Karen Voight Yoga and Sculpting
This integrated approach helps followers attain perfect balance of yoga and sculpting to redefine the body for good! The yoga routines engage several muscle groups at once while the sculpting program isolates individual muscles.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Karen Voight - Yoga and Sculpt
I already own Karens Yoga Sculpt Video and have enjoyed the routine for many years. It is still the most completely relaxing and comprehensive yoga workout I own. If I am being honest I only wanted to see this part of the DVD combo as my video has eventually worn out. It takes a bit of getting used to but is worth persevering as the results are better that any other.
5 Stars Yoga & Pilates - Two Workouts
1. First Workout - YOGASCULPT
Karen Voight’s two workouts will leave you refreshed and invigorated. Once I have completed the first challenging workout I feel stretched, strengthened, toned and very peaceful. If you are just starting out, be patient with yourself. Yoga will develop patience, character and strength. Think of each posture as a goal. By the third or fourth time, you may achieve what you see. This video is a combination of Pilates and Yoga. Ordering a sticky mat is essential so you don’t injure your muscles by slipping on a carpeted surface. The choices for the Yogasculpt workout include:
Full Workout 45 minutes
Yoga Flow 25 minutes
Pilates Matwork 20 minutes
Karen’s calming voice leads you through the poses in her organized way. The music is very relaxing and almost makes this the Nordstrom of Yoga videos. I recommend walking before attempting the stretching exercises. This helps to warm the muscles and allow for a deeper stretch. The flowing postures are healing and you move from a standing pose to downward dog and then to some cat stretches. Plank follows with some challenging legwork and there is a creative series for hips where your balance is tested. In the matwork boat pose makes its appearance as do many pilates exercises for the abs.
2. Second Workout - CORE ESSENTIALS (Same workout as Core Plus More 1999)
“I’ll show you how to minimize wasted energy while maximizing concentration on the targeted muscles of your core essentials.” ~ Karen Voight
In “Core Essentials,” Karen Voight presents a workout to target the core muscle groups. She also focuses on the arms and legs by using weights to increase the intensity. The added resistance increases your efforts so on exercises for the abs, holding weights above the head while doing a crunches makes them super effective. As always Karen emphasizes proper form to optimize your results. The main sections of the workout include:
Aerobics - Warm up
Legs & Butt 10 minutes
Arms, Back & Torso 5 minutes
Abdominals 10 minutes
Cool down - Stretch
The workout begins with a brief aerobics section to warm up the muscles then moves right into leg exercises inspired by Pilates. She uses her green genies (weighted balls) to increase the resistance. The main workout is on a round blue platform and she is wearing a ruby outfit so the colors are interesting.
During the Arms, Back & Torso workokut she does quite a few sets of push-ups which I found challenging when combined with Plank. Next you use weights while you are on your back and then move into a cool down with unique side stretches and plenty of attention to stretching out the legs.
Overall, I’d say this is a challenging workout with unique exercises. Karen Voight’s teaching style is very precise so the cueing is always excellent and you feel like you have completed a calorie-burning workout with an artistic appeal.
~The Rebecca Review
2 Stars it is okay
The strong point of this video is Karen’s no-nonsense instruction. She does not give you a lot of personal philosophy or new age fluff. Her instruction is clear and the cues are clean. That said, there is nothing special in this video, but it is a clean and enjoyable workout.
I have another video of Karen’s from her pre surgical enhancement days and though her body fat index is waaaay too low in both videos (you can county every muscle, ligament, vein and tendon on her body), this one has the addition of “plastic surgery enhancements” that just make it more obvious. It doesn’t look good, it isn’t healthy and actually, it is kind of sad. Karen is a talented and beautiful trainer, it is too bad she has fallen for this sort of “ideal”.
5 Stars An Amazing Athletic Yoga Workout!!!
This is one of my favorite “weekend” workouts. I’m not a Yoga enthusiast…much prefer weights and aerobics…but I try to do it on the weekends to get a great stretch. I love this workout, because she skips the freaky religious “mystic” yoga garbage and gets you straight to the heart of what each move is designed to do. You hold these poses for a good chunk of time…until all your muscles seem to be screaming at you to release…but each time gets easier and you can see results quickly, as your strength and flexibility improve with continued use.
4 Stars Two previously released workouts (YogaSculpt and Core Essentials) on one DVD
In Yoga & Sculpting, instructor Karen Voight has packaged two of her previous workouts on one DVD. I have outlined each of these two workouts below.
YogaSculpt is a 45-minute workout which combines classic yoga poses with innovative twists to turn up the intensity and focus on sculpting. Karen begins the workout with a relaxing breathing exercise but then quickly steps up the pace with a challenging sequence which combines down dog with high push up pose. The standing series includes traditional yoga poses such as Warrior 1, Warrior 2, and Triangle pose, but Karen combines each pose with extra lengthening and stretching moves. The first half of workout, which can be selected separately on the DVD menu (YogaFlow), is 25 minutes, and then it’s on to the floor for matwork focused on the abdominals and back. In this section, Karen combines yoga poses such as Boat and Bridge with Pilates-type movements. Both the abs and the back receive thorough attention, and then the practice ends with a brief stretch. On the DVD menu, this section can be selected as a stand-alone practice as well; it is listed as “Pilates Matwork” and labelled as being 20 minutes long, but I timed it as less. Although Karen is an excellent instructor who performs the workout fluidly and with flawless form, there were a few times when I felt that she failed to adequately cue a change in movement. Overall, this is a challenging yet relaxing workout which may add some nice variety for those with some prior experience in yoga.
Core Essentials has been marketed under several other names, including Pilates Core Essentials and Core Plus More. It is 40-minute, full-body toning workout similar to the first half of one of Karen’s other videos, Streamline Fitness. The workout begins with a simple, 4 minute warm-up to get your body moving; this is followed by 8 minutes of standing strength moves. The exercises consist of traditional squats and crunches, but Karen makes them unique by adding more movement. Although her cuing is excellent, I found this section to be a bit hard to follow, particularly given that the arm movements didn’t seem well-suited to the leg work. Karen then moves to the floor and continues the legwork with extensions done both on all fours and on the side; she sometimes uses her weighted “genie balls,” but the moves are challenging enough without the added weight! She also targets the arms with a tough push-ups sequence as well as performs several exercises with dumbbells. Karen ends the workout with ab and back exercises followed by a 6 minute cool down. The DVD menu offers options to do several components of this workout separately: Legs & Buttocks (10 min.), Arms & Back (5 min.), and Abdominals (5 min.).
Both of these workouts are unique and different, and they may be a good option for those who would like to incorporate more core work into their strength training but who don’t enjoy traditional Pilates workouts. Finally, I feel that this DVD would be best suited to exercisers at an advanced beginner or early intermediate level.