REVIEW: Shiva Rea: Daily Energy
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sun_salutationShiva Rea: Daily Energy
When I saw this DVD on Amazon, my first thought was "FINALLY!"
My problem is that I almost always have time in the morning for 20-30 minutes of yoga, but most good discs are 40 minutes to an hour. I have doodled around with the yoga matrix on Shakti, but have not been able to put together a really satisfying 20-30 minute set. I have thought, while doing that, I wish she would just set up a couple of shorter workouts.
That's what this DVD is all about. There are seven twenty-minute practices that can be done on their own, with a few other components in the matrix to build around the seven twenty-minute sets. Plus, there are six pre-set practices combining two or three shorter sequences for longer workouts. The pre-set practices range from 37 to 51 minutes long. So in theory this DVD should provide a little something for every mood.
Clip from the DVD here on YouTube.
The matrix has:
Solar Meditation (5 minutes)
Lunar Meditation (5 minutes)
20-Minute Practices:
Earth
Heart + Air
Water
Fire + Water
Fire
Chakra Vinyasa
Shanti
Additional components:
Core (7 minutes)
Forward Bends (6 minutes)
Relaxation (6 minutes)
This disc is different from many of Ms. Rea's other offerings, and generally I feel the production quality seems not quite as good. She is in a pretty, indoor studio, rather than a natural setting – not bad, just different. Rather than an eclectic selection of music, she is using unifying music throughout. The music is okay. Not great. She fidgits a bit with her hair and clothing, but since I don't generally watch the screen, I don't find it too distracting, but the very fact that I noticed it at all means it's either happening a lot, or at very unfortunate times. Also, the verbal cuing is sometimes very off from the action on the screen (it's done in voice-over). Again, not a big deal for me, since I'm rarely watching the screen, but I don't know if other people would find that offputting. And that's about all the critical comments you are going to hear from me on this. On to the squee!
Solar Meditation
The Solar Meditation is a brisk and invigorating pranayama, with one reeeeaaaally long wide stance yogic squat, let me tell you. Plus some nice twisting. When I'm doing only one 20-minute set I almost always add this meditation on to the beginning.
Lunar Meditation
This is a meditation, the way most people think of meditation. Concentration on breathing in a comfortable seated posture. This is a five minute sampler of controlled breathing, including Surya Bhedana Pranayama.
Core
Core is a yogic abs workout. Pelvic tilts, crunches with variations, belly twist in vinyasa, reclined pidgin in vinyasa.
Forward Bends
This is included so that you can have counter-poses after Heart-Air without having to include the counter-poses in the 20-minutes of the back-bending segment. I would say she cheated, except Heart-Air is so perfect that I'm willing to put up with the little wink. Just three long seated stretches – Baddha Konasana, Upavistha Konasana and Paschimottanasana. Nothing fancy.
Fire
The Fire practice is one of the best reasons to own this DVD.
I found the opening of the Fire set to be strangely simultaneously invigorating and relaxing. Ms. Rea begins with a warm-up that builds to what she calls Agni Kriya. From Plank, she alternates knees, drawing them to her navel with increasing rapidity, holding her core in Plank. She follows that with an Apata Kriya. She demonstrates it first on the knees, rocking from Cat to a deep, extended Child's Pose. Then she brings the same action up into a Plank-based posture, rocking her hips back while staying on her toes, then rocking forward into plank.
After this warmup, Ms. Rea alternates sets of pushups, that she charmingly calls "prostration pushups," with backbends of increasing difficulty and standing poses that incorporate twisting. This is an extremely compact workout bringing together all the components of a good yoga session. THIS is why I wanted an instructor to do this for me! The pushup sets are long enough to do 7 to 10 pushups, depending on how fast you are doing them. Ms. Rea encourages you to go at your own pace, and offers full pushups or pushups off the knees as a variation, plus she reminds you to only go as low as you can, "Even if it is just an inch." Because of my problem with tennis elbow, I try to do my pushups more like chaturanga, pulling my elbows straight back, rather than doing them as she was doing them, with elbows out to the side. The elbow position in Chaturanga is better for load-bearing on the arm, and protects that joint from injury. Something to keep in mind, if you have the elbow problems I have.
