Rodney Yee was one of my first introductions to yoga, back before every neighborhood had four studios and the only place to find yoga VHS tapes was at Best Buy.

Gaiam sent me the new Rodney Yee Core Centered Yoga DVD to review and I have to say that I really enjoy it. I practice with yoga videos when I can’t make it to the studio, or don’t feel like leaving the house or when I  need some structure to my home practice. It is a slower Hatha-based practice that is a great way to add a balancing practice to your day.

What I like about the Yee video, as opposed to other teachers’ videos, is that he really excels at teaching while being filmed. He explains each movement in detail and describes what each part of your body should be doing.

Sometimes I watch other yoga videos that have a voice-over of the practice, giving vague directions like “open your heart” and they kind of assume that you are watching the DVD, which is almost impossible to do if you are practicing the right way. With Yee’s DVD, it works just as well as an audio practice because you are never at a loss to what he is doing.

Yee gives plenty of direction, so if you are looking for less instruction you may want to do another video or stick with self-guided practice. He makes you check in with your body and focus on external or internal rotation in your body.  He also gives you step by step instructions on simple poses. He explains every pose as he is demonstrating it, reminds you what not to do and breaks down the pose.

I like a lot of direction. I have been practicing for over a decade. I have taught yoga, and until an injury last year, I was working on adding a 300-hour training with Shiva Rea. I am not a beginner, but I am ever a student.

The class is broken down into smaller segments that are eight minutes a piece.  hey are each available on the menu which is an easy way to select a mini-yoga session if you have an extra 10 minutes but not long enough to do an entire practice.  I like this feature, because sometimes I find myself with a few minutes to spare and can end up on Facebook instead of being productive.

This DVD would be appropriate for most fitness levels, and even a beginner to yoga would be able to complete this with ease.

Gaiam also offers a free 10-day trial of their Yoga Studio which is an online yoga instruction with Rodney Yee and Coleen Saidman with over a 100 video practices and 60 audio practice.When they sent me this DVD they also allowed me to sample the new Gaiam TV.  Reading about it, I thought, “cool, another online yoga portal.”

I was excited that it also had some great fitness videos in addition to the yoga offering. Because Gaiam is such a large distributor,  you can try a different practice every day without having to clutter up your living room with a million DVDs, you can. They have hundreds of videos featuring popular yoga teachers such as Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Kathryn Budig and others.

But, what really sets Gaiam TV apart from the other online yoga sites is for the same price you get access to great health and wellness films,  documentaries, spiritual films and kids entertainment like cartoons and animated films. So  I can watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a Coco Chanel movie, The Dog Whisperer and have access to yoga videos, India travel films and really too much to list. I ran out of stuff to watch on Netflix along time ago, so this is great for me. It is $9.95 a month and for the holidays they have a gift special of three months for $25.

As I get more time to check out the various online videos and films I will let you know my favorites. Do you like you to practice yoga with a video?

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Editor: Kate Bartolotta

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