You might think from the cover (an attractive blond woman) that Dr. Bell is a woman, but no. Dr. Bell is a guy, and there aren’t any blond women in the video whatsoever (two brunettes, actually). It’s funny how so many yoga videos these days use cover models that have nothing whatsoever to do with the video content. But I digress. It’s nice to have some more male yoga instructors on video other than just Rodney Yee. (More men in yoga, please!)

Dr. Bell leads you through a fairly standard hatha yoga routine, with fairly precise instruction. I personally found the instruction to be way too detailed for my tastes, way too focused on the minute particulars of anatomy, though I do understand that some folks like that sort of thing. (Note: I read in another review that apparently there is an audio track you can use with less talking, but I did not see that during my trial.)

The poses themselves did not seem to be particularly stress-relieving: This is an actual workout. If you are looking for a gentle or restorative DVD, this would not be it.

With the talkative instruction and standard yoga workout, Yoga for Stress didn’t really inspire me. I found myself lukewarm about the DVD and sent it back to Blockbuster without using it again. I certainly don’t think it’s a bad video, and perhaps I’ll rent it again at some point in the future to see if I have a different opinion on a fresh viewing.

The DVD offers two separate 20 minute workouts that you can also do back to back. One uses a female instructor, the other, a male. Both workouts are focused heavily on spinal twists as the main focus for the back. They are fairly easy workouts and should be accessible to most beginners who are relatively healthy and don’t have major physical limitations. I can’t speak as to whether these workouts will be OK for those with back issues, however.

I was a bit disappointed that neither workout included any significant backbends. Even a cobra would have been nice. Because of this, I found the workouts to be a little bit of a letdown for me personally. These are workouts I’d do on those days where I had low energy and didn’t want to get too physical with my yoga practice. The most challenging thing you have to do here is stand in chair pose and twist.

The setting was in Jamaica, which really didn’t matter to me much as we mostly saw the teachers sitting on mats in front of a beach. The music was a little cheesy and Jamaica-inspired, but nothing overly annoying.

I thought the instruction itself was clear and otherwise found the DVD to be pleasant. I’ll give this DVD a B-, only because I think it’s way too focused on twists.

I know that my opinion is just mine, and that not everyone will feel the same way I do. But for the life of me, I could not see how a kundalini yoga video with a skinny girl in her underwear would appeal to the average American woman who might be trying yoga at home. The kundalini yoga is in and of itself weird enough that it’s going to be a hard sell to people who haven’t tried in the proper setting, never mind the rest of my issues with the DVD.

In looking through some of the mostly five-star reviews, which truly did seem to be a bit over-the-top, I found a thread in the discussion area. Apparently, people have tried to post negative reviews (or even just mixed reviews) for this DVD, only to get them erased.

This is apparently not an isolated incident. Multiple people have report problems. From one comment:

This product does not warrant its 5-star review percentage, which is greater than 95%. Review scores are being artificially inflated by salesmen. These salesmen complain to Amazon to have negative reviews removed, thereby inflating the overall review score. Amazon acquiesces because they know positive reviews sell products. The only loser in this quid pro quo is the consumer.

I’m sure one of the salesman’s attack dogs will soon take a bite at me. They will claim that my review (which has been deleted four times) contained no useful information — do not believe the attack dog. I know how to write and express my opinion in a civil manner, and it’s extremely disappointing that Amazon censors my review after I’ve taken the time to write it.

You know, I suppose it makes sense that Amazon (or people associated with a product) might censor negative reviews because they are trying to sell something. Still, I would hate to think that anyone associated with yoga would purposefully inflate their own reviews on Amazon. Unfortunately, when I see the kind of marketing skew that was done with this particular DVD, and the flashy, cheesecake nature of the product, I am sad to say it would not surprise me.

The moral of the story is this: Don’t take the reviews on Amazon to be gospel. An average product should have a variety of ratings on it. Even the best products should have a few one-star reviews here and there. If a product with a lot of ratings does not have balance in its ratings, then it’s likely that someone (Amazon, the product creators, friends of the creators, etc.) is skewing the results.

Sad, but highly likely. Buyer beware.

You know, my first clue was the midriff-baring woman on the front cover. I realize that short shorts and sports bras is the standard if you are doing Bikram, but I have never in my life been to a Kundalini Yoga class where anyone, teachers or students, was wearing skimpy outfits. If anything, most of the Kundalini teachers I have studied with are covered head to toe in flowing robes and turbans. While it is not a prerequisite to be a Sikh in order to teach Kundalini Yoga, I have to say most of my favorite Kundalini teachers are.

