Iron Yoga

NAME Anthony Carillo

DURATION 60 minutes

EQUIPMENT Light handweights or light weighted balls, sticky mat

TYPE Yoga with weights

MUSIC Just okay. I wish that one song would have been played throughout. Music was instrumental.

IMPACT Low

CHOREOGRAPHY Basic

INTENSITY Varies

LEVEL Intermediate

This is yoga with weights. Depending on your level of fitness, you use 1-5 pound dumbbells or light weighted balls to execute a series of yoga poses. The poses are pretty basic and nothing that will put you in a pretzel. After all, you are trying to do the poses holding weights.

The workout consists of 55 minutes of yoga poses such as triangle, tree, warrior, mountain, etc. where you either hold the weight steady or do slow curls. At one point, you also do lateral raises, front raises, and shoulder presses. You do the movements REALLY slow, so you can feel the burn in some places. You also hold the poses for quite awhile.

Anthony Carillo leads the workout with two background exercisers. One demonstrates beginner modifications, one intermediate, and Anthony demonstrates advanced poses. The set is a little dark, and there is a rust colored gear looking piece of artwork in the background. Maybe symbolizing strength? Pretty cool.

The workout is broken up into sets. You do a series of poses, then the workout fades out for about two seconds and you go onto the next series of poses. There are constant reminders on the screen to "keep your legs active" or "engage your core" which I found very helpful.

Interspersed are some poses that are done to build heat, such as down dog, chaturanga, etc. that you do not hold the weights. Poses where you don't hold weights are few but just enough where you can shake your muscles out. There are also various balance poses in the workout. At the end, there is a 6 minute bonus savasana, which I found to be appropriate and relaxing.

This workout requires A LOT of concentration. If you are one of those people with a small attention span, this DVD is not for you. However, I found it to be a real challenge. Physically, it got me in the lower body the most. My butt and glutes were very sore the next day. But I also found the workout to be a mental challenge. And, of course, I felt very stretched out afterwards.

The music, although soft, was hypnotizing, as was Anthony Carillo. He gently offered encouragement and form pointers throughout. He wasn't exactly engaging. Rather, I would describe him as hypnotic, like his music. I think that's what helped hold my attention. If there was too much going on, I don't think I would have concentrated on the workout itself.

As for music, there was one song that I really wish they would have played throughout the entire workout, instead of all the generic ones.

PROS: Anthony was very detailed and precise in his cueing. This is more of a mental workout, and will be my go to workout when I am stressed and need to chill out.

CONS: The only one I can think of is the music. Other than that, this workout is one that you either really like or really don't. I can see why this would not be for everyone.

I’m reviewing this workout after previewing and doing it once each.

General workout breakdown: This program of just over 50 min. combines traditional yoga moves with light weights. There is a bonus savasana or rest pose of 6 min. that you can add on.

The workout is divided into the following chapters: Warm-up (mountain pose w/ posture check, then this sequence: lat pullback, tricep kickback, bicep curl, military press, lat pulldown, shoulder shrug, straight arm side raise and lower, upright row, tricep press down, and lateral raise, then returning to bicep curl; strong chair pose with back row), Tree Sequence (mountain w/ wrist curl, tree w/ military press & lat pulldown, then chest flye & reverse flye, other side with front raise and a rotator cuff move), Power Lunge / Sun Salutation 1 (triangle, warrior 2 w/ front raise & bicep curl, side angle w/ bicep curl, lunge into standing lunge w/ side raise & torso rotation; this sequence is repeated on the other side after a sun salutation series), Single Leg Balance Sequence (side bend w/ arms overhead, standing backbend, warrior 3 w/ tricep kickback, standing 1-legged balance w/ quadriceps extension, eagle w/ chest / reverse press, balance on tip toes with arms straight overhead, rotator cuff exercise, warrior 3 sequence, eagle w/ tricep overhead extension), and Sun Salutation 2 / Cooldown (sun salutation into pigeon, bird dog w/ arm & opposite leg extended, cat & cow, superman, cobra, boat, seated forward fold, child’s pose w/ arm stretch, ). As other reviewers have noted, Anthony alternates between controlled movements and isometric holds (not particularly long), between doing one side and doing both sides. And, in case you’re wondering, you don’t do the sun salutations with dumbbells in hand!

Level: I’d recommend this to experienced exercisers; this is perhaps best for someone at or around an intermediate level. Some previous experience with yoga and weight lifting would be a good idea. This is definitely one of those workouts where you get out of it what you put into it! Those light dumbbells can become surprisingly heavy if you concentrate enough.

Class: 2 women join Anthony, who instructs live. Each show a different level: beginning, intermediate, and more advanced.

Music: gentle instrumental music that’s on the bland side.

Set: somewhat dark interior set, with a blue background in front of which stands a somewhat abstract rusty object. (Is that because Anthony is an Iron Man?)

Production: clear picture and sound. The camera angles are usually helpful and not distracting.

