21 Day Fix Yoga

Autumn works out with a group of backgrounders, one provides beginner modifications for some poses You will not need any equipment for this 31 minute yoga routine.

The routine starts with breathing and moves sun salutations, chair, crescent pose, vinyasa, warrior 1 & 2, angle pose, single leg balance hold, tree pose, forward bend, triangle pose, superman, cobra, bow, shoulder stretch, cat cow, bird dog, childs pose, seated stretch series, lying knee drops, and concludes with corpse pose.

This routine is suitable for all fitness levels, and is intermediate in intensity. It is a flowing routine and Autumn provides good instruction. The pace is just right- not rushed but no wasted time. The exercises are pretty standard yoga and are easy to follow. I received this DVD to review.

The 21 Day Fix system is a series of seven workouts (plus several optional routines) plus a nutrition plan designed to change your body when followed as specified for 21 days. The workouts are led by Autumn Calabrese, who teaches each routine live with a group of approximately six background exercisers. In general, Calabrese sets up each move and then walks around the room, offering words of encouragement and pushing the class members to perform.

Yoga Fix comes up on the last day of the rotation, Day 7, and it is intended as a recovery workout. The theme (each workout has a theme) is "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Body." It does NOT start with the same warm-up as all of the other 21 Day Fix programs; rather, Calabrese leads the class through a traditional yoga sun salutation sequence, moving from mountain pose to standing forward bend, lunge, plank, chaturanga, upward facing dog, and downward facing dog; she repeats this series three times.

Calabrese then moves three flowing yoga sequences. She teaches at a moderate pace, not rushed, and most of the postures are at a beginner level, but prior yoga experience would definitely be beneficial, as she does not spend a lot of time on instruction. For the most part, she goes through the poses on one side before repeating on the second side, but there are some vinyasas (pose flows) that appear in-between. The three sequences are listed below.

SERIES ONE

*Chair Pose

*Vinyasa

*Crescent Pose

*Chair Pose

*Vinyasa

*Warrior One

*Warrior Two

*Side Angle Pose

*Warrior One

*Warrior Two

*Chair Pose

SERIES TWO

*Knee Balance

*Tree Pose

*Standing Forward Bend

*Triangle

SERIES THREE

*Vinyasa

*Modified Cobra

*Superman

*Bow Pose

*Child's Pose

*Thread the Needle

*Cat/Cow

*Bird-Dog

*Runner's Stretch (1-leg forward bend)

*Glute Stretch (seated Figure 4)

*Seated Twist

*Butterfly

*Saddle Stretch

*Supine Stretch

*Relaxation (held about 40 seconds)

The total time for this routine was just over 30 minutes (31 minutes). Although I thought that this was an okay yoga routine--probably better than I had expected--have A LOT of experience in yoga (I am currently enrolled in a Yoga Teacher Training program), and I have done much better. As I result, I only did Yoga Fix the very first week and otherwise subbed either yoga class or my preferred yoga DVD.

This is a review of 21 Day Fix, the Yoga Fix workout.

This workout is led by Autumn Calabrese. She is a personal trainer and bikini competitor. With Beachbody, she created a system utilizing color coded containers to use for portion control and workouts to be done in conjunction. The review is for the workout only.

Autumn is instructing a crew of 6 background exercisers, one of which demonstrates modifications to make the moves slightly less intense. Autumn is wearing a sports bra top and athletic leggings and the other backgrounders are also wearing athletic clothing. None of the background exerciser mug for the camera or do anything to detract from the workout.

The set is brightly lit and is meant to resemble a gym. The music is typical of Beachbody and is pretty non-descript and is not noticeably good or bad.

You will need a yoga mat for this workout. A towel and water are also suggested.

The workout starts with a warm up, then goes into 3 different series of yoga poses. The total workout time is right around 30 minutes. The workout opens with a Sun Salutation sequence (repeats three times.) This acts as the warm up. The sequence includes Mountain Pose, Standing Forward Bend, Lunge, Plank Pose, Chaturanga, Up dog, Down dog.

Series One

Chair Pose

Sun Salutations

Crescent Pose (right side)

Vinyasa

Crescent Pose (left side)

Chair Pose

Sun Salutations

Warrior One

Warrior Two

Angle Pose

Warrior Two

Warrior One

Vinyasa

Warrior One

Warrior Two

Angle Pose

Warrior One

Warrior Two

Vinyasa

Chair Pose

Series Two (Balance series)

Balance Pose (on each leg)

Tree Pose (on each leg)

Forward Bend

Fingers to toes

Stand on palms

Lift chest

Triangle Pose

Switch sides

Series Three

Sun Salutations (Up Dog, Down Dog, Chaturanga)

Modified Cobra

Superman (repeat three times.)

Bow Pose

Child's Pose

Shoulder Stretch (one side)

Child's Pose

Shoulder Stretch (other side)

Cat & Cow (repeat three times.)

Bird Dog (each side)

Child's Pose

Runner's Stretch

Glute Stretch

Twist

Runner's Stretch

Glute Stretch

Twist

Butterfly Stretch

Saddle Stretch (one side)

Saddle Stretch (other side)

Supine Stretch

Corpse Pose

A special thanks to Pam61 for breaking down and naming each move.

As demonstrated by Autumn this workout is a low intermediate yoga workout. None of the moves are overly difficult and there is not a lot of balance work. The modifier mostly shows how not to go as deep into the move vs. either an alternate move, or how to do the move with a prop (like a chair, or using a block).

This is yoga for the masses and for people who typically don't like yoga or don't like the mysticism that comes with more traditional yoga practices. I find the workout to be more of a relaxing stretch workout than a yoga workout. Autumn does not use the Sanskrit names for the poses and doesn't emphasize yogi breathing (although she repeatedly instructs to not hold your breath and to breathing through the poses).