After every set of pushups, Ms. Rea has you fall back to Uttana Shishosana (which she refers to as Anahatasana), then push through to Sphinx and Cobra in rapid succession. Then a brief rest, forehead to mat, before a deeper backbend, then a return to prostration pushups. The deeper backbends move through locust to locust variations, one-legged bow pose, full bow, one-legged table, and culminates in Camel.
The standing poses are Crescent Lunge; Crescent Lunge, with twist; Utkatasana; and Utkatasana, with twist.
The conclusion of the sequence is Camel, followed by Bakasana, with optional twist variations.
Heart-Air
Heart-Air is THE reason to own this DVD. Yes, I know I was excited about Fire, but did you ever think you could do Wheel on one leg? Well, after this 20-minute practice, you will be thinking it, and pretty soon, I think you will be doing it. And no, I haven't gotten the nerve yet, but soon. Very soon.
This is, of course, the back-bending session. The first time I did it, I dreaded it. Backbends are some of the toughest postures. They work the entire body, they increase the heart rate, and they often place you in positions that feel dangerous, or at the very least extremely stressful.
I was thinking, ugh. Twenty minutes of backbends.
After one try, this became one of my favorite yoga sequences ever.
The key here is the way Ms. Rea builds you though preparatory postures. She opens the quads and prepares the knees, in addition to easing you though a sequence of very gradually increasing difficulty. At the end of twenty minutes, you are so ready for Urdhva Dhanurasana.
You have to try this.
The sequence of poses is as follows:
Cat's Breath
Cat's Breath, lifting the each leg
Dog Split,
Twist in Lunge
Ardha Parsvottanasana
Eka Hasta Vyaghrasana, which she refers to simply as Dhanurasana
Uttana Shishosana (Anahatasana)
Low Cobra
Half Bow - Ardha Dhanurasana
Prostration (to rest)
Upward Dog
Downward Dog
Dolphin
Standing Split
Dancing Shiva (Natarajasana), but done with a variation with the free hand touching the floor, making it a standing Bow Pose.
Rada Krishna Asana
Parighasana (the fully seated, mobius strip variation that I can't find a picture of anywhere!)
Janu Sirsasana (Head-to-Knee)
Lunge Backbend
Side Plank
Ardha Dhanurasana, done as a prone twist. Very relaxing. Another thing I can't find a picture of.
Dhanurasana
Bridge Pose
Bridge Pose on one leg
Wheel
Wheel on one leg
Reclined Pigeon
Jathara Parivartanasana B (Belly Twist B)
Water
While Fire and Heart-Air are both excellent classes, Ms. Rea is truly in her own element here. This is a creative series, vigorous and yet relaxing in the way that yoga can be at its best. (A word of warning. I did Water as my first yoga after a two-week layoff. I felt it the next couple of days the way I would have felt an "Of Steel" workout. Thighs of Steel, the yoga way! Ow. :D )
Ms. Rea is focused in this 20-minute segment on spinal flexibility achieved through creative movement in all directions. There is almost no upper body work here. You will need to combine this with Fire or Fire-Water to get a workout for your arms. But that's not to say that this is going to be easy on you. The entire sequence is spent either lunging or doing variations on the wide-stance yogic squat, which is why you are going to feel this the next day. When you aren't working the big leg muscles, it's Cobra and Salambhasana.
If you've done Ms. Rea's Fluid Power or the Lunar sequence on Shakti, you will recognize things here. It's a sampler of a lot of moves, brought together in a lovely, circular arrangement.
Beware, she does put you with your back to the screen a couple of times. You might want to watch this first, if you will be annoyed at either working entirely from verbal cues or at needing to check over your shoulder (or between your legs! :D ) to see what she's up to.
I would definitely put this at the end of a morning's yoga as a wind-down, though it is not really a "cool down" per se, it is soothing and loosening and relaxing and an excellent way to finish.
Fire-Water
Fire-Water combines standing postures and more difficult arm balances to build strength and fluidity. Hip opening is achieved in this session through the low yogic squat and the high, wide-stance squat. Releases are standing forward bends, especially wide-angle forward bend.
