Yoga for Core Strength? (Read 2105 times)

I have some core-specific workouts that I like (primarily Cathe Friedrich stuff), but after a while of doing the same 3-4 workouts over and over and over I get bored, then find myself making excuses not to do them.  Crunches and planks get boring, even if they incorporate balance balls, medicine balls, and free weights for variety.

I know a lot of folks do yoga and I'm a fan of DVD workouts (especially as the weather starts to turn to crap in a couple of months).  Does anyone have specific videos to recommend?  I'm eyeballing this one...the reviews look good and it looks like it has a good variety and ability to pre-mix segments.  Any other suggestions?  

I definitely want to work on my overall flexibility and core strength, especially as we're entering cyclocross season.  Repeatedly lifting my bike to run up steps, hills, and over obstacles is using a whole new set of muscles and my lower back is a bit achey and weak feeling after yesterday's race (particularly because I am short and I have to lift my bike that much higher relative to my waist, because of my stupid squatty legs).  I'm suspecting that yoga or something similar would be just the thing to give me strength on and off the bike during these events (which use an entirely different muscle set than running and road riding...probably pretty similar to mountain-biking requirements).

Ahhh...I like the idea of doing upper body 1 day/week and lower another day.  Definitely up for consideration.

If you belong to Netflix, try ordering some of the yoga DVDS you think you're interested in and take a look before you go out and plunk down your hard-earned $$.

Another idea is to try your local library.  The county I live in has a GREAT program where the entire catalog of every library in the county, including DVDs, music, etc., is available online.  You can request any item in the catalog to be sent, free of charge, to the library of your choice for pickup.  Usually takes a few days.  I don't know if you have anything like that available to you, but it's a wonderful resource, and there is an amazingly large variety of high-quality modern yoga DVDs, not just a few 1960s-era leftovers or PBS-type shows.  This would be another way to determine if a particular DVD is one you want to purchase.

if you are looking very specifically for yoga focusing on core strength, you might look for things by Rodney Yee--I believe he has a couple specifically oriented this way, and I find his style quite agreeable. 

Darn, just looked online to see what I might be able to get through the library and there is very little in the entire system.  Just a few really novice-level DVDs and some specialized ones for pregnancy and people with fibromyalgia.  That's pretty much it.

I go to corepower yoga here in Denver and it's great.  They also have on-demand yoga classes through their site, corepoweryoga.com might be worth checking out

Cool...I didn't even think about the online options, though I don't have a laptop and there isn't room where my computer is to do anything without burning to DVD, first.

 I regularly practice with www.yogatoday.com for the last 4/5 years. They have three teachers with three different styles. They have both a paid and unpaid subscriptions.

Oh, that's neat...individual workouts appear to be $4/download.  I'm definitely going to check these out--looks like there are some running and cycling-specific workouts, too.

 yes, and they have a 'Light Practice' category in the Community>Blog section. They are very help too.

I know it is cheesy, but have you tried searching Youtube? I have found a couple excersizes that I like, just to change things up. Good luck!