Product Description

Viniyoga Therapy for the Low Back, Sacrum and Hips features short, simple therapeutic yoga practices carefully designed to alleviate pain and promote health in the low back, sacrum and hips. For the first time ever on DVD, benefit from the expert guidance of Gary Kraftsow, one of the world's leading yoga therapists. Founder of the American Viniyoga Institute, Gary is the designer of the only yoga practices demonstrated to be effective for back pain in a National Institutes of Health-sponsored clinical study. If you are one of the 8 out of 10 Americans who have or will experience back pain, make the powerful therapeutic practices on this DVD a part of your everyday regimen for health and well-being!
Highlights from this DVD include:
Presentation on Understanding Back Pain and the application of yoga therapy.
Technique Workshop on how to safely perform postures and movements.
Focused practice for Low Back and Sacrum Therapy.
Focused practice for Hip Therapy.
Integrated practice for sustained low back Strength and Stability.
Bonus MP3s of all practices for audio-only classes at home or on the go.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2320 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-02-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 155 minutes

Features

• Presentation on Understanding Back Pain and the application of yoga therapy
• Technique Workshop on how to safely perform postures and movements
• Focused practice for Low Back and Sacrum Therapy (23 minutes)
• Focused practice for Hip Therapy (30 minutes)
• Integrated practice for sustained low back Strength and Stability (31 minutes)

Review
Gary Kraftsow, founder, director and senior teacher of the American Viniyoga Institute, elevates the genre of yoga DVDs to a whole new level...Whether you endure back pain or not, these are some of the best yoga DVDs on the market. --Fit Yoga, December 2007

Review
Viniyoga master Gary Kraftsow developed protocols for a recent National Institutes of Health-sponsored study of treatment for back pain. This excellent two-DVD series is based on this work and on his 30 years of experience as a yoga therapist. The detailed instruction, gentle repetitive movements, and focus on moving with awareness and the breath make these ideal practices for a wide range of people, including those who may not have pain but can benefit from strengthening and stabilizing their backs. --Yoga + Joyful Living, Nov/Dec 2007

About the Actor
Gary Kraftsow, MA has been a pioneer in the transmission of yoga for health, healing and personal transformation for 30 years. He began his study of yoga in India with T.K.V. Desikachar in 1974 and received a Viniyoga Special Diploma from Viniyoga International in Paris, France in the mid-80s. Gary graduated with a BA, Magna Cum Laude, from Colgate University in 1976, and received his Masters Degree in Psychology and Religion from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1983. He spent many years in private yoga therapy practice, teaching workshops and training teachers. Since then, he has become a renowned speaker and teacher of the Viniyoga methodology at many conferences and schools nationally and internationally. In 1999 he founded American Viniyoga Institute. Gary has successfully developed protocol for two National Institute of Health studies: Evaluating Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain and Yoga Therapy for Generalized Anxiety. He is the Founder, Director and Senior Teacher of American Viniyoga Institute's Teacher and Therapist Trainings, and the author of two books published by Penguin: Yoga for Wellness and Yoga for Transformation.

Customer Reviews

Very understandable, very helpful
First, this is a high quality production. I mention that only because many yoga dvds are such low quality. Gary Kraftsow is a real pro -- the visual and voiced instructions by him are excellent. The theraputic advice is clear and to the point. He says in the intro that the only way to focus on each of these poses is to know what their purpose is, so the first section of the DVD is educational and informative, the second is a pose by pose description, and the third is three separate practices, about 30 minutes apiece.

Kraftsow also favors function over form -- a welcome relief from America's silly yoga Culture of Perfection. You do the poses to strengthen and heal your back, not to compete in some "pose off", a la Bikram Yoga.

Pose instruction is easy, and the poses are very basic, even for someone in the throes of back pain or who has never done any yoga before. The sessions are flow yoga style and there are three different workouts, focusing on different issues.

All in all, highly recommended. Namaste.

Relief without the Copays
After months of chronic pain in my low back, hip and sacrum, I am so thankful I found this viniyoga therapy. Within a week of doing the exercises daily, I regained strength and stability in my target areas, and am continuing to enjoy these benefits and increased mobility and flexibility.

Dedicating 30 minutes a day to this gentle practice has changed my perspective on the importance of self-care. Three weekly visits to the physical therapist, daily meds, regular massages and over $1000 in co-pays have not given me what Gary's simple, effective therapy can.

The DVD provides helpful information in a simple format. Take from it what you need (I recommend reviewing the educational information in the first sections to increase your understanding of this vital system in our bodies. For examle, you learn about how we need to contract, expand, and relax our muscles to enjoy full health in this area). In the exercise sections, Gary's slow, measured approach allows you to focus on your breath and healing postures to make the most of this self-care routine.

If you are looking for relief, you've found it.

Excellent yoga video for increasing mobility in the lower back and hips
This DVD focuses on issues of the lower body, specifically the lower back, hips, and sacrum (the other DVD in this series focuses on the upper body). It differs from other yoga media offerings in that it contains a strong educational component in addition to the practice element. Also, the practices offered on the DVD are designed for rehabilitation and strengthening, and thus they are more similar in feel to a physical therapy session than to a yoga class.

The main menu of this DVD consists of four separate segments: 1) Understanding Back Pain, 2) Technique Workshop, 3) Therapeutic Practices, and 4) Special Features. The Technique Workshop provides the opportunity to study individual postures in greater depth. The Viniyoga Therapeutic Practices offer three complete practice segments tailored to meet different needs as described below. (Note: the DVD also provides bonus MP3 audio versions of each practice.)

1. Lower Back Therapy (23 minutes). Gary recommends that you begin here, as this is the most gentle practice. The postures are performed entirely on the floor and provide very mild stretching of the lower back area.
2. Hip Therapy (31 minutes). This practice, while still gentle and centered on floor postures, focuses more on the hips. Unlike more traditional hip-opening sequences found in other yoga practices, the goal here is to stretch the hips from four perspectives (front, back, and each side).
3. Strength and Stability (32 minutes). This practice is the only one on the DVD to contain standing postures, and thus the intensity level is slightly higher than the other two. Gary notes that it is designed to build long-term health and fitness in the low back, sacrum, and hips.

The practices feature a single student working on a mat against a rather sparse white set, with Gary providing instruction via voiceover. Most people are likely to find the practices rather dry--Gary's voice is a big monotone and repetitive, and there's little "fun factor" here. However, these are therapeutic in nature, and as such, they are quite effective. Although I personally didn't get much out of the first two practices--mainly because the low back and hips aren't a problem area for me--I was pleasantly surprised by the third, as it nicely stretched out not only my lower back but also my upper back, shoulders, and entire torso. This DVD would be useful for virtually anyone who is at risk for lower back issues, from those who work at physical labor to those with more chronic conditions. I definitely recommend Viniyoga Therapy for Lower Back, Hips, and Sacrum as an excellent tool for alleviating pain and promoting health in the entire lower back area.