The standing postures move through Warrior II, Reverse Warrior, and Triangle. Ms. Rea has you wrap your back hand around to grasp the front thigh, which effectively opens the chest and shoulder, though it is not a variation that I was loving. Crescent Moon is used as the balancing posture.
The arm balances are related to Bhujapidasana, including that pose, as well as the half and full variations of Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II.
The sequence closes with Bow and Baddha Konasana.
This is an exciting way to explore a few different arm balances in a short session.
Chakra
Ms. Rea builds this disc around unifying themes of movement. Repeated in almost every sequence are the Cat's Breath opening, Crescent Lunge, Anahatasana, Cobra, Ardha Parsvottanasana, and Vasisthasana. In Chakra, Ms. Rea creates vinyasas to emphasize each element using these components. Starting with Earth she keeps you close to the ground, encouraging slow, calm movements though an extended Cat's Breath, deep lunges, and straight Cobra. Moving to Water, she takes you through a fluid, flowing sequence. The flow from Crescent Lunge to Ardha Parsvottanasana and back will challenge your balance and calm. The flowing shift from side to side in Vasisthasana will get you sweating. Fire is focused on the big muscles of the thigh, with full Crescent Lunge and Warrior III, shoulders opened in Reverse Namaste. She takes you through Salambasana and full Vasisthasana, with variations offered depending on ability. Finally, Air opens the heart with twisted Crescent Lunge followed by Lunge Backbend. She stretches the quads with the Table variation of Dhanurasana. Vasisthasana is performed in an arching flowing variation, opening the chest to the sky.
This is another compact sequence that takes you through a lot of variation in asanas in a short, but complete-feeling session.
Earth
This piece is probably not going to be the one you return to day after day, and I believe is by far the least interesting of the disc. However, it offers some interesting insights, and some days might be exactly what you are looking for.
It opens with a brief pranayama focused on the development of Uddiyana Bandha. Ms. Rea has you place your hands on your lower belly and lower back and using bent knees and shifting hips move yourself into the correct alignment, feeling it with your hands as you do so. She carries this lesson through rounds of Plank and what she calls Half Plank – a sort of aborted movement from Plank to Downward Dog, so that you can really feel how your muscles are engaged.
She then progresses into a lesson in the four movements of lunge, which carries into a developing sequence of more complicated lunge postures: Crescent Lunge with the knee down; Crescent Lunge with the back leg extended; Warrior I, with a focus on Uddiyana Bandha again; Warrior I to Warrior Seal; Warrior II to Reverse Warrior to Extended Side Angle.
As you can see, not very exciting in terms of doing something new or particularly creative. But in some ways, the very familiarity of these poses allows you to concentrate on executing the lunges with care and to focus on the integrity of the lunge, the slow, deliberate movement through the simple, tranisitional vinyasa, and the revisitation of Uddiyana Bandha. This segment is worth remembering and practicing periodically for the development of your practice as a whole.
Shanti
Shanti is an extremely calming sequence of forward bends. It opens with a cycle of Cat alternating with Child's Pose, and progresses through a few lunges and lunge backbend to open and warm the hips and groin. However, I would not personally practice this sequence from cold unless I had been concentrating on hip opening a lot in my recent practice. I highly recommend Shanti as a long cool down and stretch after aerobics or running. The seated postures are Pigeon, Janu Sirsasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana and Gomugasana.
Shanti also has a lovely transitional vinyasa: Anahatasana to Cobra, then prostration and what Ms. Rea refers to as "Sacred Rolling." Yes. You roll around on the floor. And it is deliciously relaxing.
A wonderful finish to any practice.
Conclusion
I get a lot of use out of this disc, and like it a lot. I sometimes mix pieces of it with pieces from other yoga discs. The length of the sequences give you flexibility with structure in your home practice. I definitely recommend it for your library.
My only practical, exercise-related concern about it is that sometimes you feel there is not enough warmup, which is one reason I usually add the Solar Meditation onto the beginning. This is easily resolved by adding a few minutes of Surya Namaskar A before you get started. I sometimes lead into one of these sequences with one of the creative sun salutations from Fluid Power. But when I've been doing my yoga every day or every-other-day, I personally find that I have no problem just launching into any of these sessions cold.
And that's my review. Which I have been working on since, yes, Christmas! I hope you get a chance to enjoy this DVD.
