Yoga for Balance

I'd been curious about this DVD for some time, so I recently borrowed it from the library. As a yoga teacher myself, I enjoy including balance work in my classes, and so I wanted to see what instructor Caley Alyssa had to offer here.

I'm not positive, but I believe that the three practice segments offered on this DVD were originally classes offered on the Udaya web site. Alyssa says "welcome to Udaya" at the start of the main practice, and their logo remains on the screen throughout all three routines. The Main Menu offers options for Balance Class - Bonus Quad Class - Bonus Core. I have described each in detail below.

BALANCE CLASS (40:05 minutes)

In this main class, Alyssa is teaching live with one student. She begins in boat pose, moving on to a challenging variation of alternate straight leg drops. Coming to standing for chair pose, she alternately lifts one knee into the chest, spending quite a bit of time here. Transitional postures include standing forward bend, plank, side plank, downward dog, and upward dog. Alyssa performs several standing sequences, including warrior 2 with a heel raise/triangle with both arms extended/half moon; chair/warrior 3/standing splits/handstand prep; and eagle/extended hand-to-big toe/revolved half-moon. The practice concludes with bridge and a reclined twist; there is no shavasana.

BONUS QUAD CLASS (20:55 minutes)

Here Alyssa performs specific quad stretches in a variety of different yoga positions with a class of five students. She begins with hero's pose with a block. Coming to hands and knees, she adds the first quad stretch (tiger pose), and then moving up to a lunge, she cues a lunge with a quad stretch. Bow pose follows, and then the quad stretch is performed in downward dog. The final postures are camel, half lord of the fishes, and quad stretch in side plank.

BONUS CORE (3:05 minutes)

Not really a class per se, this section offers what Alyssa calls a "teaching tip." Using a student to model boat pose, she explains how good form in boat is important to standing balance.

The main practice on this DVD had a nice variety of poses. Although Alyssa had an encouraging manner, she herself is clearly super-flexible, and she did not really provide much information for those who are balance-challenged. Rather than a DVD to help with balance, Yoga for Balance mainly offers experienced yogis a practice to work on standing yoga balance poses, and I would recommend it for this purpose only.