YOGIC ARTS: AWAKENING LEVEL

Duncan's long anticipated DVD is a must buy for those of us who love an athletic, flowing yoga practice. I had take a weekend workshop with Duncan in Spring of 2004. I was a sometimes yogi with 10 years of capoeira. I had been occasionally sidelined with wrist and shoulder injuries that brought me to crosstrain in yoga to improve my strength and endurance. I was so thrilled with Duncan's style that I followed him that Summer to Chicago for teacher training. I try to take a "live" class with him any time he comes through S. Florida. His Thai adjustments in class are the best. I would go easy with the DVD unless you have a regular, vigorous yoga practice.

Duncan Wong is not for the closed minded as his outfit is simple to the point of distracting and he's energy is intense. That aside, he is hands down the best Yoga teacher I've encountered and I've tried a little of everything. He keeps you on you toes with his smooth flowing pace and repetitions (instead of just focus breathe and wait for a yoga miracle) and he in pirate martial arts and massage techniques in the mix. When I was finished the first time I knew I was addicted because of how much tension was released! Try this DVD, no regrets.

An extremely well conceived series of movements from the practitioner's disciplines of Yoga, Gung Fu and Thai massage. Yoga poses provide the framework over which are presented martial arts movements and joint mobility drills. Yoga-binds and contortions are used to simulate the muscular traction of Thai massage. The only reason I didn't give the product 5 stars is because each movement group is presented independently, so that when one follows along through the workout, there are small starts and stops that I find a little bit distracting. However, the movements have such intrinsic merit and are otherwise so well presented that I would recommend this video to anyone interested in augmenting their yoga practice. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, that I immediately purchased the next DVD in the series and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

The Good: A fresh perspective on yoga with some unique segments and alterations. Wrist therapy section was inventive. Subtle integration of yoga with martial arts and thai massage. The Bad: Pacing is pretty fast. Only two segments are challenging for intermediates (EG: lots of downward kneeling dog, no downward facing dog). Sections are broken up a bit, disrupting the flow. The Verdict: This is a fresh take on yoga, unlike anything else I've seen on the market right now. If nothing else, I'd encourage you to borrow this from the local library to see if it surprises you in the ways that yoga can be explored. I found the practice to be a refreshing eye-opener, albeit one that wasn't quite challenging enough. (See Yogic Arts-Source Power for a much fuller workout) Full Review: As I explored yoga, I practiced along with a number of commercial DVDs. I quickly noted that most of the yoga practices on DVD (circa 2007) were very similar - with some minor tweaks in poses, pacing, and more noticeable differences in instructional style. I chose an instructor that I liked (Rodney Yee) and went with that. However, when I stumbled across Duncan Wong-I knew I had found something totally different than the rest. Upon first reviewing the session, I noticed that the "style" of yoga was a bit different than a standard yoga class. For instance, Duncan demonstrates "pulsing" within some poses like the lunge or warrior 2, so that the practitioner can deepen the stance. The flow feels good, though fast at times. You'll be doing things with your hands and arms that you weren't asked to do during your normal yoga routine. Go with it, as it's all part of the experience. As a whole, only two sections provided limited challenge. While the individual sections were paced well, the transitions between sections were stunted with a "black screen, then title screen" intruding on what was a fast, but enjoyable pace. Speaking of the fast pace, my body was screaming at Duncan... "SLOW DOWN!" It seems that while he employs gentle explosiveness with his movements, he also robs the practitioner of enjoying any depth within a pose. By the time you've hit one pose-your already moving onto the next... one of my least favorite features of this workout. One thing to note is that while Duncan promises to integrate Thai Massage, Martial Arts, and Yoga-you'll really only see the integration subtly, though the overall practice is definitely quite unique. Yoga makes up the main staple - with martial arts and thai massage gently interwoven into the experience. You'll find interesting arm movements, as well as leg and finger stances that are drawn from the martial arts. You'll also see some subdued pressure point manipulation, and pose modification taking advantage of Thai massage. If you've been practicing Yoga for any length of time, try out Duncan Wong's fresh ideas-I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

