Just when I thought yoga practice was restricted to the local gym or yoga studio (or in my case the basement) I was introduce to Yoga in the Car, a CD that teaches you to “stop beeping and start breathing.” Check out these scary statistics:

• The average American spends 443 hours a year behind the wheel of a car


• Most of that time is spent commuting to work (where you end up sitting behind a desk all day)


• Over 45 of those 443 hours are spent stuck in traffic


• In Los Angeles 1.5 million commuters have a 35-minute plus commute; 60% of these commuters have a drive time between 45 and 90 minutes. Much of this time is spent in bumper-to-bumper traffic moving at less than 1 mile an hour for 10 minutes at a time.

I don’t know about you, but sitting in traffic is not my favorite way to destress after a long day at work. Fortunately I don’t often have to sit in traffic, but I know quite a few people who do, especially when we lived in Sunnyvale, CA (Silicon Valley). If I’d known about Yoga in the Car back then I’d have given every one of them a copy for Christmas!

Yoga in the Car, which starts off with a track introducing the listener to the concept behind the CD, has 13 tracks. The first, like I just mentioned, serves as an introduction. Jen Swain, the woman behind the CD, has an extremely upbeat yet soothing voice. Tracks 2 through 9 are a series of guided exercises while tracks 10-13 are enjoyable instrumentals that help the time spent behind the wheel go by quickly. The exercises help relax the shoulders, neck, back and hips, which I knew were areas affected by stress but didn’t even think about them also being affected by a long commute!

I listened to the CD while working away at my computer (my ‘95 Odyssey has yet to play CDs) and found that it worked its soothing wonders even when sitting behind a desk rather than a wheel. Though my husband often rides the bus to and from work he still can come home stressed from a long day (and lots of bodies crammed together in a bus whose AC doesn’t work that well). I’m thinking Yoga in the Car definitely has multiple uses. Perhaps it should be titled Yoga Whenever and Wherever You Feel Stressed. Okay, maybe that title’s too long, but you get the point.

If you commute or know someone who does, help them fight the signs of commuting (stress, tension, anxiety, fatigue, high blood pressure) with Yoga in the Car. It’s about time you took back your commute!—Emily

** Giveaway Om the Road is giving away one copy of Yoga in the Car! Please leave a comment with a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: August 22, 2008 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

** Congratulations to Elizabeth Y., the winner of the Yoga in the Car CD! Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the review and add a comment. Keep reading the Daily Dish for your chance to participate in more giveaways!

tags CD, Giveaway, yoga, Yoga In the Car

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 9:06 pm and is filed under Daily Dish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.