DVD INCLUDES — Five 20-minute focused morning routines — Workout appropriate for all skill levels — Daily variety for your yoga practice — BONUS! Daily deep breathing & meditation guide — WAKE UP TO YOGA — Because of our nat... more »ural rhythms, daybreak is the perfect time to open our bodies and center our minds. Let Rodney Yee be your daily guide through these five 20-minute morning practices. Each workout focuses on a specific area to loosen your muscles, relax your mind and energize you for the day ahead. Choose from Standing Poses, Twists, Backbends, Forward Bends and Hip Openers. It s simple enough for beginners, but effective for everyone.« less
Actor:Rodney Yee Director:Gaiam Genres:Fitness & Yoga Sub-Genres:Yoga Studio:Gaiam Format:DVD - Color DVD Release Date: 06/03/2008 Release Year: 2008 Run Time: 1hr 50min Screens: Color Number of Discs: 1 SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Total Copies: 1 Members Wishing: 0 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Languages:English
This is the perfect DVD to add a little bit of yoga to each day. Each routine is an complete practice in itself, with warmup poses and savasana.
1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Movie Reviews
Rodney Yee still has new insights into yoga
library lady | 06/12/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This yoga dvd follows Gaiam's usual formula - beautiful scenery, voice-over instruction, and soothing background music. A new feature is the ability to choose between detailed or minimal audio instruction - very nice once you've practiced the routine a few times. The interview with Rodney Yee gives some good insight into his path toward yoga. The best part is the routines themselves. New yoga concepts are presented, not just a re-packaging of the many titles featuring Rodney Yee that you may have seen and practiced. He offers advice during the routines that seems small but makes the poses work so much better.
The twists segment is my favorite."
The Right Sequences for Each Day
L. Starling | Northern Virginia | 07/15/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"In this DVD, you can do a different sequence each day of the week. As I interpret the default order of the choices, they are just right for the five-day workweek: standing poses to get your motor runnin' first thing Monday morning; backbends on Wednesday (over-the-hump-day) to counteract the effects of slumping over the computer; hip-openers on Friday to open you up after a week of being chair-bound. The twists (Tuesday) and forward bends (Thursday) are delightful additions and could be done interchangeably. Take advantage of extra time on the weekends to do more than one of the sequences.
On days that I prefer a more well-rounded morning practice, I do the A.M. portion of the Yee/Walden A.M./P.M. Yoga for beginners CD, then follow it up with a more targeted sequence from Yee's A.M. Yoga for Your Week. That combination loosens me up and primes me for a more challenging workout later in the day, whether it be yoga, pilates, kickboxing, hiking, whatever.
Oh, and the cinematography is as breathtaking as the music is enchanting. A delightful experience!"
New routines
ElastiGirl | 07/23/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"We must confess that Rodney Yee is one of our favorite DVD-Yoga-Teachers. This DVD is great for three main reasons: 1) variety of routines = 5, 2) ability to have either detailed instruction or limited instruction, and 3) the routines are NEW. Gaiam has often repackaged routines from their library & so in the past you may have thought you were getting something new to add to your dvd library and you were actually getting something you already had. Very pleased with the purchase."
Not "just like" his "am & pm yoga" dvd
Caitlin B | Scottdale AZ | 12/08/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Well the scenery is beautiful, but I wasn't thrilled with the presentation. I thought it would be 5 mini-sessions modeled after Gaiam's "AM & PM yoga dvd" that I love and recommend to everyone. That DVD had a 20 minute full body session that warmed you up, had great hip openers, back bends, twists, etc and had a bit of meditation at the end. I thought this DVD would be like that one, having a warm up and a meditation for each, but focusing on different areas/stretches each day. It's not. When you start, say, the "hip openers" selection, Rodney Yee is already warmed up and going super fast for someone who just woke up (it is AM yoga after all, and I get up at 4:45 AM) then he slows down later but by then you are all frazzled and trying to keep up and the whole idea of starting your day with some tranquility and a nice little stretch is out the window. The stretch is there, but I am recovering from an injury so I need the warm up so that I don't re-injure myself. I guess I could do a warm up before the DVD, but I bought the DVD for this purpose so I guess I'm a little disappointed... Plus, they say it is 5 - 20 minute sessions, but they are closer to 30 minutes each, which is nice to get more than you expected, but not when you're trying to get out the door on time! I guess I'm back to the same routine from "AM & PM yoga" every day w/ Rodney."
