Rodney Yee: Yoga Burn

[Guest guest]

This evening I did a virgin yoga practice, as I'm feeling really guilty about all the workouts that have yet to see me sweat and tremble! I finally decided on Rodney Yee's Yoga Burn. It takes place in the same peaceful, dark brown setting that reminds me of a Japanese temple. Rodney takes you slowly through several series of poses, which made for a lot of upper body and flexibility work. I was surprised at how much of it was spent in cobbler's pose. Yeeees! For example you begin the practice seated. You go from cobbler's pose to different variations of boat pose, going a little further into full boat pose each time.Next you spend quite a bit of time in forward fold, to chair, to standing, then back to forward fold. I like how he repeats the vinyasa or flow sequence several times slowly. Next are some warrior 1's, triangles, and twos. After that are prayer

twists in a modified lunge, and then as I recall it's back to seated poses, only stretches. Aaaaahh! This is what my beat up kickboxer body needed the most! Lots of slow wide angle stretches, cobbler's poses again, staff poses, spinal twists, then shavasa. It was around an hour long. This one is perfect to do before bed because it is slow, it stretches, and it relaxes. Rodney's voice is warm and soothing, and it had a lulling effect on me.I would rate this practice as an advanced begginer or lower end of intermediate. The only reason why I lean more toward intermediate is because you hold the positions for a long time, which for a newer or heavier person could mean some wrist strain; you need to build up strength to do that. You hold updogs, downdogs, planks, downdogs with leg lifted, reverse planks etc for a good set of counts. Off to take a bath and hit the

sack! Namaste (and that's a warm Sut Nam to Donna Kundalini!)