Namaste.
When I saw this DVD on Amazon, my first thought was "FINALLY!"
My problem is that I almost always have time in the morning for 20-30 minutes of yoga, but most good discs are 40 minutes to an hour. I have doodled around with the yoga matrix on Shakti, but have not been able to put together a really satisfying 20-30 minute set. I have thought, while doing that, I wish she would just set up a couple of shorter workouts.
That's what this DVD is all about. There are seven twenty-minute practices that can be done on their own, with a few other components in the matrix to build around the seven twenty-minute sets. Plus, there are six pre-set practices combining two or three shorter sequences for longer workouts. The pre-set practices range from 37 to 51 minutes long. So in theory this DVD should provide a little something for every mood.
Clip from the DVD here on YouTube.
The matrix has:
Solar Meditation (5 minutes)
Lunar Meditation (5 minutes)
20-Minute Practices:
Earth
Heart + Air
Water
Fire + Water
Fire
Chakra Vinyasa
Shanti
Additional components:
Core (7 minutes)
Forward Bends (6 minutes)
Relaxation (6 minutes)
This disc is different from many of Ms. Rea's other offerings, and generally I feel the production quality seems not quite as good. She is in a pretty, indoor studio, rather than a natural setting – not bad, just different. Rather than an eclectic selection of music, she is using unifying music throughout. The music is okay. Not great. She fidgits a bit with her hair and clothing, but since I don't generally watch the screen, I don't find it too distracting, but the very fact that I noticed it at all means it's either happening a lot, or at very unfortunate times. Also, the verbal cuing is sometimes very off from the action on the screen (it's done in voice-over). Again, not a big deal for me, since I'm rarely watching the screen, but I don't know if other people would find that offputting. And that's about all the critical comments you are going to hear from me on this. On to the squee!
Solar Meditation
The Solar Meditation is a brisk and invigorating pranayama, with one reeeeaaaally long wide stance yogic squat, let me tell you. Plus some nice twisting. When I'm doing only one 20-minute set I almost always add this meditation on to the beginning.
Lunar Meditation
This is a meditation, the way most people think of meditation. Concentration on breathing in a comfortable seated posture. This is a five minute sampler of controlled breathing, including Surya Bhedana Pranayama.
Core
Core is a yogic abs workout. Pelvic tilts, crunches with variations, belly twist in vinyasa, reclined pidgin in vinyasa.
Forward Bends
This is included so that you can have counter-poses after Heart-Air without having to include the counter-poses in the 20-minutes of the back-bending segment. I would say she cheated, except Heart-Air is so perfect that I'm willing to put up with the little wink. Just three long seated stretches – Baddha Konasana, Upavistha Konasana and Paschimottanasana. Nothing fancy.
Fire
The Fire practice is one of the best reasons to own this DVD.
I found the opening of the Fire set to be strangely simultaneously invigorating and relaxing. Ms. Rea begins with a warm-up that builds to what she calls Agni Kriya. From Plank, she alternates knees, drawing them to her navel with increasing rapidity, holding her core in Plank. She follows that with an Apata Kriya. She demonstrates it first on the knees, rocking from Cat to a deep, extended Child's Pose. Then she brings the same action up into a Plank-based posture, rocking her hips back while staying on her toes, then rocking forward into plank.
After this warmup, Ms. Rea alternates sets of pushups, that she charmingly calls "prostration pushups," with backbends of increasing difficulty and standing poses that incorporate twisting. This is an extremely compact workout bringing together all the components of a good yoga session. THIS is why I wanted an instructor to do this for me! The pushup sets are long enough to do 7 to 10 pushups, depending on how fast you are doing them. Ms. Rea encourages you to go at your own pace, and offers full pushups or pushups off the knees as a variation, plus she reminds you to only go as low as you can, "Even if it is just an inch." Because of my problem with tennis elbow, I try to do my pushups more like chaturanga, pulling my elbows straight back, rather than doing them as she was doing them, with elbows out to the side. The elbow position in Chaturanga is better for load-bearing on the arm, and protects that joint from injury. Something to keep in mind, if you have the elbow problems I have.