As a black-belt karate practitioner, I enjoyed the fusion of hard-style martial arts and yoga in Cameron Shayne's excellent "Budokon for Beginners" workout. So when I saw "Awakening Level," I hoped for another quality routine along the same lines, but with the flow of a soft martial arts style. Unfortunately, despite some highlights, I was disappointed. The "Yoga Journal" DVD cover blurb trumpeting the workout's martial arts aspect is possibly accurate on some esoteric level. But in a practical sense, "Awakening Level" doesn't contain much of what I'd consider to be martial arts techniques (hand strikes, standard kicks, blocks, etc.). Instead, it's mainly a flowing form of yoga with some gung-fuish hand positions and a stance or two. Indeed, the gung fu demonstration is about as much martial arts as you'll see on the DVD. That left a sour taste in my mouth. I did the two thirty-minute workouts, and overall they are decent yoga routines (I merely watched the hour-long one - it contains parts from the other two, as well as unique segments like "Wrist Therapy" and "Shoulder Session," plus one instance of generic kicking while kneeling). On the plus side, Mr. Wong calls with a soothing voice, a number of familiar poses like Warrior have some intriguing modifications, and I discovered some new hip openers that I liked. But the flaws of the routine detract from its benefits. For example, the black and white photography was interesting, but the funky lighting and side camera angle made it tough to see hand and foot placement. In addition, Mr. Wong moves so fast through some of the poses that I found it difficult to keep up, especially with the added minutia of his "yogic arts" style. Sometimes he would already be in a pose, or moving into it, by the time he called out what it was. Finally, the workouts are broken down into segments. When a segment completes, the screen goes black, and then the title of the next segment appears. This detracted from the flowing theme I was looking for. The back of the DVD claims that this workout is for beginner to intermediate level practitioners. However, a beginner would become quickly discouraged (and possibly injured) trying to deal with Mr. Wong's fast pace and more advanced poses. I'm in pretty good shape, and I've done a number of yoga workouts at home and in the classroom. But neck-bending poses like the Reverse Tripod still make me nervous, especially after I tweaked my upper back trying it once during a Baron Baptiste DVD workout. Mr. Wong has no assistants to demonstrate modifications, so having the experience to improvise your own (unless he suggests one, which isn't often) is probably beyond most beginners. I may revisit "Awakening Level" to break up my exercise routine, but it'll never be on my go-to DVD workout stack. The gold standard of martial arts and yoga fusion is still "Budokon for Beginners." Mr. Wong is a graceful and talented yogi, and I'm hoping his next release will incorporate more martial arts and have less of the issues listed above. Namaste!

My sweet friend in Maui took a workshop from Duncan and highly recommended him. I bought all his DVD's and they've changed my life. Wow. His healing techniques are so unique, detoxing, challenging and perfect in every way. Finally I can incorporate Tai Chi and Yoga. Rad. Thank you, Duncan!

This was interesting. I really wish it had a money back waranty or something. Well, I've done some yoga DVD's and the power yoga is a lot better. This yogic arts was dissapointing because I was really excited to get it. Then I did it and when it was over I was wondering when the workout was going to start. He has some relly weird hand things that he does that have nothing to do with yoga. I have been a martial artist for many years and thought this alleged blending of yoga and martial arts would be great. But it wasn't. Okay as far as details goes. He only holds a pose for a split second then moves to the next. Each series of poses lasts mabey 5 minutes then you go to the next segment. They are separat sections. So the two alternate routines are not actually alternate routines but just the main one cut up into two. The sections don't flow into each other, they just kinda stop and then open to a different one. At one point you fade out while on the floor then fade in and he is magically in the standing position. Thanks for the warning. I wouldn't recoment this to anyone unless you just need something different to spice it up for a week. Could have been really cool if he actually would have put some martial arts stuff in here like kicks or strikes or anything. Sorry but just not that great. Go get Power Yoga, that is fun!

My husband and I tried this only as a half workout from the on demand from our cable provider. So we decided we wanted to get the video for the full workout... it is for anyone who wants a good work out and try something new. Recommend it for anyone lil ones can do some but not all of what he does but it is cute to see them doing what they can. ( my four kids try when we work out with this video)