"Yoga for Martial Arts" produced by Grapplearts, who have very quickly become one of my favourite producers of instructionals for martial arts. This one is slightly different in that it contains no submissions, no strikes and no techniques as such. What it does have is top notch yoga instruction targeted at martial artists in general and grapplers in particular.
Stephan Kesting brought in yoga expert Josephine Krizovensky to help him with this DVD and she is an excellent instructor. She demonstrates every movement required as well as describing them clearly so that you don't necessarily need to be looking at the screen after getting the movements down. Stephan also gives those of us with less than yogic flexibility a break by giving an easier version of each position that Josephine guides us through.
Yoga for Martial Arts if anything has even better video and sound quality than I have come to expect and the shot transitions and audio are nothing less than perfect. The music is also well chosen and changes often enough that it never becomes irritating and it never compromises the rest of the audio.
You are taken through a series of exercises hitting your core, overall flexibility, breathing and mobility. I got the most benefit from the breathing exercises (one of which you may have seen Rickson Gracie doing in the documentary "Choke") and the hip openers but there is something in here for virtually everyone.
It is well worth watching the introduction as Stephan goes over the applications of yoga for the martial arts and goes on to demonstrate some of the crossovers of the yoga positions that have been chosen. While I wouldn't recommend doing this workout just before a fight or sparring (see our Magnificent Mobility review for what you should be doing) following Yoga for martial arts two to three times a week will definitely improve both your dynamic and static flexibility.
I really can't think of anything wrong with this DVD at all, its 69 minutes long and can be taken as one long workout, including breathing exercises, or broken into its component parts for shorter sessions. It's also on sale at the moment at www.grapplearts.com so you really can't go wrong. Definitely two gloved thumbs up for this one.
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