Baptiste Power of Yoga

Sherri Baptiste Freeman has put together a thorough, intermediate program that is very unique. It has a lot of dynamic flow into and out of the movements before they are held statically. The active Yoga practice is followed by a complete, guided meditation. Here is a breakdown of the Yoga sequence (the meditation part is not broken down here):

00:00 Intro

04:05 Samasthiti/Mountain

04:55 Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Salute): Exhale-Bend arms overhead and extend, Inhale-Extend arms overhead (several repetitions)

05:55 Arms Crossed w/ hands tucked in underarms

06:55 Fire and Earth (Prithvi Mudra):

extend arms forward. Touch tip of thumb to tip of ring finger. Bring hands to chest.

1. Inhale right arm out, exhale it in, Inhale left arm out, exhale in center (2x’s).

2. Inhale right arm out, gaze left, exhale back to center, inhale left arm out, gaze right, exhale back to center (2x’s).

3. Inhale both arms extended, exhale back to center (4x’s).

08:40 Victory Squats (Jyasana)

Step/jump about 1 leg length w/ feet turned out. Join thumb and ring finger together.

Inhale squat while opening arms outward, exhale extend up while bringing arms back to center (8x’s).

10:00 Yoga Mudra:

Interlace hands behind back.

Inhale Lift arms up, exhale-release (4 x’s)

10:45 Knee Bending and extension (while moving outwardly clasped hands forward and back)

Exhale rise and push palms forward, Inhale squat and bring hands back to chest. (6x’s)

11:33 Heaven and Earth

Inhale right palm up (look up), Exhale bring arm down, head back to center (alternate sides, 2x’s)

12:15 Ujjayi : Interlace fingers, hands under chin.

Inhale, elbows lift-lower chin (mostly level), Exhale (thru mouth) elbows lower, chin raised up (8x’s)

13:35 Forward Bend to Lunge w/ left leg back. While in lunge pump and extend leg back into heel.

14:20 Down Dog

15:00 Lunge right leg back while pumping and extending leg back into heel.

15:35 Forward Bend

15:45 Uttitta Parsvakonasana

Right leg lunge forward, Left arm on the ground, right arm to the sky gazing up at right hand …. Then repeat on other side

17:20 Standing Splits and Pigeon Pose

20:25 Cobra

21:20 Down dog to forward fold to

21:50 Parivritta Arda Chadra Virabhadrasana (Warrior Lunge palms together arms overhead to lunging prayer twist)

24:02 Locust Series

26:25 Tortoise Pose

26:55 Bow (first performed dynamically before holding)

27:37 Child’s Pose

28:00 Half Plank (Knees on ground w/ feet up toward sky, moving dynamically to childs pose)

28:50 Full Plank (on inhale) moving dynamically to Down Dog (on exhale) and then back.

29:55 Child’s Pose

30:15 Warrior 3 (balancing T-Pose)

31:40 Skater’s Pose (bent front leg w/other leg extended behind. Hands start forwards then bring behind back (shoulder"s distance apart), palms facing upward)

33:25 Butterfly Pose (straight front leg w/ rear leg extended, arms out to sides w/ palms facing down)

35:00 Warrior Series: Warrior 1 to Warrior 2 to reverse Warrior(looking up) to Reverse Warrior (looking over lower shoulder)

37:55 Half Moon (lunging w/ arms overhead, then bring clasped hands behind back into Yoga Mudra)

39:25 Extended Mountain to Forward Fold to Down Dog

39:46 Cat Stretch

40:50 Dynamic Forward Fold

41:35 V-Pose (Boat Variation…. Dynamic Navasana extending and then drawing legs inward)

42:37 Paripurna Navasana (“statically” held boat pose)

43:10 Purvottanasana Preparation

43:54 Purvottanasana (fingers pointing backwards)

44:45 Navasana (held)

45:35 Alternate knee to chest while bringing arms forward, then alternate straight leg, then both legs bent, then both legs straight)

48:10 Hold knees to chest

48:25 Lying spinal twist (both legs together to one side while looking to extended arm on the opposite side)

49:25 Archer Pose: (Hold right knee w/ both hands, left leg straight and raised, back is raised off the ground towards the bent leg… then reverse)

50:40 Bridge Pose

51:30 Wheel Pose (upward bow-Urdhva Dhanurasana)

52:05 Knees to chest

52:20 Reclining Lunge (Dead Bug Pose)

52:50 Savasana

55:50 Sukasana/Meditation

Let me start off by saying that at some points during this workout the filming is a little jerky. Not a biggy but for the money I paid at Amazon, I would have expected something a little more porfessional. It is a unique practise and IMHO, a good one

All in all, I did like this practise. There is quite a long warmup:

Standing in Tadasana

Urdhva Hastasana

Breath attention with stretching upper body

Prithvi Mudra (Fire & Earth),

Victory Squats (Jyasana)

Ujjayi pranayama,

heaven and earth

Yoga Mudra, etc.

Then on to standing poses, back poses, more standing poses, abdominal poses, relaxation and if you choose, a 20 minute meditation practise:

Moving Lunges

Uttihita Parsvakonasana

Standing Splits to Pidgeon Pose

down to cobra

Warrior I to Prayer Twist

Locust Series

Tortoise pose (Koormasana)Dhanurasana

Childs Pose

Half Plank

Full Plank

Childs Pose

Warrior III with 3 variations

Warrior Series

Cat stretch

V Pose to boat pose

table pose series

boat pose again

abdominal series

Spinal Twists

Back release series

bridge

Full Wheel

More back release

Corpse pose

Meditation

I may have missed a few poses. With the standing poses you are mostly doing a vinyasa before coming into them. Corpse pose is short and leads directly to the Meditation. If you don't want the meditation practise then turn off the DVD VHS and just relax in corpse.

I do like this practise and it is challenging. I find it very relaxing and the standing poses are invigorating. I feel quite good when done. This is not Power Yoga. It is not like Baron's yoga at all. So if you are expecting a fast paced practise you won't get it here. Sherri spends time with many of the poses by doing variations of them before you go into the full pose; preparatory and like a mini warm up. There are lots of Downward dogs to rest in.

There is much focus on the breath through this hatha yoga practise. Some woo-woo as well. This is an intermediate practise and could appeal as well to the advanced yogini.

This 55-minute workout by Sherri Baptiste, Baron Baptiste’s sister, is not very much like her brother’s workouts. Actually, I found it kind of boring. The workout includes breathing, lunges, balancing, warrior variations, and back and ab work. It didn’t really "flow" you just sort of go from one pose to the next. While I would not call this a bad workout, I honestly find nothing that would make me want to recommend it to anyone either.