Well, friends, it has officially been 30 days since I began my Yoga with Adriene (YWA) Dedicate journey during my quarantine staycation last month! I’m super proud that I stayed consistent and on-track each day — though I will admit, working from home definitely helped with my schedule!
For the uninitiated, Dedicate is one of multiple 30-day yoga series hosted by Adriene Mishler on her ultra-popular YouTube channel, Yoga with Adriene. Dedicate is my fifth of these challenges (crazy how time flies!). For those of you looking for yoga inspiration during this complex time, I wanted to provide my thoughts on this series. Plus, I’ll compare it to the other four series I’ve completed (30 Days of Yoga, Yoga Camp, Yoga Revolution, and TRUE).
Location, Location, Location
The first thing I noticed on Day One (or rather, Day Zero) was the brand new location! This series was filmed in a serene studio with a giant window facing a river. While I’m not sure if this space is another area of Adriene’s actual home, I found this view extremely inspiring as I turned on a new video each day. Plus, Benji really enjoyed guarding Adriene from all the birds outside, haha! All of this helped to raise my spirits while practicing through my second full month in quarantine.
Length & Consistency
Generally speaking, I preferred to complete my YWA Dedicate practice in the morning before the rest of my daily routine. This was made easier by how short the videos were in this series. Aside from the first few days, which were longer, most of the videos were around 20 minutes in length. This turned out to be both a positive and a negative for the series overall. The shorter videos allowed me to be very consistent and squeeze them into my schedule with no issues. But I found the series overall had to be lighter on content to account for it, compared to the first week of the series or to Adriene’s other 30-day journeys.
Theme
I suppose it does make sense that the videos were shorter, given the theme of this series: Dedicate. Feeling confident in my ability to find time for each day’s practice meant that I felt more dedicated to my practice overall. I found that I resonated with many of the daily themes (i.e. the title of each practice) — they were super accessible and minimally “woo-woo”.
Difficulty
YWA Dedicate is a great series to dip your toe in the water of various styles of yoga. There’s a bit of vinyasa, kundalini, power, restorative, and hatha all baked in. But with the fairly short time frame, including preamble and meditations, I found each individual practice fairly easy. Plus, as always, Adriene provides modifications for nearly every challenging posture to ensure all people can follow along. Adriene often says that the hard part is showing up to the mat, and in this series, I definitely agree! That’s why the theme of “Dedicate” is such a good match for this 30-day journey.
YWA Dedicate: My Verdict
This series would be an excellent starting point for yoga skeptics and true beginners. Adriene’s uplifting, quirky personality really shines. The practices are short and simple, and therefore easy to commit to. However, for Yoga with Adriene superfans and seasoned yogis, I might recommend trying Revolution or Yoga Camp or as your next 30-day yoga journey. The spiritual and physical challenge, respectively, of these series make them more suitable for intermediate or advanced practices. Alternatively, use this series as a complement to your existing home workouts. (Shoutout to Sydney Cummings for the millionth time for her free, high-quality, daily YouTube workouts!)
Next stop: HOME!
Have you completed the YWA Dedicate 30-day yoga journey? Share your thoughts on the series in the comments below!
