THE MOVIE

Join Dr Gillian Ross for eighty minutes and stretch away stress with a combination of gentle stretching exercises, deep breathing and relaxation. Dr Ross, who has an honours degree in science and PhD in behavioural science guides the viewer through two half hour sessions designed to awaken your whole body.

Dr Ross believes that a combination of stretching, deep breathing and a focused awareness of what is happening in your body is a powerful rejuvenation strategy. She advises wearing loose comfortable clothing, taking off your watch and leaving the phone off the hook so you can get the most out of the two sessions on this DVD.

The second session is a little more advanced than the first session. Dr Ross advises only moving on to the second session when you are completely confident with the first, then you can alternate between the two sessions. There is also a small segment on shiatsu massage during each session along with deep relaxation exercises as a warm down.

The stretching, breathing and relaxation exercises on this DVD are actually performed by Dr Gillian Ross. The target audience will likely find her to be less intimidating than a young super buff aerobics instructor. Unfortunately it means this DVD probably won’t be as exciting for the guys who want to perve while their girlfriend/wife is stretching away stress. It is probably just as well, this DVD is about relaxation and releasing tension, the last thing you need is your boyfriend/husband hanging around with his jaw on the floor.

This is just one of many DVD titles produced by Gillian Ross. Other titles include Meditation, Meditation II, Relaxation, Relaxation II, Relaxation Made Easy, Relaxation For Children, Easy Yoga, Yoga For Your Back, Yoga For Sleep and Yoga For Pregnancy. You should be able to find these titles at your local ABC shop.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Stretch Away Stress is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The visual transfer is acceptable but it is certainly nothing to write home about. The program has probably been filmed with a high end consumer video camera, which is not really a problem but it just has this really cheap vibe about it. Perhaps it’s the set, which consists of a blue sheet for a backdrop, a palm in a terracotta pot and a floor lamp. I guess you can’t complain too much, there was no noticeable film grain or MPEG artefacts and the program has been cut together by a reasonably competent editor. The level of detail isn’t too bad during the close up shots and colours are relatively rich and vibrant, flesh tones are also realistic in appearance.

Audio:

Stretch Away Stress features a Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack. The audio transfer is more than adequate for a relaxation DVD. I guess the main problem I had with this DVD is that I found dialogue by Dr Gillian Ross to be somewhat difficult to hear at times. At least there were no noticeable audio synch problems. Unfortunately, this DVD doesn’t come with any English subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

This DVD is totally devoid of extra features. There isn’t even any promotional material for any of the other titles produces by Gillian Ross, which is a bit of a shame. The main menu is static with looped audio (the scene selection menu is also static). The only options available from the main menu are to ‘Play the Program’ or access a scene selection menu.

SUMMARY

Stretch Away Stress is a DVD that features two half hour guided stretching sessions presented by Dr Gillian Ross. This is just one of many DVD titles produced by Gillian Ross. You can find more titles at your local ABC shop. The DVD has a reasonably good visual and audio transfer but there aren’t any extra features to be found.