually some bastardization of it. I once took a yoga class from a local high-quality health club and the instructor never once even went over the proper way to breathe, never made reference to the mind-body discipline of it and the hour passed as nothing more than a stretching class.

Now that yoga has gone mainstream in these intervening 20 or so years since I first discovered it, there are a lot of people out there teaching it who obviously have no business doing so. It seems that every celebrity and fitness guru has a book or video out on it and there is nothing that authenticates these people as qualified to teach it other than their names.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a yoga expert, I still consider myself a beginner, but I can recognize excellent instruction when I see it. Alan Finger is all a yoga teacher should be--he teaches the proper breath and form throughout. He is gentle, slow and tells you where every every toe, arm and vertebra should be. He is thorough, exacting and precise: since yoga is not some new phenomenon of pop culture but an ancient art and science, his manner of instruction recognizes that and dignifies it as such. I am so inspired and impressed with him that I would lay out all the extra money it would take, and schlep all the way down to the other end of this city, if I thought I could study at his studio with the man himself. Trust me, this is a quality video. All the superlatives apply.