Home Fitness with Yoga

Exercising within your home has several benefits. You can do it on your own time, you can certainly decrease travel time, save membership and class fees and also the hassles of sweaty gym rats. It is in fact very simple to spend a lot of your money on expensive home gym equipment which is quite likely to just take up valuable space and remind you just how in poor condition you may be while it gathers dust in your basement.

A very good, low-cost alternative is to use equipment you already possess: a DVD player and TV. There a variety of sorts of home exercise DVDs, however in this particular article, I'm going to direct my attention to doing yoga in your own home using DVDs that happen to be simple to acquire from Amazon, your nearby library or many stores or web sites which provide exercise videos.

One can find wide ranges of yoga DVDs available. You should select carefully depending on your fitness goals, level of experience with yoga and yoga style preference. Common workout goals that may be achieved through yoga are:

1. Stress Control
2. Weight Loss
3. Increased Flexibility
4. Increased Strength
5. Build Stamina

Keep in mind that these goals usually are not exclusive and often complement one another. The key for choosing the ideal video is determining which of the above your primary goal is.
Experience with yoga and general level of fitness is an additional important factor. These are generally broken down into the following categories. Do not feel bad if you are in the limited beginner level. Everyone has got to start somewhere and beginning with a level too difficult will undoubtedly discourage you against continuing.

1. Limited Beginner - No fitness experience, recovering from injury or limited flexibility/mobility.
2. Beginner - A sound body but little if any knowledge about yoga or group exercise.
3. Intermediate - Has some yoga experience or other fitness experience, fairly active and mobile with average degree of flexibility and strength.
4. Advanced - Have a regular yoga practice, fitness experience or seasoned athlete with reasonable amount of flexibility.

This may not be definitive listing of where you ought to be as far as challenge for a yoga class, there is some leeway. For example, anybody who is fairly active and limber, able to climb stairs, walk regularly and perform normal daily activities, but has never participated in a group exercise routine at a studio or fitness center, may do fine by using a Beginner or Intermediate yoga video. If someone is limited in range of motion or has knee, wrist or back issues they might fare better using a slower paced video for a limited beginner where they can have a chance to make adjustments to suit their needs. A marathon runner with tight limbs with out yoga experience may want to start with a Beginner video.

Regardless of what your level of fitness, yoga is extremely personal. The advantage of yoga is you should be motivated to modify your positioning, whether in a class setting with a live instructor or with a yoga video, to best provide what you need. If you are limited in positioning you can adjust to a simpler posture to attend a routine. A seasoned athlete should have the abilities necessary to adjust any class to challenge themselves, whether through tightening up muscles in any area or strengthening the mind in focusing on the yoga positions, breath and body alignment.

No matter what your workout goals are, finding the suitable yoga video starts with matching a video to your needs: finding what type of yoga you desire to practice, versatility of the workout, instructor style, options offered for varying levels, scenery and music.

As a certified yoga instructor with over 20 year of experience teaching yoga and other group fitness classes, I have seen many teaching styles and have reviewed many exercise videos. For more help in deciding the best home yoga video for your particular needs, consult Yoga DVD Reviews for a comprehensive review of a wide variety of yoga DVDs.