Dive Into Yoga is a unique yoga media experience taught by international instructor Christine Martitz and offered here in both English and German (Martitz actually teaches her New York City classes in English, German, and Spanish). After a brief introduction by Helen Gurley Brown, the practice opens with Martitz instructing via voiceover. She is shown alone against a featureless black background, although the scene sometimes shifts to views of New York City or more tranquil images and settings. Krishna Das provides the majority of the music. Although Martitz generally cues in English, the Sanskrit names for the postures appear on screen, and so she will usually note these as well.The sequencing of this routine is quite distinctive: other than the opening sun salutations, standing poses do not appear again until the very end of the practice. Martitz starts with pranayama, opening with three rounds of kapalabhati. She follows the breathwork with sun salutations, moving quickly through three full rounds (i.e., performed on both sides) and modifying the plank poses by coming to her knees. For the final round, she adds pigeon pose (showing an optional modification with a block), runner’s stretch, crescent moon, 3-legged dog pose, a twisting high lunge (with an optional bind on the second side). At this point in the practice (about 20 minutes in), Martitz performs a brief savasana to rest before moving on. Following the rest, Martitz raises difficulty level quite a bit. She starts with a shoulderstand series that begins at a relatively basic level, including leg lowers into half-plow, but then she incorporates a half-lotus and lowers into bridge. She also moves into full plow and optional candle pose. From bridge, Martitz begins an advanced wheel series (showing fish with the legs in lotus as an alternate) which includes lifting one arm/one leg together and dropping back into wheel from a standing position. After another very brief rest and a few quick moves to loosen the hips, Martitz moves one foot behind her head, repeats with the opposite leg, and then performs balancing tortoise. A series of seated postures follows: wide-angle seated forward bend (with hands in reverse prayer, elbow on floor supporting head, and twisting over each leg), full bound lotus forward bend, full seated forward bend, head-to-knee, and half-bound lotus forward bend.Transitioning with incline plank, Martitz moves into additional backbending postures. She begins with camel, bringing her forearms all the way to the floor for what she calls diamond pose. Coming to a face down position and moving the legs into lotus, she shifts forward, balancing in peacock with the legs in full lotus. Remaining in a prone position, she performs cobra, bringing in her feet to touch her head for a “closed cobra” pose. This is followed by locust, rocking boat, and bow pose (for the latter, Martitz alternately touches her feet to her head and to her shoulders). She concludes this series with reclined hero and child’s pose. Two more seated postures follow, half-spinal twist and full cow-face pose with forward bend, and then another child’s pose. Again, Martitz makes some unusual sequencing choices, inserting a dynamic dolphin pose and then moving into headstand. She performs the headstand free-standing, adding in advanced variations such as full lotus legs. After concluding the inversion sequence, Martitz finally offers a few additional standing postures: tree, triangle, and head-to-foot pose. Krishna Das provides the soundtrack for the approximately 5-minute savasana, and Martitz finishes with brief final chanting/invocation from a seated position, bringing in the total time for this routine at about 57 minutes.As you can see from the description above, this practice is clearly intended for advanced yoga students. In fact, Martitz’s own description provided on her web site describes this routine as “Advanced Hatha Yoga Instruction.” She includes postures that I have rarely seen appear in other yoga media (with the exception of perhaps Erich Schiffmann’s Inversions or John Schumacher’s Live Level III classes, both of which are also available from this site). Given this, for students who have reached this level of experience in their own practice, finding a video which provides such a challenge may be a rare treat. On the other hand, those who are in earlier stages are their yoga journey are less likely to connect with what Dive Into Yoga has to offer.
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