Buy and Download - Josephine Krizovensky and Stephan Kesting Introducing Yoga for Martial Arts

2003
USA
Josephine Krizovensky, Stephan Kesting
01:02:06
English

The Introduction of this video states that practicing yoga has many benefits for the martial artists; Flexibility is obviously a great assess. It allows the martial artist to kick higher, hit harder, hit from difficult position on the ground, prevent injuries. Yoga also strengthens and stabilizes the body especially to the limit of range of motion etc...Well, this is what the the video is about.
Improve your flexibility, strengthen your core muscles and master your breathing by owning Introducing Yoga for Martial Arts. This professionally filmed and edited DVD takes the ancient art of Yoga and presents it for modern martial artists. Each of the 5 sections can be done by itself or linked together for a bull-body workout.

As someone with limited flexibility, I had always thought that you'd have to drag me kicking and screaming to a yoga class (and live with my kicking and screaming in pain during the class). I've watched helplessly as scores of friends and loved ones jumped onto the yoga band-wagon. "Just a fad", I thought, "I'll stick to me martial arts..." Well, years later, they're still at it, and still trying to convert me. Intellectually, I could see the benefits, but my passion was still the martial arts as I explained to one and all. And then this dvd came out. Finding myself more susceptible to minor injuries of late with -ahem- advancing age, I figured it was as good a time as any to look at this yoga thing. I admit I was wary that this would be a "gimmicky" product. What did I find?
The intro gives a brief overview of why yoga will help a martial artist: succinct and logical. (I would have preferred a longer sell job, but that's because I needed a lot of convincing to put myself through such anticipated pain (did I mention I hate stretching? No, I obviously don't do TKD)) Then dvd jumps pretty quickly to the main event: the yoga.
The content is well organized. Production values were very high, from the video quality, to the editing, to the mood-setting background music. Cool. And so it kept my interest throughout. And surprise surprise, I was able to follow it, and follow along in real time(I am so used to watching instructional videos with my fingers flashing between the rewind and play buttons...this was much better). Better yet, there was a simultaneous simplified version demonstrated next to the advanced version, just so inflexible people like me wouldn't hurt themselves too badly...sweet. Movements flowed from one to the next, which is always helpful. The quality of the yoga was high (from my lay-view and also according to my yoga-enthusiast wife who watched it with me), so it successfully avoids the dilution of quality that can plague crossover training. The skilled instructors inspire confidence: if they think these exercises are the most relevant for martial arts, I'm inclined to believe them.
Bottom line for me was that it offered a way of achieving some of the crucial martial arts enhancing benefits of yoga without signing up for a whole yoga course (which I wouldn't have the time or enlightenment to do just yet). Thumbs up from this yoga-phobic customer for a well-executed concept: this dvd's the real deal.