But in spite of my misgivings over the marketing, I gave the DVD a try. Euw. The cover was just a glimpse of what was to come. The actual beginning of the DVD features Ana Brett in her underwear, consisting of a silver lame camisole and boy shorts, dancing with her hair askew. She doesn’t have a bra on and her camisole doesn’t have a shelf bra built in, so that means her rock hard nipples are poking through.

She seems to be quite full of herself, with her smug expression, and anxious to display her body. Yet she doesn’t even have that great of a body – she’s a skinny fat person as they’d say. No muscle tone, no breasts even. She looks no more than 22 going on 15.

My young male readers who cry in outrage over my Namaste Yoga review will love this Kundalini Yoga version of soft porn. And I’m sure they’ll come here and go off on me for being “jealous” – but I can assure you, I had an almost anorexic-looking skinny body with no muscle tone back in my 20s and I’m happier with my body now, thank you very much.

So for me, the tone set right in the beginning of the DVD is exploitative and anti-spirit. I’m not interested in seeing Ana Brett dance around in her underwear. This is not why I do Kundalini Yoga. And heck, I’m not even interested in seeing Rodney Yee in his underwear. I really don’t want to see anyone, male or female, doing yoga in their underwear. (Bikram can get away with it, because the room is 110 degrees. But in normal weather, put some freakin’ pants on.)

After the silver lame travesty, Ana at least changes into different underwear for the workout, so at least her nipples aren’t poking out so much. It’s a colorful pastel outfit that doesn’t leave much to the imagination, and her butt cheeks are hanging out. (Though, for some bizarre reason, she switches to a sports bra just for camel pose…so we can see her belly better? Bizarre.)

And yes, the entire DVD is shot as if it is a Target commercial. Ana, in her pastel undies, sits on a pink rug that forms the center of a yellow daisy imprinted on a white floor. At the end, the daisy now has green leaves around it. Talk about pretentious!

The music fits the music video/commercial style of presentation. It is a somewhat jarring world beat that makes you think you should be at some sort of dance club. Every single time I started doing a spinal flex, and the music started, I felt like I should get up and move somewhere else.

Ana’s exhibitionism aside, how is the actual yoga? Well, Ana herself isn’t actually doing the teaching. Ravi Singh, who appears in the video only as a disembodied voice, does. And his instruction is for the most part clear and strong. (Ana only chimes in here and there for a few supplementary instructions.) I found myself wishing I could just do the workout with him, and not have her flaunting her self-satisfied self in my face. Yet, with the disconnect between his voice and her body made me feel somewhat uncomfortable. There was something in his voice that kind of creeped me out…maybe because it appears as if this man only wants to instruct yoga if he’s got a mostly naked young girl to do the poses for him.

The exercises themselves alternated between being way too easy and way too difficult for beginners. The first part of the DVD consisted primarily of spinal flexes. Hey, I like doing spinal flexes but not 10 different variations on them. We were then instructed to stop and meditate after each easy exercise.

Then came the Five Tibetans, which I have never actually done in any Kundalini Yoga class. These are way too hard for a beginner. Full camel pose with breath of fire is too much for a beginner. But at least in that section you can get a real workout. But the consistency of the DVD overall was just not that great. I found myself skipping forward at the end, because finally, I just got bored.

At the end, we’re told “Good job!” as Ana once again dances in her silver lame underwear. Her hair has been taken out of its pigtails and she seems to be patting herself more on the back than you.

Final verdict: If you are a young male who likes skinny girls, then you’ll enjoy this. I personally found this video to be an insult to Kundalini Yoga. It’s certainly not the type of Kundalini Yoga I’ve been doing at the top Kundalini Yoga studios in the world: Golden Bridge and Yoga West.

So I’m putting this video back up on Bookins, which is where it came from. (You can get my copy of the DVD for free there, for just $4.49 shipping.) Thank heavens I didn’t buy it new, as I would not want to put money in these people’s pockets.

So I was pleased as punch to pop in Maria Theresia & Roberto’s Yoga Therapy DVD and find that it was a yoga DVD I might actually use. In their 60s, M.T. (as Maria Theresia is called) and Roberto aren’t glamorous, impossible-to-emulate yoga superstars. (Don’t get me wrong, they are in great shape!) Their video has a wonderful homey touch and you can tell they are passionate about what they do.