Five short practices great for any time of the day
Beth Cholette | Upstate NY USA | 01/15/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Rodney Yee, a veteran yoga instructor as well as the featured instructor of many yoga videos and DVDs, has recently released this new offering, AM Yoga for Your Week. The intent was to provide five 20-minute practices (but note that the actual practice times vary from 22-26 minutes) which could be used during busy weekday mornings to get the day off to a good start. In reality, these five excellent yoga sessions, each of which has a different focus, are appropriate for use at ANY time of the day. Although each individual practice revolves around a specific body area/group of postures, each are well-rounded, stand-alone yoga sessions. I have described the five practices briefly below.
STANDING, 22.5 minutes
Standing postures include standing forward bend, tree, triangle, side angle pose, warrior 1, and warrior 2; standing forward bend is performed in-between some of these poses. The standing poses conclude with chair and wide-legged standing forward bend before moving to the floor for hero and then finishing in relaxation pose. Yee offers some particularly nice form pointers while holding the standing poses.
TWISTS, 26 minutes
This practice opens with a series of reclined twists (one of which uses a strap). Yee then transitions to standing with down dog and standing forward bend for revolved prayer twist and crazy dog. Coming back to seated in cobbler's pose, he performs a twist in wide-legged seated pose and two variations on Sage 3 posture. This practice finishes with half Lord of the fishes, cobra, and relaxation pose.
BACK BENDS, 25 minutes
Yee starts here by rolling two blankets together to create a bolster for under the upper back; he lies over this for a gentle lying backbend. Coming to standing, he moves through a variation on sun salutations which include standing backbend, chair, down dog, warrior 2, side angle, warrior 1, and crescent lunge. He then moves to the floor for cobra, bow, and camel. After finishing with the backbending work, Yee nicely stretches out the body with cobbler's pose, simple seated twist, reclined leg stretch (using a strap if needed); he finished with relaxation pose.
FORWARD BENDS, 24 minutes
This practice begins in a reclined position for a series of moves that felt more like hip openers than forward bends: reclined leg stretch (using a strap if needed), happy babies pose, and thread-the-needle. Next Yee gradually transitions to standing through child's pose, down dog, standing forward bend, wide angle standing forward bend, and 3-legged down dog. Coming back to the floor for seated forward bends, he performs a simple cross-legged forward bend, head-to-knee pose, full seated forward bend, cobbler's forward bend, and wide-legged forward bend, finishing with a brief rest and then relaxation pose. To my surprise, this segment was probably my favorite, as it had a great mix of postures.
HIP OPENERS, 26 minutes
This segment uses a yoga block. It starts with a seated opening vinyasa in which Yee flows from staff pose to cobbler's to wide-legged seated pose, gradually speeding this up and also adding half-boat pose. He next does a simple cross-legged forward bend before incorporating the block. Keeping one leg stretched straight out in front, he first rests the other knee on the block, then brings the knee out to the side at a right angle. He also uses the block for cobbler's pose with the block between the feet. Additional postures which follow include pigeon, revolved crescent lunge, double pigeon, half Lord of the fishes, wide-legged seated forward bend, and cobbler's forward bend. The practice concludes with lightning pose, hero's pose on the block, and relaxation.
Despite Yee's long history of making yoga videos, he has still managed to offer something that feels fresh and new here. As always, his cueing is impeccable (although mirrored cueing would be even better!), and he offers wonderful form pointers which help you to get into the postures more deeply. Although I wouldn't recommend this DVD for those brand-new to yoga (Yee doesn't give quite that level of instruction), more experienced beginners and beyond should do fine. In conclusion, the practices are amazing, the instructor is extremely skilled, and the scenery is breathtaking--what's not to like? Highly recommended!"
Sharon H. 
