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Reviews

Yogawoman (DVD Review)

This movie provides a glance into the ways women have changed the face of yoga through the years.

Becca Borawski

Written by Becca Borawski Last updated on Nov 22, 2021

We receive free products and receive commissions through our links. See disclosures page.

I’ve practiced yoga on and off for a good number of years now. The vast majority of my instructors have been female, with a few notable male exceptions. In the film Yogawoman, the main controversy presented is that yoga was originally an art form practiced by and taught by men.

Given my personal context of yoga, I found that this controversy didn’t resonate and therefore wasn’t the most interesting part of the film. Maybe it’s just that I am spoiled to live in a day and age when yoga, at least in the United States, is dominated by women. For that, perhaps I owe a debt of gratitude to some of the women whose stories are featured in the movie, like Indra Devi, Patricia Walden, Seane Corn, Shiva Rea, and others.

YOGAWOMAN FILM TRAILER

That being said, Yogawoman thoroughly addresses all the ways yoga can positively impact the life of the modern woman. It examines issues such as dealing with cancer, eating disorders, infertility, and depression, as well as how adding yoga to your schedule can actually help you better handle an over-booked, over-stimulated lifestyle. Sections of the film also addressed yoga for special populations, such as the incarcerated and the severely overweight.

The movie flows from the history of yoga, to the passing of yoga into the hands of women, to how yoga itself has been transformed by the fact that women are now practicing and teaching it around the world. One notable example of this in the film was the story of Geeta Iyengar, daughter of B.K.S. Iyengar, who took her father’s teachings and applied them to women’s issues like pregnancy and menopause.

For people who follow yoga, many of the people interviewed in the movie will be familiar to you, as it features fifty different subject matter experts. On the Yogawoman website, you can see the full list of people interviewed and featured. There is also a good amount of fascinating archival footage in the film, ranging from yoga being practiced by men in India to B.K.S. Iyengar instructing classes.

If you are already a yoga practitioner, then you will likely enjoy this movie, as it will reinforce your experience and opinion of the benefits of yoga. If you have only dabbled in yoga, then you may find the movie interesting and you may learn some new aspects of the practice you hadn’t thought about before – or it may just seem like a really long, albeit highly pleasant yoga commercial. If you are not a fan or practitioner of yoga, then this movie isn’t really for you.

For me, the most interesting part of this movie wasn’t the narration by Annette Bening, the famous yogis, or the controversy on which sex yoga belongs to. Rather, I found the idea that women influenced and evolved yoga – that it went the other way – to be interesting. It isn’t just yoga impacting people’s lives, but people’s lives changing the practice of yoga. And, ultimately, if yoga can help you lead a more fulfilled, realized, and authentic life, it doesn’t matter what you look like, where you live, or even what sex you are.

“Yogawoman” is available on DVD for $24.95 and on BluRay for $34.95 at Yogawoman.tv.

Becca Borawski

About Becca Borawski

Becca found her way to a career in health and fitness through Martial Arts and CrossFit. Originally a music editor for film and television, Becca started studying Martial Arts in 2000. Though she started with traditional Martial Arts it was not long before she discovered Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and her path was forever altered. She began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Muay Thai and started working with professional MMA fighters, building websites, working on fight promotions, and producing videos.

As a competitor in BJJ herself, Becca wanted to get stronger and fitter. In 2006 she discovered CrossFit and became a student at CrossFit Los Angeles. In only a couple of years she became CrossFit Level III Certified, left her career in the film industry, and dedicated herself full time to coaching. She has since been certified through CrossFit in Olympic Lifting, Powerlifting, Nutrition, Endurance and Kids coaching. She also held an NSCA-CSCS from 2006-2008 and is a certified IndoRow instructor. In addition to coaching adults, she founded the CrossFit LA Kids program in 2010 and taught children aged 5-17.

Becca regularly takes on new sports, which have included indoor rowing, fencing, and most recently, cycling, as she believes it makes her both a better athlete and a better coach. In order to reach more people with her coaching, Becca also created ModernAthena.com – a website dedicated to women in pursuit of physical fitness and self-improvement.

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