Don’t get your pantyhose in a twist!

Is it weird to have an exercise DVD put out by a plus-size hosiery company? Yes. Does it necessarily follow that the DVD is no good? Absolutely not.

I’ve been hesitant to review a yoga DVD, because I thought it might be difficult for me to review yoga DVDs as a beginner after doing yoga for 14 years.

I overcame my hesitation in order to review Just My Size Yoga this week, because the idea of a yoga practice geared towards the overweight has so much potential. My own yoga practices are heavily modified due to my size, past injuries, and general lack of flexibility. I expected to see many pose modifications in this DVD as well.

There were not as many modifications as I anticipated in the 28-minute workout. There were a few places where instructor Megan Garcia instructs you to do things like change your leg position to make room for your tummy, but I was surprised to not even see a modification for downward dog (a pose that can be tough for the plump, because of the amount of weight resting on your arms/hands).

So, it was a pleasant surprise to watch the 5-minute Special Tips section and see 5 additional pose modifications, including the standard modification for downward dog (she refers to it as Half Dog, but I had always heard it called Puppy Dog), where you stand a few feet from a wall, bend at the hips, and place your hands against the wall. This gives you the back and leg stretch without the strain on your hands and arms.

Yoga can be tricky for the uncoordinated, because while you’re doing many of the poses, you are in a position where you can’t see the TV. For yoga DVDs, you really need to look for an instructor who gives a good, detailed description of what to do, so you don’t need the visual as much. This DVD was a little hit or miss in that respect. Garcia did not provide as much detail as I would have liked to hear while doing the moves.

However, one of the truly brilliant features of this DVD was a ‘preview’ that was shown before every exercise. The preview gave the name of the exercise, a short video clip of what the pose looks like, and a sentence or two explaining the benefit of the pose. It was really nice to see what you would be doing later, because you might not be able to see the TV while you were in the pose. These little previews were about 5 seconds each, so they didn’t disrupt the flow at all, and they really helped you know what to expect.

It didn’t quite work all the way through, though, because at one point Garcia included a Posture Flow section where you strung many of the poses together. Yes, you had seen them all earlier in the workout, but during the posture flow, she only introduced the poses by name, without a lot of instruction, which could be tough if the poses (and their names) were pretty new to you.

The pacing was a little uneven too. She focused on the breathing a lot, which was good (my favorite quote from the bonus interview with Garcia is: “It’s the slow, deep breathing that separates yoga from gymnastics.”). However, I must be a very slow breather, because whenever she said we were doing something for five breaths, I only got through three breaths before we were moving on. So, I felt a little rushed in some of the poses.

On the flip side, there were some areas where she slowed it down in a really helpful way. One of the tough parts of yoga can be getting down to the floor from a standing position and vice versa. Garcia turned this process into a pose (the Lunge Transition), which made the getting up and down a flowing part of the workout instead of a mad dash for the new position.

Garcia did not mirror the movements, but I found this less troubling than in last month’s tai chi workout review. I think this is because with yoga, you are not in constant motion. Once you get in the pose, you stay there a while, and if you realize you did the wrong side first, there are no worries, because you always do the other side next.

The workout ends with Relaxation Pose, and I liked how the workout just kind of faded out at the end, returning you to the DVD title screen with the same relaxing music … so you could continue to enjoy the relaxation pose longer if you wanted. There was no extra talking or boisterous music with the credits to disrupt your relaxation.

Overall, I thought Just My Size Yoga was a good intro to yoga. It was a solid beginner practice, not too long, with poses that weren’t too intimidating, and with some nice modifications shown. You need have no concerns about twisting into impossible pretzel poses with this DVD.