I gave this review 3 stars because this DVD has a major positive and a major negative. First, the positive: The teacher, her delivery, and her technique are really, really good - easy to follow and well explained. The negative is that the DVD contains upfront advertising that you must watch (I can't even fast forward through it) every time you want to follow the DVD. It irritates me so much that I mostly use the pamphlet that accompanied the DVD.

I found Yoga for Beginners with Patricia Walden at a yard sale for fifty cents and grabbed it. I like exercising to different DVD's, and I felt lucky to find this yoga DVD. Well, I couldn't deal with this one. It contains far too much talking and far too little action. I turned it off after about twenty minutes and threw it away.

I am purchasing this video for the second time. I gave my first copy to a friend. The yoga instruction in this DVD is superior. I was very surprised to see that it had a three star rating. The main complaints in the negative reviews focused on the exact things that you want in a beginning yoga lesson: The detailed description of poses, the concern for proper alignment, slow pace and the use of props. Methodical instruction and extended, slow poses are good in yoga. Patricia Walden does have a gentle and relaxing demeanor, also good in a yoga instructor. The poses are very effective for flexibility and form the basis of any good yoga practice. I have several yoga dvd's, and this one is definitely the best.

I received this as a gift and was excited to start up doing some yoga again, as I'd taken a class before several years back. Unfortunately this was all talk and the instructor was practically comatose. It was so incredibly slow that I got mad enough that I turned it off. No thank you.

This was my first yoga DVD purchase. Although it has it's good points, it' just not really what I was looking for. Here are some main points I noticed about it:
1. It emphasizes alignment to help you do the posture correctly.
2. It is very slow...some people may like this aspect, but for me it was too slow. There is so much emphasis on getting everything right that the whole practice seems like it takes a long time.
3. They emphasize the use of props.
4. The back of the case does not mention that the basis for this DVD is Iyengar yoga, which tends to be rather slow and gentle and emphasizes alignment (as said above).
5. If you need extra info on a particular pose, you can go to a place on the DVD that will explain it for a minute and then go back to where you were.
6. There are 2 sections of asanas: the first is the long drawn out explanation of all the poses. The 2nd is the poses being done without any verbal cuing or instruction and is relatively fast.

If you are interested in slow, gentle yoga this may be a good place to start. I personally am more drawn to other types.