Quick Yoga Training for you

Quick Yoga Training definitely had potential since it could allow me to do yoga with a yoga props anywhere I wanted. Considering how much time I spend on the city bus and in the office, it seemed like a good idea. There is really only one snag with this game: it’s the absolute worst way to try and learn yoga, and it nearly killed me. In addition to the fact that there are features listed on the box that aren’t even in the title, this exercise software is deceiving even by the name. It’s not quick, and it definitely doesn’t train you to do yoga with yoga mat.

At first glance, Quick Yoga Training seems pretty cool. There are over 180 poses, all motion captured by a Yoga instructor, and players can watch and follow along with them. Players can even turn the camera any which way to view the pose from any angle. The entire package is really tight, and it does some neat presentation things, like show your burned calories in the form of food. (It’s a lot of freaking work to burn off a couple strawberries!)

As soon as I tried to use the program it became instantly clear that there was a huge problem. Unlike a yoga class or any yoga training DVD, or even the other yoga game on the DS, Let’s Yoga!, here nobody is telling me what to do. There are instructions on the screen as each lesson plays out, but the problem with that setup became apparent on my very first exercise.

See this? I followed the on-screen instructions all the way to the part where it told me to put my face against my knee. Now what? By the time I looked up (defeating the purpose!) the message to “hold for five breaths” was gone. So I put my face back down, but then had to look up and find out what to do after holding the pose. It’s annoying and really destroys the whole point of doing yoga with yoga mat.

I was willing to keep trying though, since at least it doesn’t seem that hard, and I had the game set on beginner’s techniques. So my next pose comes up and…

Okay, come on! First off, I’m amazed I even got into this position, but why was this in my beginner’s lesson? Now, it doesn’t take a genius to recognize the problem with trying to watch my DS. I can’t even figure out where to put it to make the program functional in this pose, aside from rubberbanding the thing to my face. This is just dangerous.

I don’t know if the developers noticed when they were making this game, but the DS has a really small screen. Considering how often I found myself bending over, lying on my back, or bending my legs in ways they ought never bend, there really isn’t any good place to put my DS. The idea of having a totally silent yoga instruction is ludicrous to begin with, but if it were on a TV I’d at least be able to see it more clearly.

Because of the lack of vocal cues or help, I’d have to memorize these poses and routines. There is a Simple Yoga with yoga mat option that goes through each pose step by step so that players can learn the moves better. But that’s 180 moves, which will take a long time. Even just learning a few of them well enough to be able to perform without instruction would take a while. This software is barely more interactive than buying a yoga book and just practicing with that.