Wai Lana Yoga: Toning Workout

In this video, Wai Lana offers a series of dynamic poses focused on stretching and toning various areas of the body. She begins with a basic breathing exercise plus some simple stretches for the neck. Next, you'll wake up the legs by alternating between a squat and a toe raise, then move on a standing knee to chest stretch. Still in a standing position, Wai Lana performs what she calls a "Dancing Forward Bend" (the names for all of her poses appear briefly on screen, which is helpful because she frequently uses names I've never seen before), which is basically a continuous flow between a standing forward bend and a standing backbend. The final standing posture is a variation on triangle pose in which your legs are only shoulder-width apart.

Wai Lana then moves to the floor for some back stretches, including a locust variation, a rear leg lift on hands and knees, and a cat/cow series. From a seated position, she performs a forward bend and a simple twist. Moving to lying on your back, you'll finish with a single leg lift, bridge pose, single leg cirlces, and then double leg circles. After setting you up for savasana, Wai Lana invites you to join her in seated chanting, but I just stayed in savasana the entire time (about 5 minutes); the entire practice comes in at just under 38 minutes. Overall, I found this practice to be enjoyable and relaxing, and I felt nicely stretched out afterwards. Because there are brief pauses between every pose segment, you can perform as many or as few postures as you choose, simply picking up where you left off the next time, so this practice is easily customizable to your needs.

If you've never tried Wai Lana before, you should be aware that she wears an elaborate new outfit for each asana, uses bright makeup, and has a heavy accent; all of this takes a bit of getting used to. However, she provides very good instruction with frequent form reminders (although her cueing is non-mirrored), is quite encouraging, and practices against an absolutely gorgeous setting in Hawaii with a Pacific Ocean backdrop. The Wai Lana series is definitely worth checking out if you have been practicing yoga for awhile and are looking for a departure from mainstream yoga videos.

Wailana's videos are wonderful. I purchased the entire beginners series but I especially like the toning video. For a women on the go I can get a complete toning workout in 30 minutes, and finish the workout feeling relaxed, focused and ready to go!

Dr. Beth, you wrote a great review. The only thing I can add which is also great about Wai Lana is she tells you the BENEFITS of each pose or movement to keep you inspired. Almost no other yoga instructor does that to my knowledge. She's always right about telling you where you should feel the energy increased. She has a great calm voice & holds poses for just the right amount of time... not so long you get bored & not so quick you don't get a chance to really relax into it or challenge yourself.
Her style is more traditional & knows exactly where you should place your foot, etc. that feels better then most yoga dvds I've tried. The exercises she uses are always different then you've seen on almost any yoga dvd. Some on here are plow, modified handstand using a wall, deeper spinal twist when laying down, leg sicssors in the air during plow, boat & more. Her moves definitely have a ring of Qi gong on it.
I have all 3 of her easy series. :-D

BTW, in the extras menu option, there is a guidelines option to get more detailed infomation about each asana, with her demonstrating, how to do it & what to watch out for to avoid injury. Also you can Customize your workout by deciding how many & which asnanas to do for your workout.

You can see a picture gallery on her site wailana

There are more reviews on the VHS page.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 8 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars