Overview: This video is titled Budokon: Beginning Practice, and is intended to introduce the principles of budokon: the combination of yoga, martial arts and meditation. It is ideal for people with little space, and requires no equipment (except for an optional yoga mat)
About Myself: I am a former advanced exerciser who took a whole year to slide all the way back to low intermediate, especially in cardio.
The Workout: First off, I had a beef with the fact that it's a Gaiam video...which of course means no ff or skipping past the commercial at the beginning. But, once you finally get to it, the menu has three options, the pose guide, the long workout (35 min) and the short workout (28 min). I did not look at the pose guide because I have some yoga and some martial arts experience (I'm sadly out of practice in both, however). The long and the short workout are THE SAME WORKOUT. It's just that the long workout has more instruction and a 4 minute introduction. Admittedly, it's nice to be able to condense your workout to under 30 min, but don't think that you are getting two separate workouts.
There are three people on set, with Cameron Shayne leading, and one person (the girl on the left) modifying. The set is a brick studio that is saved from being dingy by the nice light-colored wood floors. The music is not intrusive, but fairly blah.
Shayne does not mirror cue, which isn’t too bad in the yoga, but can be confusing in the martial arts part. I ended up just mirroring him anyway, because it’s really confusing to me when he turns right and I turn left.
The Yoga Part: The yoga was mostly sun salutationesque, with some warriors thrown in. Shayne tells you to watch the modifier if you are truly a beginner, but the camera does not show her too often.
The Kick/Punch Part: You do all of the exercises on one side, and then all of the exercises on the other. He started with the punches, and then moved to the kicks. I wore a heart rate monitor, but my heart rate never got very high, I think the highest was in the 130’s. He worked up a huge sweat, and was even panting a little. I have a feeling he put WAY more into it than I did J Oh, and Shayne’s form was beautiful to watch. If you want to know how to execute a great punch or a kick, watch this guy.
The Meditation Part: I’m not much of a meditation person, and this was a very short, standing practice, kind of like a cool down while standing in place.
The Instructor: Cameron Shayne is very calm, doesn’t chatter, and has great form. I really enjoy his instructing style.
So overall, this was a fun little workout, one that I would reach for when I need a half hour workout on my recovery days, but I am disappointed about the fact that I thought I was getting two half hour workouts, when I really was only getting one.
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