.jpg "Utkatasana (chair pose)")
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Lucia Cockcroft enjoys actress Leah Bracknell's well-constructed, realistic yoga DVD, Yoga & You.
To any fans of the British soap Emmerdale, the name Leah Bracknell will be familiar as the actress playing vet and landowner Zoe Tate.
But anyone wary of 'celebrity' products should not be deterred, not least because Bracknell is a qualified and practising yoga teacher. Yoga & You DVD is enjoyable and well-constructed.
Equally importantly, and unlike so many yoga DVDs available now: it is accessible to almost everyone, especially able-bodied beginners looking for a good introduction to yoga.
The marketing literature states that the programme is designed for people of all ages and levels of fitness - beginners as well as more experienced practitioners. And for once the statement is true.
Filmed on location in Ibiza, the programme is divided into five sections: Awakening, Taking Control, Inner Strength, Finding Balance and Tranquillity.
I had a few problems navigating from one section to another, but will put this down to a temperamental laptop rather than any intrinsic technical issue with the DVD.
Perhaps helped by her life as an actress, Bracknell has a good 'yoga voice' - clear and gentle. In a brief introduction she talks of how yoga can calm the mind, tone the body and increase strength and suppleness.
She is also careful to make the practice relevant, mentioning that, in a busy life balancing work with bringing up two children, setting aside time to do yoga represents a moment's escape from the busyness of everyday life.
Breath and movement as one
Throughout the DVD, there is a continual thread of emphasis on the breath, and combining movement with breath. Through mostly gentle sequences, or vinyasas, Bracknell encourages the student to 'try to feel the movements coming from within' - slow movements, with the breath.
The first sequence, from Mountain Pose (Tadasana), begins with a deceptively simple arm movement, inhaling and brining the arms over the head; exhaling, floating the arms back by the sides of the body.
These movements reminded me very much of the viniyoga approach - fluid, slow, with an enduring focus on the breath and movement as one.
This breath/movement relationship may be simple - but, as the pivotal yoga technique, I am amazed at how often it is omitted, especially by some celebrity-lead DVDs, where near-impossible asanas propelled by the teacher's ego can take precedence over imparting the essence of the practice.
Some experienced practitioners may find the pace of this DVD a little slow; for this reason, it is particularly suitable for beginners, older people and those with a few years' experience.
This said, there is always, always, value in slowing down and revising familiar asanas - and one of the joys of this DVD is its unhurried pace, conducive to relaxation.
I also valued the way Bracknell encourages the viewer to take continual note of how they are feeling in a given shape. Her soothing instructions to 'enjoy the shape and feeling tone of the body' and 'allow the shape to come from within' were a welcome reminder that yoga is not just, or even mainly, about easing the body into shapes on a mat.
More importantly, it's about connecting to how we are, to how we feel - physically and mentally - at any given moment.
Many of the sequences in this DVD are performed dynamically, with the breath, rather than holding the asana for a long period of time.
Again, this makes the DVD especially suited to older people and those who are less experienced, though a few of the vinyasas - such as the pigeon sequence - were surprisingly challenging.
The background set is exotic, though not over-the-top, and the sequences are led by Bracknell, who is framed in the near background by two others.
For those wishing to go deep into technical explanations of asana, or to perfect challenging back-bends or inversions, this is not likely to be the DVD for you.
But as an introduction to yoga, aid to an existing practice, or simply to take some time out to relax, I would recommend Yoga & Yoga wholeheartedly.