Best Yoga DVDs for Weight Loss

I’m not a big fan of running to lose weight…… always preferred to torch some calories with yoga DVDs for weight loss.   When I tried running everything hurt, my legs, my lungs, my ribs.  Kudos to all the runners out there…. it’s just not for me.  It’s confusing to see so many  yoga DVDs out there, especially if you are a yoga beginner.  Most of the yoga DVDs are a 90 minutes long practice.  I don’t know about you, but 90 minutes of yoga, even for me as a yoga teacher, seems a bit too long.  So after attending many classes, lots of watching on YouTube and ordering a few dozen titles from Amazon, I found a few that have a sweaty, challenging workout but that is compact and ideally about 30-40 minutes.

ShapeShifter Yoga Program

To really combine the mind body spirit aspect of yoga and weight loss  and get more explanation and want to read about yoga and the poses more in depth than there are two programs that I would recommend.

The first is Shape Shifters, which is a comprehensive yoga fitness program.  There is a focus on overall flexibility, core-conditioning, body awareness and muscle-conditioning before you move on to master the more advanced part of the practice.  There are some basic traditional stretches and yoga poses that all body types and sizes can do. There is no oooming, no talk of your crown-chakras so you won’t feel like you have to wear a turban and a loincloth to do this program.  It’s all scientific based, practical and utilitarian in how they explain the benefits with no woo-woo.

Ideal for Couch Potatoes or Seasoned Athletes.  If  you don’t know squat about diet, wellness, fitness or strength-training then this is a suitable program.  If you do have some prior experience and knowledge with these, then it will build upon and complement your prior training and experience.

Very Professionally Presented – You’ll feel like you are at a Yoga Journal Video shoot with the quality of the video and the voice.  I’ve listened to other videos before and some of them sound all muffled and the lightening and angles make it harder to follow the sequence.

Wallet-Friendly – You could get a personal yoga session for more than the cost of this video and wouldn’t get nearly the amount of tips, instruction, alignment cues that this has.  It’s a lot of yoga for the buck.

Yoga DVDs for Weight Loss or Flexibility

Of course, Sadie Nardini probably has the gutsiest workout.  She infuses the poses with a life-affirming practice that often times feels like a Tony Robbins seminar….great if you want to transform not only your body but your limiting beliefs that are keeping you in a dead end job or bad relationship.  I don’t think her workout are great for yoga beginners or if you are just unathletic in general.  You’ll probaby feel overwhelmed.  I was trained by her in NYC a few years ago and in her regular core strength vinyasa classes,  the students would get so hot and sweaty after  a 60 minute class that people would often ask her if it was “hot yoga’ and if she heated the room and her answer was , ” I don’t heat the room, the students heat the room”.

Another favorite of mine is Shiva Rea, Yoga for ABs DVDs.  It’s a stunning production with very tribal-music.  I love her poetic language and the way poses from one to the other.  This is an awesome DVD if you have some yoga background but also not great for yoga beginners since she goes quickly from one pose to the next with not a lot of explanation anatomically of how to put your body in the pose and what the correct alignment is.  This is a great  34 minute workout.

Beth Shaw’s Yoga Fit for Abs is a great one.  She does a lot of traditional sun salutations but she also has you do them with a ball between your legs so that your entire core is squeezing and firing up like crazy.  You need to buy the little yoga ball which is only $10 if you want to maximize your workout though.