Viniyoga Therapy for the Low Back, Sacrum & Hips with Gary Kraftsow
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.
Recommended by Reader's Digest! (February 2012 Reader's Digest : The 20 Tips Health Pros Beg You Not to Skip)
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70 of 74 found the following review helpful:
Go YogaMay 21, 2010
By Shreya Once regarded as simply an Eastern discipline, yoga is now a familiar part of the health and fitness scene. A recent national survey has found that nearly 16 million Americans currently practice yoga. Although many people are doing yoga to ease stress and improve their health, a growing number have specific medical goals in mind, such as getting rid of their back pain. But does it really work?
Well, according to a 2009 study in the journal Spine, yoga therapy CAN reduce pain and functional impairment in people with chronic low back pain. This condition can be difficult to treat, and not surprisingly, having a bad back is one of the most commonly reported reasons people are turning to alternative and complementary therapies like yoga.
With great videos like Viniyoga Therapy with Gary Kraftsow DVD 2-Pack [[ASIN:B000U0C9UE Viniyoga Therapy for the Low Back, Sacrum & Hips with Gary Kraftsow, you don't have to be enrolled in a study, or drag yourself to a class to get all the pain-relieving benefits of yoga. Just pop the DVD in, and you'll find the video divided up into some of these sections, such as...
-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.
Its set up pretty well. In a nutshell, they cover some facts about back pain, and then introduce you to the theory of yoga and some of the postures. Then, you can pick which area you want to focus on (like the low back), and you'll be slowly guided through a series of poses that will help get you stretched out and strengthened up. If you're worried about getting injured or hurt, don't be. All the poses are pretty gentle, and the stretches can be as mild as you want them to be. And the music and verbal instructions are quite soothing.
So if you think you'd like to try yoga to take a bite out of your back pain, this would be a good choice. If yoga's not your thing, books like Treat Your Own Spinal Stenosis offer some pretty good exercises too.
54 of 56 found the following review helpful:
Thorough and helpfulApr 01, 2008
By Patty This is not a flashy pretty video, but a low budget production. Don't let that put you off. No waterfalls or new age music here. Host Gary Kraftsow sold me when he mentioned he conducted a study for the NIH linking back pain relief with this specialized yoga that was later mentioned in the Annals of Internal Medicine. That gives his method some credibility. I'm just starting these postures and they seem to work. I am getting some relief. This DVD is in several manageable parts. Part one covers causes of back pain and some physiology and is surprisingly interesting. Next there is a detailed section of all the poses. If you practice yoga already you may not need this stuff. The real meat of the DVD is the 3rd section with 2 separate short workouts and a third part that is longer with strengthening poses. He recommends starting with the 2 short practices before moving to the strenghtening postures. Good advice because I tried the strengthening poses ahead of schedule and it was a little painful. I started over a few days later with the easier 'aligning' practice and I'm back in business. I am feeling better after just a few days. These poses are deceptively easy. They gently get the muscles back where they need to be. It makes sense. I would recommend this DVD to fellow back pain sufferers.
206 of 238 found the following review helpful:
Very understandable, very helpfulSep 13, 2007
By Merope 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.
45 of 49 found the following review helpful:
Love Yoga, wanted so much to love Viniyoga!Jan 01, 2011
By apples2apples I bought this DVD in 2008, and have tried it from time to time as my physical circumstances have changed. I bought this based on the wonderful reviews, and the fact that it was therapy for the low back, sacrum, and hips. I was in 2 bad car accidents in my 20's, and fractured my spine 6 years ago when I wiped out after hitting a patch of wet mud while biking. The result, after I'd healed enough to move around, was that I was left with considerable chronic pain in my lower back, and if I walk for any time at all, my hips get very painful. Prior to the accident I walked 7 miles per day, and rode my bike 10. Afterwards, I found myself unable to do any real exercise at all - not wanting to let my physical condition continue to deteriorate, I was looking for a gentle form of exercise.
Some forms of yoga have been great when I was in good shape, so I thought I'd give Viniyoga a try 6 months after the accident. What I found was that it caused me more pain in my lower back, and I felt as though my muscles went into spasm that lasted quite a long time. Instead of opening up my hips or pelvis area, I felt more locked up. I do have to say that if my injuries hadn't been as severe, this DVD has real potential - so I'll keep it, hoping I'll get to the point where I can use it.
A little more than a year after the accident, and some physical therapy behind me, I tried again. This time I still found my back hurt while doing the workout, esp the exercises done while lying on my back. I've decided to wait awhile, try a little more therapy before doing Viniyoga. I also had my physical therapist look at the video, and he felt it was good, and well worth hanging onto for use further down the road.
I definately don't want to give up on this program because I do think it's a very good program, but I did want to review this for people who might find themselves in a similar position. Both to let them know it's a good program, and not to give up if it's painful at first.
What this program offers which others I've looked at don't, is a really good understanding of how yoga can be utilized to stregthen the back, and get it back in condition. An excellent presentation on how to perform the various postures. And then the postures/exercises are broken down into different segments based on the areas one might need to concentrate on the most. For example, after so much time w/o any significant exercise, I very much need to stregthen my core, especially my lower abdomen, and all of my back muscles. When I exercise my back now it goes into spasm - which is pretty excrutiating - ever get a foot cramp? LOL Imagine that in your back, and I can't get out of it myself! Yikes it hurts!
Anyway, I know this is a DVD I'll hang on to until I can do exercises w/o inducing more pain. And, until then, I wanted to suggest an alternative for those who find themselves in the same position I'm in, as well as those who would like an excellent core training DVD - the only one I've found that I can do at this point. It was suggested by a friend who's a pilates instructor, and it's the one DVD I'm finding offers significant healing from my injury. It's called Core Training for Belly Dancers by Gerson Kuhr ... he goes by another name based on a show he was in, but it escapes me at present - you can ck out the link if you're interested. Core Training for Belly Dancers I've been using it now for a little over 2 months, and I can feel the improvement in my abdominal muscles - which I know are imperitive to a strong back. I can also feel improvement in my back - lower back in particular. It's been worth the $30 price tag!
44 of 49 found the following review helpful:
Boring exercises but supremely effectiveApr 16, 2009
By Gen of North Coast Gardening Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1JAL4GSG9Y2TU I hate doing this yoga DVD because the exercises are so boring and the narrator's voice drones. But I return to it time and time again, because it's the only thing besides a Chiropractor visit which fixes my hips and gets me aligned and ready to work again. It is extremely effective.
Suck it up, buy the DVD, and use it regularly, and your hips will thank you.
based on 113 reviews
( 113 customer reviews )
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