Entering “The No OM Zone”

12 Jun, 2012 By: Angelique Flores

I recently went on a Kimberly Fowler yoga kick. I pulled out her Yoga + Weights and The No OM Zone yoga workouts.

Kimberly is great for newbie yoga practitioners and for those, like me, who just want the straightforward basics. “There’s no chanting, no granola and no Sanskrit,” she says about her ongoing agenda in the DVD insert.

Yoga + Weights was right up my alley. The 30-minute session is just that: yoga with hand weights. Adding the dumb bells pushes the yoga practice to the next level. I prefer more intense workouts such as this because I feel like I’m maximizing the time I spend doing them. And I’m one of those who doesn’t feel like I got a workout unless I got a good sweat out of it.

I appreciate Kimberly’s simple, no-nonsense approach to yoga. She’s easy to understand and follow. She also has a quick Q&A section for a deeper understanding of the workout in order to best maximize it.

The No OM Zone is a little different. It has an upper body, lower body and core workouts that are each 15 minutes. This DVD comes with introductions for each section as well as a general intro that offer a number of helpful tips for beginners. It’s the perfect disc to get your feet wet with yoga. Her goal here seems to be to present yoga in an accessible, adaptable way so that everyone will be able to find something they like about yoga and stick with it. I think she’s pretty successful.

The No OM Zone is low stress and highly flexible (no pun intended) in various ways. For example, she plays no music so that you can play your own music that inspires you. (Yoga + Weights does this as well.) Also, the poses are held for a short amount of time so that you can pause only the ones that you want to hold for longer.

While I really dig Kimberly’s down-to-earth approach, I’m a bit too lazy for all the adjusting. I don’t want to play DJ nor do I want to stop in the middle of my downward dog to press pause. I want to be able to zone out and just follow.

Entering “The No OM Zone”

About the Author: Angelique Flores