namasteph yoga blog

OK, first let me get this off my chest (cough): Karen Voight’s obviously fake boobs aren’t so massive as to be overly distracting, but they do detract somewhat from the purity of the yoga here. This woman is in damn good shape but to the point of being a plastic, ripped Barbie doll. I actually don’t want my body to look like this after I’ve done this workout.

Don’t get me wrong - she looks good. I just want to be a tad bit softer and more natural. As such, the shape of Karen’s bod is a good indication of the kind of yoga you’ll get here: hard, sleek, and a bit plastic.

This is still a great DVD, however, if you are looking for a quick yoga workout that will challenge your muscles. The DVD is split up into two 20-minute sections: first, a yoga flow section, and then some Pilates-style mat work. You can do either one or both of the workouts in order.

The yoga is standard wham bam thank you ma’am power/flow yoga. There’s a lot of downward dogs and planks. There’s a bunch of warrior variations. There’s not a lot of deep stretching. Your arms are aching midway through and you just want to rest them for a second. But wait! It’s only 20 minutes: You can get through it!

Finally, a reprieve. Now it’s time for the Pilates mat work. What? You mean you want me to balance on my tailbone and stick my legs straight up into the air at a 45 degree angle? Riiight. Doesn’t look like Karen can do this straight through either: The video cuts to show a non-speaking version of herself at this point.

I do like this video but it’s not the deep, relaxing yoga that brings spiritual peace. It’s also not going to do much to add flexibility. YogaSculpt offers strengthening yoga that will make your body stronger, but probably not much more flexible than if you just went and did some weights.

Challenge level: Probably boring for advanced, and challenging for beginner/intermediate depending on your upper body stamina.