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Shapeshifter Yoga
Course Quality
Effectiveness
Ease of Use
Price
We like
- OK for beginners
- Good introduction into yoga, meditation and it’s overall health benefits
- Lots of reading materials & charts
We didn’t like
- Doesn’t offer much for experienced yogis
- Not much variety and mostly low intensity classes
- Some videos have low sound and video quality (mostly in the bonus section)
Summary: Shapeshifter Yoga is a program designed to help new yogis develop a consistent yoga practice that might ultimately also help them lose weight, build muscle, and feel good about their body inside and out.
This program is designed to be a starting point! It alone will not guarantee weight loss or toning but it might set you on the right path.Visit Website
From $19
Do you want to loose weight?
And do you think about yoga as a great practice to loose weight?
No?
Then you might miss out big time!
When I talk about my yoga practice, I always get the same reaction: “Yeah, I should stretch more”.
It makes me sad to hear this because yoga is such an incredible tool to tone your body, get stronger, and build muscle. I feel like weight loss is a secret side effect of yoga that nobody knows about! It’s certainly time to get the word out!
While yoga does encompass a lot of stretching that results in flexibility, the strength and cardio components definitely aid in creating a leaner, more slender physique regardless of your starting point.
Do you enjoy tucking yourself under a down comforter during the winter months as much as I do? This time of year always seems to slow me down, and inactivity really adds to the winter doldrums and weight gain.
Instead of forcing myself to spend extra time on the elliptical at the gym this year, I tried something a bit different this year: Shapeshifter Yoga. It’s an online program designed to get started with a regular yoga practice and help you lose weight.
Shapeshifter Yoga involves two full-length classes as well as a bunch of short bonus classes, reading materials, and short video tutorials. If you’ve been eyeing the program but aren’t ready to pull the trigger, give my Shapeshifter Yoga review a quick run through and hopefully I can help you decide!
The Science Behind Yoga And Weightloss
Here are a few facts to get you thinking about using yoga as a tool for weight loss:
- People who regularly perform yoga have significantly lower levels of cortisol, the stress-produced hormone that is blamed for abdominal fat.
- Yoga increases insulin sensitivity, making your body burn food as fuel instead of storing it and turning it into fat.
- Taking regular vinyasa classes gives you the benefit of cardiovascular exercise and muscle strengthening, resulting in both fat loss and muscle building.
- If you’re a dedicated cardio junkie, adding yoga to your routine will help build muscles and decrease the stress on your joints.
- Even if you only take restorative or yin classes, the practice of yoga cultivates enough awareness that you’ll end up eating better and making healthier life choices.
Things To Consider Before Buying The Shapeshifter Program
This program is designed to get people into yoga and start the process of losing weight. If you’ve never done yoga before, this is a good starting point for you. There are enough short tutorial videos that slowly break down core yoga poses without overwhelming you.
These videos familiarize you with essential poses and their proper alignment to prevent injury and advance your practice as quickly as possible. The more quickly you learn the poses, the faster you’ll start seeing the physical benefits of yoga, including weight loss.
The “peak” flow linking all of the video tutorials is challenging but not difficult, so no matter how little yoga you’ve done, the final practice is accessible once you’ve gone through the entire program.
Because this is a program for beginners, I don’t recommend buying this if you’re an intermediate or advanced yoga student. If you want to learn about alignment, then this is full of useful information, but the tutorials are slow moving. This is something to consider if you’re taking challenging flow classes or you have some familiarity with yoga.
What Is Shapeshifter Yoga?
When you pull up Shapeshifter’s sales page, you’re immediately bombarded with words and phrases like “sexy”, “toned abs”, “firm butt”, and “skinny jeans”. Clearly, Shapeshifter Yoga is intended as a weight loss program and not as a complete mind, body, and heart yoga practice.
As I scrolled through the (very long) page of information, I got confused. Was I reading about a yoga program or a diet infomercial? This was a pretty big turn-off for me, and I can see how it would send a lot of potential customers away with such a heavy sales pitch.
I much prefer informing people about the overall benefits of yoga–including weight loss–before I pitch it as a great workout, but that differs for everyone. Yoga is so much more than what Shapeshifter is offering, but weight loss is an inevitable side effect of a regular practice.
According to the page, when you purchase the program, you get:
- A quick start manual
- A yoga pose video library
- The full-length Shapeshifter Yoga program video
- The Everyday Flow follow-along video
- A yoga pose manual
- “At a Glance” wall charts
Once I got into the actual program, the information packed on the sales page began to make a little more sense. After I spent some quality time with the program, I weighed what I liked most about it and what I disliked.
- easy to follow, meaning it’s great for beginners
- the final flow linking all of the poses together is accessible for yogis of all sizes and ages
- lots of reading materials/charts are great for visual learners
- the program doesn’t offer much to experienced students unless you’re interested in tons of alignment information
- there are only two “real” classes. If you’re looking for variety, this isn’t the program for you
- the videos aren’t that well-produced. Some of the bonus materials have videos that look like they were filmed in the 1990s and only recently uploaded.
Shapeshifter Yoga Features
Now let’s break down the various aspects of the program:
Program Materials
The program materials are fairly comprehensive which is why I think this program is best suited for beginners. I’ve been practicing yoga for a little over two years, so everything included in these materials were things I’ve learned from yoga class, my home practice, or books/blogs I’ve read over the years.
Quick Start Manual
The Quick Start Manual gives a better breakdown of the entire program. The overall premise of Shapeshifter Yoga is to help people lose weight. The creator, Kristine Fondran, wanted to make yoga accessible to everyone regardless of their size or experience.
The program includes a variety of reading materials, wall charts, pose tutorials, and a full yoga routine that’s an hour long. If you don’t have time for the full one hour class, her Shapeshifter Flow is about 10 minutes long and is made up of 14 poses that stretch and tone the entire body.
The second part of the Quick Start guide goes into the benefits of stretching. It tells you the importance of stretching, how often you should stretch your body, the phases of stretching, and how to safely stretch your joints.
Once you’re thoroughly educated, the manual goes on to break down the poses in their entirety and how they benefit the body.
One example:
- Shoulder Socket Rotations: these poses open the chest and shoulder girdle. These are great poses if you sit at a desk or in front of a computer all day.
- Neck Movements: these gentle movements release accumulated tension in the neck. These movements are performed at the beginning of the flow and are meant to warm up the neck and remove any stiffness.
- Crocodile Pose: an effective pose for yogis with slipped discs or lower back pain.
- Child’s Pose: a resting posture utilized during fast-moving flow classes, child’s pose is also a great counter stretch to take after lots of extension or to release the shoulders after inversions and arm balances.
- Cat/Cow Pose: used to increase the flexibility of the shoulders, neck, and spine.
The guide then goes into more detail about the rest of the core yoga postures found in the series.
Finally, the Quick Start guide provides a breakdown of the entire program.
Pose Manual
The pose manual is an excellent visual guide that breaks down the essential poses into easy-to-follow directions.
If you’re going through the final Shapeshifter class and you get stuck on a pose or can’t remember the proper alignment, this guide is handy to have next to your mat as a quick reference.
I really like this aspect of the program. It’s hard to find a yoga program that includes written materials you’re encouraged to print, write on, and use as you need them.
At A Glance Wall Charts
The At A Glance wall charts are incredibly useful, too. When you’re a new yogi, it’s fun to pop into poses while you’re brushing your teeth, drying your hair, or cooking dinner.