After every set of pushups, Ms. Rea has you fall back to Uttana Shishosana (which she refers to as Anahatasana), then push through to Sphinx and Cobra in rapid succession. Then a brief rest, forehead to mat, before a deeper backbend, then a return to prostration pushups. The deeper backbends move through locust to locust variations, one-legged bow pose, full bow, one-legged table, and culminates in Camel.
The standing poses are Crescent Lunge; Crescent Lunge, with twist; Utkatasana; and Utkatasana, with twist.
The conclusion of the sequence is Camel, followed by Bakasana, with optional twist variations.
Heart-Air
Heart-Air is THE reason to own this DVD. Yes, I know I was excited about Fire, but did you ever think you could do Wheel on one leg? Well, after this 20-minute practice, you will be thinking it, and pretty soon, I think you will be doing it. And no, I haven't gotten the nerve yet, but soon. Very soon.
This is, of course, the back-bending session. The first time I did it, I dreaded it. Backbends are some of the toughest postures. They work the entire body, they increase the heart rate, and they often place you in positions that feel dangerous, or at the very least extremely stressful.
I was thinking, ugh. Twenty minutes of backbends.
After one try, this became one of my favorite yoga sequences ever.
The key here is the way Ms. Rea builds you though preparatory postures. She opens the quads and prepares the knees, in addition to easing you though a sequence of very gradually increasing difficulty. At the end of twenty minutes, you are so ready for Urdhva Dhanurasana.
You have to try this.
The sequence of poses is as follows:
Cat's Breath
Cat's Breath, lifting the each leg
Dog Split,
Twist in Lunge
Ardha Parsvottanasana
Eka Hasta Vyaghrasana, which she refers to simply as Dhanurasana
Uttana Shishosana (Anahatasana)
Low Cobra
Half Bow - Ardha Dhanurasana
Prostration (to rest)
Upward Dog
Downward Dog
Dolphin
Standing Split
Dancing Shiva (Natarajasana), but done with a variation with the free hand touching the floor, making it a standing Bow Pose.
Rada Krishna Asana
Parighasana (the fully seated, mobius strip variation that I can't find a picture of anywhere!)
Janu Sirsasana (Head-to-Knee)
Lunge Backbend
Side Plank
Ardha Dhanurasana, done as a prone twist. Very relaxing. Another thing I can't find a picture of.
Dhanurasana
Bridge Pose
Bridge Pose on one leg
Wheel
Wheel on one leg
Reclined Pigeon
Jathara Parivartanasana B (Belly Twist B)
Water
While Fire and Heart-Air are both excellent classes, Ms. Rea is truly in her own element here. This is a creative series, vigorous and yet relaxing in the way that yoga can be at its best. (A word of warning. I did Water as my first yoga after a two-week layoff. I felt it the next couple of days the way I would have felt an "Of Steel" workout. Thighs of Steel, the yoga way! Ow. :D )
Ms. Rea is focused in this 20-minute segment on spinal flexibility achieved through creative movement in all directions. There is almost no upper body work here. You will need to combine this with Fire or Fire-Water to get a workout for your arms. But that's not to say that this is going to be easy on you. The entire sequence is spent either lunging or doing variations on the wide-stance yogic squat, which is why you are going to feel this the next day. When you aren't working the big leg muscles, it's Cobra and Salambhasana.
If you've done Ms. Rea's Fluid Power or the Lunar sequence on Shakti, you will recognize things here. It's a sampler of a lot of moves, brought together in a lovely, circular arrangement.
Beware, she does put you with your back to the screen a couple of times. You might want to watch this first, if you will be annoyed at either working entirely from verbal cues or at needing to check over your shoulder (or between your legs! :D ) to see what she's up to.
I would definitely put this at the end of a morning's yoga as a wind-down, though it is not really a "cool down" per se, it is soothing and loosening and relaxing and an excellent way to finish.
Fire-Water
Fire-Water combines standing postures and more difficult arm balances to build strength and fluidity. Hip opening is achieved in this session through the low yogic squat and the high, wide-stance squat. Releases are standing forward bends, especially wide-angle forward bend.
The standing postures move through Warrior II, Reverse Warrior, and Triangle. Ms. Rea has you wrap your back hand around to grasp the front thigh, which effectively opens the chest and shoulder, though it is not a variation that I was loving. Crescent Moon is used as the balancing posture.
