Yourself Fitness Yoga - McDonald's

Other than it being animated/virtual, it's actually a nice collection of short 15 min yoga routines for the money(free!). this is the yoga dvd that comes with the mcdonald's 'go active' adult happy meal (salad and water and dvd). I've only previewed the routines but think I will probably try doing them without looking at the screen too much since 15 min is a good time frame and the routines have some pretty nice poses in them. the scenery is nice if you can overlook the fact that it's 'fake' too!

skip the advertisement from mcdonald's or you'll get hungry. ticks me off I have to fast forward through this but oh well that's the price of 'free' I guess and about as annoying as the Firm commercials.

The menu gives you 2 choices:

Ease Me Into It and I'm up for a Challenge. Ease me into it has 2 routines: flexible and stress relief. challenge has 3 - stress relief (same as the ease me into it stress relief), balance, and strength.

first off, the sun salutations are modified to be easier but none of them show the more common modificaion (IMO) of going to the knees for the pushup(crocodileI think they call it here) and cobra for updog). all the poses are done slowly (at least from watching) and I really like how the pose is writtenat the bottom of the screen and the next pose is shown coming across the bottom so you know what's coming up. really a nice feature that I like having (guess I'l have to watch after all!) there's a pause before each pose but I'm used to this with Yoga for Every Body.

flexible routine:

mountain pose

sun salutation II (done 3x)

forward bend, downdog, child's pose, plank, pushup, upward dog, downdog, forward bend, back up.

forward fold

monkey(forward foldlifted up to a flat back)

downdog

cat/cow pose few times

pigeon left and right (done reclining with one knee bent and ankle of other foot placed over leg and pulled towards chest)

seated forward bend

seated straddle (wide legged forward bend)

bridge (shoulders on floor butt lifted)

lying down spinal twist

knees to chest rock and twist to side

corpse pose

stress relief:

sun salutations II (2 x same as above)

cat/cow pose

butterfly

seated straddle

rest (here she stands for some stupid reason just to sit down again..no reason to stand)

child's pose arms extended

half knot pose - (child's pose with one arm extended and other hand reaching under opposite shoulder to stretch)

rest (again she stands up just to sit again)

knees to chest (lying down)

modified pigeons reclining

knees to chest again

lying down spinal twist

savasana)think it's longer than the other one

balance:

mountain pose

Sun salutation I (arms up, forward fold, flat back (monkey), fold down step to downdog, plank, pushup(crocodile), cobra, plank,downdog, plank, pushup, cobra, plank, downdog, forward fold, flat back, forward fold, arms up, mountain) done 2x

chair

crescent lunge both sides(looks like warrior I but back foot not flat on floor and bend back some)

warrior I both sides

extended angle both sides

warrior III both sides

dancer both sides

tree both sides

mountain

no savasana in this one

strength:

mountain pose

sun salutationII - 3x

sun salutation I

half moon both sides

rest (dont get up!)

plank of forearms

side plank (shows knee down version)

plank

rest (don't get up!)

knees to chest and twist

relaxation

I've already mentioned wishing there was a real person here but the 'good' parts are the notice of what pose is coming up, nice 'fake' scenery, good music, 'she' says when to inhale and exhale, she's dressed in exercise attire and 'covered'! nice music too IMO.