Camper English reviews fitness DVDs so you don’t have to

Power to the Peaceful Yoga (2007)

The Program: The bulk of the video is one 53-minute yoga session. Bonus features include two song performances by Michael Franti and a 20-minute discussion, “yoga’s power for peace,” with the instructors.

Equipment needed: Just a mat on the floor.

Instructors: Michael Franti of the rap/funk band Spearhead, along with instructors David Life and Sharon Gannon, lead this video. The three sit on a small stage surrounded by acoustic guitars, bongos, and speakers, as if they decided to do yoga during a concert’s intermission.

Pacing: There is a lot of chatter on this video as the instructors talk you through the exercises in voiceovers. That said, the pace of the movements isn’t too fast, largely intuitive, and gets easier very fast. The DVD comes with the option of turning off the instruction, so after you’re familiar with the routine it would be possible to follow along with the movements without all the talking.

Doin’ It: With groovy mellow music in the background, the three instructors demonstrate moves while the voiceovers describe them. To the yoga uninitiated like me, there were a lot of names of poses I didn’t know, such as the reverse warrior, silver surfer, plank pose, and many eastern words that I wouldn’t attempt to spell. These were not complicated moves; just complicated names. The workout was divided into short segments focusing on movements like twisting and back bends, but this is a video to follow through end-to-end, rather than skipping ahead to different parts.

I think with only the slightest amount of previous yoga experience this yoga instruction would be simple to follow. As routines were repeated I picked them up and was able to follow along without looking at the screen—one of the hardest things to accomplish in yoga videos—so the new vocabulary wasn’t much of a problem.

Only a few of the moves, including one where you’re standing on your neck and kicking your legs back and forth in the air, were beyond me. Otherwise the pacing was fast enough to keep the nonspiritual (me) engaged, yet with enough pauses for breathing while stretching that it still felt like yoga.

During the longer holds, the instructors’ voiceovers give advice about things like going vegetarian and “saving the world from the destructive power of ignorant prejudices.” Though all very positive and encouraging (it’s about what you can do, not what you’re doing wrong) I was a little fatigued by all the vague do-gooder tips by the end. If I choose to keep doing this video, I’ll look forward to when I can follow the exercises without voiceover instruction—or the lecture.

Verdict: Though the video follows Jivamukti, “The yoga of spiritual activism,” I think it’s a fine yoga workout even without the peaceful warrior element. It’s clearly filmed and narrated, well paced, and Franti’s background music was refreshing and uplifting, even to those curmudgeons among us.

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