Yoga that will kick your ass

May 4, 2012 6:51 PM

Wanted: The toughest, non-spiritual, exercise-focused yoga DVD available. P90X need not apply.

I don't need to learn to center my chakras and see with my third eye. Neither do I need to be exorted to "bring it" by the P90X guy.

posted by Cool Papa Bell to health & fitness (11 answers total)

Bryan Kest Power Yoga DVDs
posted by Perplexity at 7:04 PM on May 4, 2012

John Scott.
posted by Sassyfras at 7:14 PM on May 4, 2012

Not used it DDP yoga sounds like it might fit. DDP = Diamond Dallas Page!
posted by idb at 8:09 PM on May 4, 2012

I have a Bob Harper warrior yoga DVD that kicks my ass - but I'm kind of out of shape.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 8:21 PM on May 4, 2012

I am a big fan of Rodney Yee's power yoga series.
posted by blurker at 8:23 PM on May 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

Re DDP Yoga - who can doubt this emotionally stirring transformation montage? Paige is living his gimmick as an inspirational life-guru/positivity zombie, so it may come packaged with some motivational BS, but the core program of basic stretching and static holds seems legit, and is winning fans.

Much more dynamic than yoga, Gynastica Natural has its merits, though a steeper learning curve.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 8:54 PM on May 4, 2012

FWIW - I used to take tone of yoga classes from Linda Bostrom who taught Hatha Yoga in the Iyengar style (which is very precise pose oriented). She was asked by the gym to do a "power Yoga" class and we asked her about it and she said, "It's all going to be variations on Sun Salutations". She was brutal. She held the plank pose a lot longer. She also went from plank into triangle and back again. Since triangle is a two sided poses, the sequence full sequence from moutain pose at the beginning and back was only 1/2 since you had to do the other side for triangle.
posted by plinth at 3:05 AM on May 5, 2012

+1 for Bryan Kest. You can ge all three of his original and most popular workouts on one DVD here.
posted by THAT William Mize at 6:32 AM on May 5, 2012

Holy COW- what you are looking for is Ashtanga/Mysore. I spent a lot of time looking for yoga that was actually a workout, and this is where I landed. I get sore, I get out of breath, and no one reminds me to think about my heart opening. I also really like that it is always the exact same series of poses- there is nothing to think about, you just have to do it.
posted by aint broke at 8:31 AM on May 5, 2012

Aaaaand I missed the part about a DVD. I have no recommendations for that, I'm sorry. What I use for my Ashtanga practice at home are these cheat sheets, which have the poses and the order of poses.
There are videos demonstrating all the poses on youtube, but they have yoga narration about grounding your feet to the earth mother and opening your heart. Maybe if you watched it muted?
posted by aint broke at 8:41 AM on May 5, 2012

I'm reccing a pilates DVD because it sounds similar to what you want -- Rael has really good workouts that will kick your butt even if you are in shape. Here is his System 17. System 27 is tougher. Totally physio-based, no spirituality.
posted by ramenopres at 6:07 PM on May 9, 2012