I decided to write a review of DDP Yoga that might help someone decide if they want to give this workout a try. Please let me know what you think, agree/disagree, etc.

TLDR: It's a good workout and is great for beginners. For someone looking for something more advanced and to progress their yoga skills, it does leaving something to be desired.

Brief history about me. 3 years ago I weighed 320 lbs (6'3"). I started Insanity and struggled to complete the program. 3 times I was cut short due to injury. After a drastic change in my diet that helped me drop more weight and training specifically to do Insanity, I finally completed it last year. I went on to do Asylum 1, another round of Insanity and Asylum 1, then I did Asylum 2. This year, I did my first run through of P90X and decided after that I needed to give my body a rest. That's how I found DDP Yoga. I now weigh 188 (on a good day!). I also do Orange Theory on Saturdays.

Let me start by saying I generally feel positive about the program. It's decently designed, has some good dietary advice (that should be considered even when not doing the program), and is generally fun to do. I would recommend this program to anyone looking to get into yoga or who needs a place to start their fitness journey (in fact, I already did recommend it over on r/insanity).

That said, there are some issues with the program that I wish I had known about prior to purchasing. I'm glad I went through with it, but had I known, I may have gone with a different program. Regardless, anyone looking to learn the basics of Vinyasa style yoga can't go wrong with this. For what it's worth, I would have said I was at an intermediate skill level prior to starting (now I'd say possibly advanced, at least in some areas).

The Good
I like DDP. He brings a good energy and keeps it entertaining. I feel like I could give this to my 70 year old dad to try and he'd be able to get into it (if Wally can, so can my dad!). He does a good job of making it feel like anyone can do this stuff.

The routines are also pretty good. I personally found disc 1 to be a waste (by the time the workouts are done, I've barely broken a sweat), but other than that, everything else is pretty enjoyable and feels like a workout. It's also nice to see them focused, Stength Builder on Strength, Stand Up on Balance postures, etc, it's nice to know what you're going to get into.

At the core of the video, it's a great workout and and short of the early videos, I've always walked away feeling like I've accomplished something.

The Bad
I feel for the most part, this program has been way too easy for me personally. The first 4 weeks (following the "Advanced" schedule) were a complete waste of time. I did not feel challenged until Diamond Cutter came around, and even then I was subbing out the Disc 3/4 videos for some of the workouts. I get he probably wants us to learn his style, but putting Diamond Dozen on there in week 3? Seriously, the book should have advised the video is watched and followed along with before starting, and week one should have been the last time Fat Burner and Energy were done. In fact, Disc 1/2 are labeled as "Beginner/Intermediate". How are beginner workouts appropriate for an Advanced track?

This brings me to the "Extreme" workouts. It's obvious these workouts were an afterthought. They're not on the schedule at all and don't use the YRG name at all. My best guess is that these workouts were the original YRG system and he decided to make the extreme videos and rebrand the videos. The frustrating thing is that the extreme videos are what sold me on DDP Yoga. I saw the videos and wanted to do what was in the preview, but unfortunately, the videos don't really teach you or work on any progressions into the more advanced things in the extreme videos. If they're sold as one program, by the time I finish the Advanced workouts, I should be able to jump into the extreme with relative ease. Nothing in the YRG program teaches you hand stands, forearm stands, jumping into crow from downward dog, etc. That's all new, and while it's good to have new stuff, I don't feel like the YRG videos give you the foundation for moving to the advanced in the way that Fat Burner and Energy give you a foundation for the harder YRG workouts. Had I known, I might have just purchased the advanced, and tried a more traditional program (still not sure about this one).

