Knowhow-Now Article

For Some People, Learning Yoga On CD ROM Is A Stretch

As if to lend weight to my contention that your computer can, in theory, teach you anything, along comes a pair of CD-ROMs called Wellness Yoga and Shiatsu Relaxation.

Lithe young women demonstrate these ancient Eastern techniques while mellow-voiced narrators speak over somnambulant music, the better to relax you and make you all well.

Most of us are familiar at least with the concepts of yoga, its slow stretching exercises and its often almost unattainable physical positions. Wellness Yoga is a nicely designed program that packages 74 asanas, or positions, into several packages such as the Quick and Easy Course, the Beauty Course and the Health Course.

The program consists largely of what it calls procedure screens, in which each position is demonstrated in one window while described textually in another. A narrator reads that same text aloud. In addition to the usual tape-recorder buttons to pause, stop and restart the action, there is a graph that displays the approximate duration of each segment of the routine.

The practical difficulties of using this CD-ROM are fairly obvious. The manual, dragged kicking and screaming into English from its Japanese roots, advises the user to First practice forming the pose while watching the screen and try memorizing the whole procedure.'' This, unless you have a 24-inch monitor or keep your monitor on the floor, is likely to be difficult. Clearly the actual learning of the poses could be more readily done with a videotape.

On the other hand, you can hunt around in the CD-ROM, choose from the positions you want to learn, and collect them into personal groups. And maybe you've got a really big monitor, and a cordless, long-distance mouse.

This is a nice program, well-made and instructive. My only complaint is that it does not emphasize clearly enough that unless you are as slender as the model executing the poses, you are not going to be able to do many of them -- the Crow, the Heron and the Frog, for instance -- correctly. On the other hand, we can all do the Corpse.

Shiatsu Relaxation, which teaches a massage technique clearly related to acupuncture, is another kettle of fish.

The theory is that rubbing, kneading or poking specific points on the body, called acupressure points, will make other parts of the body feel better. I am not prepared to argue that premise, but the entire procedure seems shiatsu yourself is not clear, either; the program initially suggests you find some of your own more accessible pressure points, but they are not all available to your own hands and all the demonstrations show one person ministering to another.

Comments
Order by: 
Per page:
 
  • There are no comments yet
   Comment Record a video comment
 
 
 
     
Related Articles
Bodyweight training exercises are almost equipment-free and can be used in any situation; for example, at the gym or in your garage at home. You will be amazed at the effectiveness of these bodyweight exercises shown on our pages.
15.09.2016 · From Editor
There's a good reason that you're not seeing your body shape up the way that you want it to. You have to follow a nutritionally sound eating plan along with an appropriate exercise program
20.04.2016 · From spanglers
Ideally personal training should include a) of course exercise b) diet and c) nutrition. It is a perfect blend of these vital measures that help you benefit from personal training. And one must f...
17.04.2016 · From seomanual
If you get stressed up with life, or worse, if you suffer with depression then there's something that you might want to try: meditation. We can't avoid stress or depression but we can learn to manage them. Yoga is a great way to manage depression!
22.03.2016 · From Sophie_Addison
Modern living is fatiguing. Who doesn't want to feel better in their everyday life? Well, Yoga has an answer for you. Here's how to use Yoga to reduce your fatigue and feel better about life. Best yet, it need not even take much time! Check out our yoga tips!
29.02.2016 · From Editor
Ads
Article Info
741 Views
0 Subscribers
All Articles by alayalewis
Sharing Is Good!
Rate
0 votes