Round 5: Day 4: Yoga

It's been about three weeks since I've done yoga, having missed some sessions due to a recent illness. I decided to try out a new workout, Patience Hummingbird, part of Tony Horton's One on One series.

This is a 36 minute yoga routine which is yoga stripped down to a bare minimum. The focus is on stretching and fluidity of motion. It seems to me that at times, a pose is held longer than usual, causing some mild discomfort, but I was able to maintain focus and breath through it. The poses are very basic: crescent pose, warrior 1, 2 and 3, half-moon, triangle pose and one-arm balance. There are a short series of upper body stretches prior to the poses, and a short series of hamstring stretches at the end of the workout.

Although the workout is not what I would call strenuous by any means, it can still result in a decent stretch if you are mindful of breathing and of what the parts of the body are supposed to be doing. One inclusion I particularly enjoyed was shavasana at the end of the program: just lying on the back, breathing and clearing the mind.

I don't think that the addition of a countdown clock in the lower left-hand corner of the screen is a particularly useful device in a yoga workout. It serves as a distraction, and considering that the mind is supposed to be clear, adding something to think about is not helpful.

This was a fair program. I don't think that I'll do it often during this round. At 36 minutes, it is short enough to fit into a hectic schedule; however, it doesn't result in the peace of mind and total body stretch that comes from Yoga X or Fountain of Youth.

Namaste.