This Solar Flow Yoga DVD is
aimed at people who are already somewhat fit and flexible and have some prior
experience with yoga.  It is produced in
the same style as other Shiva Rea yoga DVDs, filmed in the Maldive Islands and
Southern India.  She has her yoga mat on
a sand bank with waves rolling in from both sides, and it was shot when the sun
was low in the sky, illuminating her in a glorious light.  Rea gives her instructions in a voice-over,
with a calm and pleasant voice.  There
is modern Eastern-flavored music in the background, it is possible to turn the
narration off, so one can just follow her actions.   Her language is easily accessible, and mostly when she uses the
original Indian names for poses, she also uses the common English names.  After a while, the Indian names become as
familiar as the English ones.

The flows focus on spine, shoulder
and leg flexibility and core strength, of the abdomen, chest and arms.  The flows can provide a good work out,
leaving you breathing hard.  There are
many sections of the DVD, and you can program it to play the ones you
want.  If you played them all, it would
last about 110 minutes.  Most people at
first will prefer to use one of the four pre-programmed flows. These are

·       
Basic Flow (37 minutes)

·       
Core Strength (45 minutes)

·       
Solar Flow 1 (49 minutes)

·       
Solar Flow 2 (69 minutes)

Some of the flows and the poses
they use are more difficult than others, of course, and different people will
have different strengths.  For example,
there is a sequence of hand stand positions that I suspect many people will
find extremely challenging.  I certainly
did.  It is important to be careful in
trying these new positions, and slowly build up to the full versions over a
period of days, weeks, months, or years. 
After doing these flows, you should expect to ache a little, but not to
hurt yourself.  The advantage of being
able to program the sequence of exercises yourself is that you can focus on
what you need to, and avoid parts that are too difficult.  The shoulder opening exercises and the hand
stands are not found on most yoga DVDs, so this will be especially useful for
people looking to practice these.  It is
a pleasure to watch Rea demonstrating the most challenging of the poses since
she has such grace and power. 

Included with the DVD is a slim
booklet with some information about how to use the DVD, and the list of
sequences it contains is slightly inaccurate, but that does not matter very
much since the DVD that provides the accurate information.  The quality of the video production is very
high, and the DVD is one of the best guides to yoga flow available. 

 

 

Links:

·       
Sounds True

·       
Shiva Rea website

·       
Review of Shiva Rea’s Lunar Flow
DVD.

·       
Review of Shiva
Rea’s Sun Salutations DVD

 

© 2006 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.

 

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is
Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island, and editor
of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is on
philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: General, Movies, SelfHelp