Dynamic Flow Yoga

Daily Fit Tips

I have a new love hate relationship with one of my Beachbody workouts. It is called Dynamic Flow Yoga. It is one of the additional programs that can be purchased for ChaLean Extreme. It is just under forty minutes, so it is quite a bit shorter than P90X Yoga X. I think Chalene was trying to make this workout as grueling as Yoga X though. She designed it to be done with weighted gloves!

I have never heard of doing yoga with weighted gloves, and I did not know what to expect so I did my first round without the gloves. I think I will actually go through another round without adding the weight.

Chalene combines yoga and pilates. I liked the focus she puts on breathing. This is one of the things that I think was missing in P90X Yoga X. Tony would remind you to breathe, but if you are new to yoga, you have no clue as to when to breathe in or out.

I felt like I was playing my P90X dvd when we starting going from plank, to chattaranga, to upward facing dog, to downward facing dog….move the right foot up between your hands and into warrior 1. That was really the only time I smiled during this routine.

There was one fantastic back stretch that was new to me. You lay face down similar to superman in P90X Synergistics, but you have your arms and legs wide forming an X shape. Then, you pull your arms back like a parchute jumper does in a jump and bend your knees while pulling up your legs and crossing your feet at the ankles. Every muscle in your back is stretched. Nice.

Each exercise seemed to have a standard yoga element (i.e. warrior 1 or warrior 2) modified with pilates breathing and arm movements challenged your shoulder, rotator cuff, and tricep muscles. I felt my shoulders even without the added weight.

If you have P90X but not ChaLean Extreme, I recommend getting this add on routine to supplement or occassionally replace your Yoga X routine. It will give you some additional variety, keep you stretched, and not beat up on you like 92 minutes of Tony style power yoga can do.

This is definitely a tougher routine than the Recharge yoga workout that comes with the basic program. I cannot really compare it Tony’s One on One Patience Hummingbird. The styles are totally different.

I do think that when it comes to yoga, it is a good idea to have a few workouts on hand. Variety in your flexibility routines is as important to consistency and results as having variety in your strength, core, and cardio training.