Equipment: yoga sticky mat (or equivalent) and a pair of light (1-5 lb.) dumbbells. All participants are barefoot.

Space Requirements: enough to perform a full sun salutation and lie down on back with limbs extended.

DVD Notes: The main menu allows you to choose Introduction, Play All, Chapters, and Bonus Feature.

Comments: If you like your yoga straight up and traditional, this probably won’t appeal to you. If you think you would like yoga if only it were more athletic, this might be just the ticket for you. In fact, Anthony seems to be targeting athletes (whether hard core or weekend warrior types) who want to do some crosstraining. Avoid this one if you have a low tolerance for workouts with slow, deliberate pacing.

I don’t have Anthony’s book of the same name, so I can’t compare the two. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything vital without the book; the video stands on its own very well.

If you like this video, you might also like Linda Freeman’s YES Training, another yoga video that incorporates light dumbbells. You might also like Tari Rose’s Hard Body Yoga, which also takes yoga poses and uses holds, slow sequences, etc., to build strength and endurance.

With strength work, I am an intermediate exerciser, who doesn’t really want to move up to advanced work. I have really enjoyed getting into workouts on the ball and Pilates as an alternative to traditional strength training. Recently, I have been playing with adding yoga to the mix. I saw this workout as a possible way to combine yoga and weights.

Anthony Carillo leads with two background exercisers. One does the beginner level while the other does the intermediate level. Anthony does the advanced variations. The set is dark - plain, but not unpleasant. I have no memory of any music. He does not mirror cue, which made me think a time or tow (first thing in the morning).

The workout moves very slowly and I found it boring. Keep in mind that I have a very low threshold for boredom though. I found Rael Pilates too slow as well (although a MUCH better workout!). I felt the moves a little, but not much. As I couldn't see ever wanting to do it again, I traded it quickly.

Saw the book by the same name in Costco, and was surprised to see the DVD already available at Netflix, so I rented it.

Quite simply, this is Yoga with weights. You use 1-5 pound dumbbells, depending on your level of fitness. You do not need straps or other props. Mr. Carillo demonstrates the advanced form for each exercise, and a woman on each side demonstrates the beginner/intermediate forms.

When you are not actively doing curls and such, you are still holding the dumbbells throughout most of the workout, so (just my observation here), if you have carpal tunnel issues (as in, your hands go numb when you grip) you might wish to use the soft rubber weighted balls that are featured in Leslie Sansone videos instead. And of course, be careful not to drop them on your head or toes!

The workout consists of 54 minutes of various yoga poses (triangle, tree, warrior, etc.) where you either hold the weight steady or do various curls. You do not do many repetitions of each exercise--it reminds me of "Power of 10" and "SuperSlow" lifting--you slowly lift and then slowly push the weight down, using your body's resistance both ways. These are mostly balancing poses, as opposed to flexibility/stretching poses. Very little floor work.

There are 2 different Sun Salutation sequences within the workout, but they are very slowly and deliberately done, not as they would be done in a Yoga class for say, a warm-up.

There is also a 6-minute "bonus" section that is a guided relaxation while you are in Corpse pose, which is nice by itself, or you can do it in addition to the cooldown in the workout.

This is one of those workouts (like Callanetics) where you are supposed to really keep your mind on what you are doing at all times. You are not pounding out the reps or changing positions quickly. If you are not keeping your mind on what you are doing, you may find this workout slow-moving and boring.

The music is quiet in the background. There are several video reminders throughout to keep your form correct, along with his verbal cues.

The set is spartan, but pleasant (a gear-like sculpture in desert orange/rust with a line of glass blocks in front of it with a light string (like those used for outdoor Christmas displays) behind the blocks, and a grey (concrete?) floor.

All in all, I think this is a rather innovative workout, and it is reasonably priced to boot. It is designed to be done as a complete workout, so you need to be able to devote an hour+ to it.

The set is rather bizarre/ugly with bland music. Anthony Carillo demonstrates the most advanced version of the exercisers while the two females accompanying him do modifcations.

The upper body exercises are done very slowly with only a few reps and a lot of static holds throughout. There are a lot of long-lever movements similar to Pilates-style weightlifting and I could only use my 3-lb. weights. There were a few standard exercises like military presses and rows, but they didn't work well with light weights and I would have had to come out of chair or tree pose to get heavier dumbbells. Overall, I didn't find that my upper body felt real worked out, but the exercises were quite challenging for me in terms of core and lower body balance and stabilization. There were only a few stretches, but they were well chosen and felt good - pigeon pose, forward bend, etc. There is no savasana, but instead a brief stay in child pose. Iron Yoga will probably most appeal to those who like the idea of yoga-inspired functional fitness. Some of the poses are very challenging and I struggled to maintain even the intermediate level modification with good form.

Workout time: 55 minutes. The workout definitely challenged me in areas, but it is rather tedious. I can't help but wonder if a nicer set and more interesting/unique music would have it less boring.