The Nitpicking
(Don't let this section discourage you, understand these are my own personal nitpicks. I also originally forgot that this is marketed as "Not Your Momma's Yoga", so I decided to change these points to nitpicks as opposed to bad items. They annoyed me personally, but might not annoy most people)

Changing the names of the moves. I'm not going to pretend to be a yogi master, but after doing P90X and a couple of other yoga videos and learning most of the English names of the moves, it was really frustrating to have to relearn the move names. In addition to being frustrating, I'd actually worry it might turn someone off from regular yoga since classes can move quickly and not knowing the correct names could be discouraging to someone. I went to my first class recently and had to "unlearn" all of DDP's modifications. Additionally, it's not like he has an army of videos that use these modifications; it's like he's trying to stand out when he's a small fish in a very large pond. I mean, was it really necessary to change the name of Corpse pose to "Deadman... and WOman"? I get it's an Undertaker reference, but c'mon DDP, there was a Mummy on ECW you could have referenced.

The basics of yoga are discarded in general and some of his sequences don't make a lot of sense. Start off relaxing (Pinfall), go to Safety Zone, then Ignition! All yoga routines I've done start off relaxing and clearing your mind, then with small movements and into harder ones. The idea is to keep you relaxed so you get focused on the pose. While DDPs method definitely gets the heart rate up and quickly, it misses one of the major points of yoga entirely, relaxation and to some degree meditation (more on this later). I can see this working well for the early 20 - 30 minute videos (Fat Burner and Energy), but it works poorly for the longer videos. After going back and doing the P90X routine, I found the way it starts in Prayer Pose/Namaste much more effective than the quick "Ignition".

Still on basics, some things I've seen in every video like Swan Dives are absent. He talks about working the low back and these work it out great. In fact, if Swan Dives and Reverse Swan Dives were in the video, we could do less Diamond Cutters. It's really confusing as to why he would cut so many of these basics.

Breathing. As I mentioned, I went to my first yoga class recently and was corrected by the instructor "In yoga, we breath through the nose, this is not pilates!" I did a little googling and came across this. Now, while I'm not expecting DDP to explain the texts of the ancient yogis, I've been trying to breath with my nose exclusively during the program and I'm finding it to be very beneficial. I recover much quicker, I can hold poses longer, and I feel more flexible. I can't really explain it, but there seems to be some bit of truth to what's being said. I can't fault DDP for not knowing this (Tony Horton doesn't mention it either and P90X2 Yoga has a yogi who's been practicing for 15 years!), but he did make a yoga video and not a general fitness video where TH made a general fitness series of videos.

As I said, relaxation and clearing your mind is a big part of yoga. It's one of the things that got me into yoga in the first place, the fact that I could work as hard as I do and still finish feeling relaxed and at peace was amazing. Not only is this skipped in the beginning, but the cool down completely undermines this. All of my yoga experiences have ended with about a minute to three minutes in Deadman/Corpse pose. DDP does it for about 30 seconds then gets you jacked up again with a stretch that is better suited to be done before the end. I'm not saying he had to end with oms, but I think it would have been much more effective to end with "YRG Warrior Pose into pinfall and take 5 deep breaths", or something similar. I find myself getting into Namaste, waiting for the music to end and letting out my oms.

The Verdict
Ultimately it's how good of a workout is this and these are great workouts. I couldn't call my friends over who don't exercise and get them to finish Double Black Diamond without them drenched sweat.

While these workouts stick to the basics, anyone purchasing these videos will get through the basics and get very good at the basics. I wouldn't recommend these to someone looking to expand their library of yoga videos, but I would definitely recommend it to first timers and people looking to learn a bit about yoga. That said, I'd also make a disclaimer that while these videos are based on yoga poses, there's MUCH more to yoga and that this is a starting point. Most of what you'll learn during DDP Yoga will get your feet in the water.

Hope this helps anyone looking for more info, please let me know what you agree with and disagree with in the comments.

I've been saying a lot about it lately and I'm thinking it could really help me in my wife get into shape and possibly out of depression.

I heard about this program called DDP Yoga. The guy who created it (DDP) came on Shark Tank which is pretty cool. And apparently he's responsible for the transformation in this video below, which I've seen before but didn't know it was related to DDP.

This is quite the endorsement! Any thoughts?

https://youtu.be/qX9FSZJu448?si=Oz3Mya99NqYXNmjZ