Zuzka Power Yoga Series In Depth Review

I got the Zuzka Light Power Yoga Series 1 DVD in the mail today. I was super excited!
I did the yoga workout at home this morning.

Here's my in depth review:

First I want to start off by saying that I am in fact a yoga instructor myself.

True yoga instructors are going to have a field day picking apart this DVD.

If you are not familiar with yoga you most likely will have a hard time following along as you will not know the poses such as Down Dog, Up Dog, Chatarunga, Crescent Pose, Warrior III, 1/2 Moon, etc, etc.

I found some basic things wrong with the yoga workouts on the DVD:
Not enough emphasis on the breath
No modifications whatsoever (Zuzka is usually great at this)
Many of the postures were done too quickly to feel them properly or get into them properly
Zuzka also said things like take your arm, or your leg, but never said take your right arm, or left leg.... When switching sides she would just say - take your other arm - I found this a bit odd and sometimes made it hard to follow. Naming what side of the body we were on would have been better.

 The DVD runs a little over 50 minutes and it was broken down into several mini workouts rather than one flowing class.

The break down is as follows:
introduction, warm-up, crescent series, balance plyo series, upper body plyo series, chair series, warrior endurance series, cool down and bonus abs series.

The introduction was just that, Zuzka doing an intro of the DVD itself.
The warm-up was okay - great for the arms and the low back, but there was no warm-up for the legs at all.
The crescent series was pretty good - a good workout for the legs.
The balance and plyo series was a great routine, but too fast. Zuzka would transition from warrior three to half moon to twisted half moon, which is great sequence, but you need to hold each posture a little bit longer in order to get any benefit out of it. She did not give you enough time to adjust your limbs enough to get into the pose.
Your upper body plyo series was great. It was fun, some practice of handstand prep. It again was just a little too fast.
The chair series was the hardest one of all with lots and lots of "yoga burpees." I couldn't keep up as my quads and especially my hip flexors were on fire. Hip flexors are an odd place to have lactic acid buildup and I didn't enjoy that part of it, but I did love the intensity of that series.
The warrior endurance series was pretty good -  the most yoga like part of the DVD.
Her cool down was just okay. She just spinal twists and one bridge.  I would've preferred some more back bending here as well as some hip openers.
She did not do any hip or hamstring stretches at all, and would have been especially beneficial in the cool down series.
The bonus ab series focused on one move which in my opinion would bother a lot of people's lower backs. She also said things like, 'we're doing 10 reps.' Typically you do not count 'reps' in yoga. LOL.

All and all though I would do the DVD again I didn't think it was a waste of money I would probably press the pause button next time to slow it down a little bit during a couple of the routines.
I thought it was fun and it was a great workout, I was definitely sweating.

At $8.99 for the DVD plus shipping, it was not expensive - less than one yoga class in my area, so well worth it. :)