The style of yoga presented is their own: It is primarily a take-off of the Bikram series, with their own poses and transitions added in. (They also removed the two hardest and most dangerous Bikram poses, the toe stand and the fixed firm, which I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do in this lifetime.) The class starts with a standing series, with a short break in savasana, and then continues with a floor series.

If you like the Bikram series, you’ll like this DVD, but you might even try it if Bikram doesn’t totally do it for you. I find that M.T. & Roberto’s sequence is a bit more balanced and comprehensive than the Bikram series. For example, to balance out the lack of upper body strengthening poses, they’ve added in a downward facing dog and upward facing dog in the middle of the floor routine. There’s also some nice hip openers added. And you don’t need to do this set in a hot room.

Because there’s clearly a Bikram background presented here, don’t expect the kind of high quality alignment instructions that you might get from an Iyengar teacher. Some suggestions may be counter-indicated, so use your good sense. “Tighten your buttocks!” seems to be a mantra to these two, which is in contrast to the warnings I got in Shiva Rea’s training to loosen the rear to protect the sacrum.

The class also moves fairly quickly, but the poses are still held long enough to provide a challenge. The transitions are well thought-out and make the sequence flow quite well. It may be difficult for a total beginner to follow and keep up at first, but I found the pace to be just right for where I’m at now. They call this “yoga for everybody,” and indeed, without any inversions or advanced backbends such as wheel, most everyone should be able to handle the majority of the postures here.

There are a few moments of touchy-feely (Roberto is a bit funny when he tells you to hug yourself, and then to demonstrate, he starts kissing his own arms), so if you aren’t into that sort of thing, be forewarned. But for the most part, this class sticks to the yoga. A nice visualization is provided during the final sivasana. I was also pleased to find that they decided to include alternate nostril breathing at the end instead of breath of fire, which to me is too energizing to end a class with, particularly with a home practice, where the focus is stress relief.

Since I am very bored with the standard vinyasa flow class and DVD, I am always looking for something different. (If I had my way, I’d ban all teachers from doing sun salutations and vinyasas for a year, just to see how they’d cope.) There are thankfully no sun salutations in this series, no repetitions of plank/chaturanga/updog/downdog. I am more interested in stretching than sheer strength. With a good balance of poses, plus the fantastic backbends in the floor series, Maria Theresia & Roberto’s Yoga Therapy is a good alternative to yoga flow.

If there is anything missing, it is a few inversions, but you could always do those on your own at the end of the class.

I have found myself drawn to this video and looking forward to practicing with it since I got it. That’s rare for me. Usually I buy a yoga DVD and it sits on my shelf. But this one has now become part of my home yoga practice. I give it an enthusiastic recommendation to anyone who is looking for a simple, balanced yoga routine and is tired of the same ole same ole slick hatha flow DVDs found in Best Buy.

Running time: Approximately 1 hour, 10 minutes. (You could split up the video and just do the standing series or floor series if you need to save time.)

The DVD is available at M.T. & Roberto’s website.

The system works via a point system. You earn points that you can use to receive your free book or DVD. You get 15 points just for signing up, and you earn additional points by giving books away. (You can also earn some points when people sign up for your referral link, of course.) Then, you just pay a flat rate of $4.49 for shipping when you receive your book or DVD.

What’s great about this service is that you do not have to pay to ship your books to others. The person receiving the book pays for the shipment. When someone requests a book you have listed for trade, you simply print out the postage and slap it on the package. Drop it in a mailbox and, boom, you’ve earned some points for future books and DVDs.

I’ve already sent one book out and received 9 points for the trade. It was very easy to do. You can also add your BookCrossing label to the book if you want to track it that way as well.

If I have one gripe about this service is that it seems that people are a bit slow to request your books. (Or maybe my books are just not in demand.) But this could also be that the service is new and just needs a few more people on it. Because of this, I have to be a bit judicious with the points I have. I have a tendency to want to buy every interesting yoga book that’s posted on the site – after all, for less than $5, it’s a steal!

They do have a promotional offer where you can purchase shipping credits in advance – 11 for the price of 10, with 20 points added to your account. This is a smart way to get some points and get one shipment for free.

If you do a search on yoga, you’ll find a decent selection of diverse yoga books available. I even found some Shiva Rea DVDs listed for trade.

I don’t have any yoga books yet on my trade list, but when I have one available, I’ll post it here. And hopefully you can post your used yoga books as well!