VIDEO LIBRARIAN
REVIEW
Yoga Ma Baby Ga:Mama & Me Postnatal Yoga ***1/2
Jo Ann Colker Arison knows how much of a victory it is
for many new moms
just to manage a shower some days, let alone a workout. In this lovely,
adaptable 3-in-1 approach, viewers can select a 55-minute yoga lesson
aimed
at postpartum women, with a special emphasis on gently working the abdominal
muscles (many poses are adapted so babies can participate, too - in fact,
the instructor calls "Full Frog" the "Happy Baby"),
or viewers can choose a "baby only" section featuring bright
and colorful images - beach umbrellas, splashing water, multicolored balls,
other babies, etc. - accompanied by music ranging from "Itsy Bitsy
Spider" to Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus." Best of all, the
two individual programs can be combined in a "mom and baby"
version, which uses a picture-in-picture format to put the baby's bright
images on 3/4ths of the screen, with mom's workout appearing in the bottom
right-hand quarter (here, the smart juxtaposition of images of animals
with related poses - dogs for the "Down Dog" demonstration,
for example - offers mothers the opportunity to talk with babies about
the natural world while performing their yoga poses and stretches). Through
some familarity with yoga is assumed, beginners should be able to easily
follow along in this fine program for mothers hoping to start/maintain
a yoga program. Highly recommended. Aud: P. (R. Reagan)