The Problem with Yoga Videos

I prefer to do Yoga at Home,
Sometimes with Videos 

Let me start off with saying that I love at home yoga videos. With videos, I was able to start doing yoga when I couldn't afford yoga classes. Even though I take yoga classes, have developed my own at home practice and prefer my own pacing- I will still pop on a yoga video every  now and again to see what is out there. One of my favorite sites for free yoga videos is Do Yoga with Me. 

If you can't afford yoga classes, don't have the time or are located out in the middle of no where- videos are a great option. I would encourage you as soon as the opportunity arises to seek out a class, workshop or retreat. 

I could not see the problem with videos until I took my first yoga class. Being stubborn, I resisted going in to a class a long time, because I prefer working out in the privacy of my home. When I finally gave in to taking a class, I learned more in one class than I probably had in a couple of years regularly practicing along with videos. I could kick myself for all the time wasted learning to do yoga essentially the wrong way.  The following is to explain the major shortcomings of videos. Please feel free to leave a comment to let me know your experience with yoga videos. 

I want my Half Moon and I want it NOW! 

The most disturbing and dangerous thing about yoga videos is they seem to cater to an audience that wants instant gratification. The person planning the classes is probably torn between wanting to deliver an exciting and challenging work out, and actually teaching the proper alignment of the body required to do yoga correctly. Failing to make an exciting video will not make for viewers who will stick around. 

Due to the audience, the video makers are trying to please instead of teach. For this reason I think yoga videos often skip on the meticulous instructions that good teachers will offer. Yoga teachers in class have the luck to have a captive audience who will eventually see the value of all the very specific instructions, and not to mention holding a pose correctly is ten times harder than holding it incorrectly. It may be "boring" to hear exactly every small adjustment that needs to be done just for mountain pose in yoga on video, but to truly become more advanced in yoga, proper alignment is key.

You Don't Get Your Work Out

Without learning proper alignment, you do not get the same level of work out. Our bodies have this funny thing of always wanting to make things easier on us. Without proper instruction, you may not even notice that your body is doing these things to make it easier for you. Ultimately making it easier on your muscles not only makes your work out challenging, it also is extremely hard on your joints. 

Videos Limit Growth

Videos are never set up in series to help a viewer grow to the point of advancing to the next level, the way a good yoga studio does. In weeks of yoga classes, each class will build upon the other with hopes of students  achieving deeper and more challenging poses. Usually this means gradually working on strengthening and lengthening the muscles while working on the basics of pose, until the fine day comes when you are doing the much coveted half-moon or whatever pose you are working on. 

Instead with videos, you are usually left with unconnected classes that you can repeat, but there won't be an overall syllabus to your yoga study. It doesn't necessarily teach you how to strengthen the muscles and/or correctly align your body to achieve what your body is capable of. Instead you develop bad habits that are rough on your joints, and for some reason you can never ever get closer to those more challenging poses.   

Yoga is Not One Size Fits All 

In the yoga video world, viewers are launched into whatever the video teacher finds appropriate for a mystery audience. Most videos are broken up into beginner, intermediate and advanced. Whatever those stages mean, it is clear the stages are not uniformly defined through out the yoga video world. While I can have no problem doing advanced with one video, in another video I am struggling to keep up with a beginner level. For me, this is just a point of frustration, but for someone less-fit, elderly or careless, it can mean injury. Some yoga sites do more specifically go into who the yoga video is made for, but this isn't the same as a teacher deciding what is appropriate for their class. A video also lacks teacher's eyes to be able to help guide you physically and verbally to help make sure you aren't hurting yourself.