I was reading a Yoga Journal review about Jill Miller’s Kneehab video and decided to go ahead and order it but didn’t give much credence to ordering this. Her Kneehab video is divided into 5 parts that give exercises, poses and moves for people that are just recovering from surgery to seasoned athletes. Not all of the poses will be accessible if you are in a lot of knee pain and the moves are designed to help you progress, stretch and strengthen and you will be able to start doing more of the moves. After doing a few of the segments for about a week, I woke up in the morning and my knees were not on fire. ( I don’t know why but my knee pain was always the worst first thing in the morning)
I started to do the moves every day and each day my knees were yelling at me less and getting quieter.
So I decided to order her DVD for upper body pain. This DVD is divided into 5 segments specifically for pain in different parts of your body such as your neck, shoulders, hands, wrists and back. The segments range from 5-10 minutes so they are very easy to fit into your day. I actually do some of the moves when I am watching tv or on the toilet (am I sharing too much again?) I found that my pain and tightness had gone down considerably. I have been teaching many of these sequences in my yoga classes and love seeing the look of relief and delight on my students faces when they are able to manage their own health through these moves.
Even though it is called Yoga Tune Up it actually feels more like a yoga-flavored physical therapy session. So if your primary purposes is to have a more traditional yoga practice with the emphasis on meditation, mindfulness and breathing then this is not the tape for you. If your primary purpose is to find a very-low cost way to find your own relief from neck, shoulder, hand, wrist or knee pain and you are willing to make your health and body a priority in your life (you are going to have to carve out time to do these moves on a regular basis) It’s less time to do this tape then to have to see a acupuncturist, chiropractor or physical therapist though a few times a week.
I had also bought a few years ago Desiree Rumbaugh’s Yoga to the Rescue for Neck and Shoulders and that does have a more flow-y and yoga-like but I did not get a significant or long-lasting relief with it. I do love how she shows how to do the pose the right way and she also shows the (very common) wrong way to do some traditional yoga poses.
I actually plan on going to some of her seminars in Boston ( driving 6 hours each way) so I can become more of an expert in Yoga Tune Up and help other people find an escape from chronic physical pain that they can manager themselves. I love to empower people so they can take charge of their own health.
The poses, sequences and routines of the Yoga Tune Up Program are designed to stretch, strengthen and heal from head-to-toe. With a focus on finding your body’s “blind spots” – areas that have become weakened due to overuse, underuse or misuse, and are now prone to pain and injury – these specialized routines will help balance out your entire physiology.