Transform Your Life: Yoga with Baron Baptiste

Forty sweaty people, seven grueling days in the jungle, restricted living quarters, and no fried food! Sounds like a new episode of Survivor doesn't it? Nope, it's yoga master Baron Baptiste's week-long yoga boot camp set on the beautiful island of Maui. Featuring an interesting array of everyday folk, ranging from a high-strung New York career woman, to a laidback potbellied 50-ish man and his wife, the program's segments are chronologically divided into days, which initially feature a fair amount of group whining mixed in amongst the yoga basics, floor exercises, morning walks, group meditation, and communal meals. Baptiste leads his joyful sufferers through yoga drills with encouraging non sequiturs such as “drop your head, drop your brain” and “clear the static from the attic,” which seem to work well, overall, since these folks appear to become more Zen-like the harder they work. Interspersed throughout are interview testimonials with participants who talk about their unexpected love of yoga and how this experience will change their lives for the better. Also included on the program is a condensed 20-minute yoga routine featuring the usual poses and stretches, making for an interesting combination of yoga exercise and powerful inspirational segments on transforming and reprioritizing one's physical and mental health (and, just for the record, no one was voted off the island during the making of this film). Highly recommended. Aud: P. (N. Plympton)