Solar Flow Yoga DVD

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.