The arm balances are related to Bhujapidasana, including that pose, as well as the half and full variations of Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II.
The sequence closes with Bow and Baddha Konasana.
This is an exciting way to explore a few different arm balances in a short session.
Chakra
Ms. Rea builds this disc around unifying themes of movement. Repeated in almost every sequence are the Cat's Breath opening, Crescent Lunge, Anahatasana, Cobra, Ardha Parsvottanasana, and Vasisthasana. In Chakra, Ms. Rea creates vinyasas to emphasize each element using these components. Starting with Earth she keeps you close to the ground, encouraging slow, calm movements though an extended Cat's Breath, deep lunges, and straight Cobra. Moving to Water, she takes you through a fluid, flowing sequence. The flow from Crescent Lunge to Ardha Parsvottanasana and back will challenge your balance and calm. The flowing shift from side to side in Vasisthasana will get you sweating. Fire is focused on the big muscles of the thigh, with full Crescent Lunge and Warrior III, shoulders opened in Reverse Namaste. She takes you through Salambasana and full Vasisthasana, with variations offered depending on ability. Finally, Air opens the heart with twisted Crescent Lunge followed by Lunge Backbend. She stretches the quads with the Table variation of Dhanurasana. Vasisthasana is performed in an arching flowing variation, opening the chest to the sky.
This is another compact sequence that takes you through a lot of variation in asanas in a short, but complete-feeling session.
Earth
This piece is probably not going to be the one you return to day after day, and I believe is by far the least interesting of the disc. However, it offers some interesting insights, and some days might be exactly what you are looking for.
It opens with a brief pranayama focused on the development of Uddiyana Bandha. Ms. Rea has you place your hands on your lower belly and lower back and using bent knees and shifting hips move yourself into the correct alignment, feeling it with your hands as you do so. She carries this lesson through rounds of Plank and what she calls Half Plank – a sort of aborted movement from Plank to Downward Dog, so that you can really feel how your muscles are engaged.
She then progresses into a lesson in the four movements of lunge, which carries into a developing sequence of more complicated lunge postures: Crescent Lunge with the knee down; Crescent Lunge with the back leg extended; Warrior I, with a focus on Uddiyana Bandha again; Warrior I to Warrior Seal; Warrior II to Reverse Warrior to Extended Side Angle.
As you can see, not very exciting in terms of doing something new or particularly creative. But in some ways, the very familiarity of these poses allows you to concentrate on executing the lunges with care and to focus on the integrity of the lunge, the slow, deliberate movement through the simple, tranisitional vinyasa, and the revisitation of Uddiyana Bandha. This segment is worth remembering and practicing periodically for the development of your practice as a whole.
Shanti
Shanti is an extremely calming sequence of forward bends. It opens with a cycle of Cat alternating with Child's Pose, and progresses through a few lunges and lunge backbend to open and warm the hips and groin. However, I would not personally practice this sequence from cold unless I had been concentrating on hip opening a lot in my recent practice. I highly recommend Shanti as a long cool down and stretch after aerobics or running. The seated postures are Pigeon, Janu Sirsasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana and Gomugasana.
Shanti also has a lovely transitional vinyasa: Anahatasana to Cobra, then prostration and what Ms. Rea refers to as "Sacred Rolling." Yes. You roll around on the floor. And it is deliciously relaxing.
A wonderful finish to any practice.
Conclusion
I get a lot of use out of this disc, and like it a lot. I sometimes mix pieces of it with pieces from other yoga discs. The length of the sequences give you flexibility with structure in your home practice. I definitely recommend it for your library.
My only practical, exercise-related concern about it is that sometimes you feel there is not enough warmup, which is one reason I usually add the Solar Meditation onto the beginning. This is easily resolved by adding a few minutes of Surya Namaskar A before you get started. I sometimes lead into one of these sequences with one of the creative sun salutations from Fluid Power. But when I've been doing my yoga every day or every-other-day, I personally find that I have no problem just launching into any of these sessions cold.
And that's my review. Which I have been working on since, yes, Christmas! I hope you get a chance to enjoy this DVD.
Namaste.