Product Description

Christa Rypins and her students lead you through simple, fun movements that gently relax the hips, lower back, shoulders, upper back and neck. Yummy Yoga consists of two 20 minute segments- one for the lower body and the other for the upper body. Christa's innovative approach to easing tightness and pain combines yoga and somatics (a system of neuromuscular re-education) to help relieve lower back pain and many other discomforts.

Complete and easy-to follow for beginners, Yummy Yoga is a valuable addition to the routines of experienced yoga students and athletes alike. With Yummy Yoga, you too can experience the joy of free and painless movement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48268 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-12-12
• Formats: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 60 minutes

Yoga Journal, May/June 2001
"Rypins, is an excellent instructor with a lively style, and the exercises are nicely modeled. Highly effective core practice."

American Fitness, May/June 2001
"Everyone can benefit from Rypins' unique workout. The seemingly simple movements provide relief to choronically tight and sore muscles."

From the Actor
Creating this video was as nurturing and health giving as I hope doing it will be.

Customer Reviews

Yummy
I have found more levels of release working with this video than with other forms of Yoga (either video, or group instruction format) I have tried in the past. The video "Yummy Yoga" demonstrates the individual exercises clearly, when necessary shows nice graphics clarifying which muscles to use, and provides just the right pacing for me to exercise with the presentation.

Now, after some weeks of working with the video, I have found new ease in breathing, moving, and relaxing.

I have found subtlety and lightness and a pleasure in being. . . obviously so in the physical world of my passion sculling . . . rowing is now waves of relaxation, breath and work. Oh how my whole body loves to move that boat! thank you, yummy yoga.

and more, less obvious . . . my relationships are transformed, softer, more subtle, more informed by awareness.

The joy and fluidity in breathing and moving which i have experienced as a result of actually working with this presentation is most definitely, 'yummy'.

effective, but not really yoga
... unless you cound the emphasis on the use of the breathe, that is. I found it helped my tight shoulder muscles, and relaxed me enourmously. can't really say the same about my back yet, I find more relief doing a regular yoga workout to stretch out my tight back. Just to clarify and so noone will feel ripped off, this is not yoga. It's a series of gentle contraction/extension movements that teach one how to relax tight muscles. And it does work, my trapezius is more relaxed right now after doing some simple movements at my desk. So it was worth it just for that. There's also a great relaxation session at the end.

The other good thing about this video - from a purely pragmatic p.o.v. - is that you can probably do it soon after eating (unless you've really pigged out, that is) unlike yoga where you have to wait a couple of hours at least.

A beautiful therapeutic slow moving yoga practice
AKA Somatic Yoga. It is a slow moving yoga (see "Somatics" by Thomas Hanna). In this practice you contract your muscles and then release. The emphasis is on the release and letting go of muscular tension. You do not hold the postures and stretch the muscles like in traditional hatha yoga practice. It definitely helps with the release of tightness throughout your body and is more of a neurological workout than an aerobic workout.

There are two parts to this practice and both are performed on the floor (no standing postures). One is for the lower body and one for the upper body. I love the upper body work out. Part of this practice is contacting and releasing of your shoulder blades and wringing out from arm to arm. This is absolutely yummy! Christa Rypins has a very pleasant voice and at the end leads you though a body awareness relaxation. The whole practice is about an hour long. There is pleasant light music in the background.

The students are in a circular pattern and a lot of the filming is from straight above, so it is quite beautiful to watch. It is true as the other reviewer mentioned that you need to look up quite a bit to learn the movements. I think once you practice several times you'll get the hang of it (it's quite different than traditional yoga) and you'll be able to follow her queues quite easily.

I would highly recommend this DVD to people with chronic pain, muscle tightness and stress, recovering from surgery or an accident, carpel tunnel syndrome, or anyone looking to improve their body/mind connection. This practice will help to reeducate your neuromuscular system.

I would recommend this as an early morning practice to get your body moving or end of the day to release tension. I am using the DVD after breast cancer surgery and it is very therapeutic since I am not able to do my regular yoga practice. I think even intermediate yogis would benefit from this practice to add some variation and complement their invigorating yoga practice.

Please check my multitude of other yoga DVD reviews on Amazon. Nameste'