DDP Yoga

DDP Yoga is a novel approach to fitness that combines traditional yoga poses with calisthenics, dynamic resistance, and sports rehab therapy to give you a complete workout without straining your joints through running, jumping, or lifting.

Founded by American professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page, this yoga program was first developed for injured athletes.

Page ruptured two spinal discs in his back at the height of his wrestling career and was willing to try anything to rehabilitate himself.

Yoga proved to be the solution for his injuries, and he eventually returned to his wrestling career.

Page created DDP Yoga to help others discover the same restorative benefits.

Within the program, he has blended elements of yoga with other rehabilitation techniques for a unique low-impact exercise regimen for better health and weight loss.

The program can be tailored to both beginners and professional athletes so that everyone can benefit.

Is this yoga program for people who “wouldn’t be caught dead doing yoga” worth it? I put it through its paces to find out.

My analysis below will help you learn more about this program and help you decide if this is the right option for you.

Benefits of DDP Yoga

The DDP Yoga program promises to help you lose weight, increase your flexibility, improve cardiovascular performance, and develop lean muscles.

It claims to activate your muscles through ‘dynamic resistance’ while elevating your heart rate so that you get an intense cardio workout without impacting your joints. Dynamic resistance is the idea of continuously contracting your muscles during a workout to resist the movement.

In other words, you stay flexed and tense when you transition from each pose. This increases your heart rate, puts you in the fat-burning zone, and makes a slow-moving workout more effective for losing weight.

According to DDP, dynamic resistance makes this program accessible for all skill levels because the emphasis isn’t on complicated poses but instead on stretching and strengthening each muscle group.

One study looked at health metrics for obese older adults and found that those who paired resistance training with aerobic exercises that raised their heart rates experienced the most significant improvements in their overall functional status.

Program Features and Details

Most DDP users will access this workout program by way of a subscription through a web browser or its Android or iOS app.

I signed up for DDP Yoga online by sharing my age, height, and weight. Then, it was time to choose a starting program.

This platform starts at a far more basic level than most fitness services, with the first program designed for those who are bedridden and want to eventually upgrade to a chair workout.

The Beginner 2.0 program is targeted towards people who are primarily sedentary and new to exercise, while Intermediate 2.0 is best for those who already get exercise regularly or who have completed the beginner program.

This sounded like my level, so I enrolled in Intermediate 2.0 and started exploring. I was met with a 22-minute introductory video that goes through the program’s full features.

You can then begin browsing suggested workouts or even look at DDP’s video recipes—including a highly original option to use baby teething cookies as an ice cream sandwich base.

This program was set up with workouts separated by days off. Most weeks included active days on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, with rests in between.

Workouts range from 15–60 minutes. Each video is marked by a colored diamond that indicates its difficulty level.

DDP leads most, but other instructors are also featured, and most classes include additional participants, many of whom are DDP Yoga success stories.

Almost every workout will include one person who performs a modified version of each move so that you can adjust the routine to your capabilities.

The app also offers a limited number of workouts designed for children and pregnant women. A new live class is offered each week, and it will remain on the app after.

You can earn points through the app by completing workouts, reading articles, or following recipes. These points can be redeemed for DDP shirts and other merchandise.

The app also includes places for uploading progress photos, sharing your measurements, highlighting your current pain points, and seeing where you fall on the points leaderboard compared to other users.

My Experience with DDP Workouts

I decided to follow the first workout DDP recommended to me, which was a 45-minute “Diamond Dozen 2.0” compilation.

The description told me I would be practicing the fundamental positions at the heart of every workout while learning about dynamic resistance and elevating my heart rate for optimal fat burning.

I followed the workout on my computer, but if I’d used the app, I could have paired a Bluetooth heartrate monitor with the class for extra monitoring.

DDP started the class with a brief introduction to the Diamond Dozen series, and then the video cut to a compilation of isometric resistance moves and stretches.

He performed most of the moves alone in a studio, with a constantly moving camera that quickly left me feeling dizzy.

Some of the moves included assistants that helped demonstrate each movement, and DDP playfully bantered with each one.

Overall, I found the class disjointed and a little too heavy on instruction. Though beginning exercisers might have enjoyed the pacing, I found myself frustrated that I barely felt like I was working out.

The next class in the series was a 26-minute Energy 2.0 class. It incorporated many of the Diamond Dozen positions into a full workout, lead by DDP, and filmed with four other participants.

This class resembled many of the yoga classes I’d taken online before, though it lacked the mood music and soft aesthetic of other programs.

We started with opening stretches and transitioned quickly into planks and routines that resembled sun salutations.

I recognized many of the moves from the Diamond Dozen training and found them far more enjoyable in this workout format.

This class flew by and offered a good range of positions and sequences.

Personally, I still found DDP’s coaching style to be abrasive. It doesn’t help me channel the relaxed state I prefer while doing yoga, though others may appreciate it precisely because it defies traditional yoga conventions.

Analysis of Customer Reviews

On our website, there are five customer reviews for DDP Yoga, averaging 4.8 stars. There are also more than 800 reviews on the program’s official Facebook page, averaging 4.9 stars, and more than 100 on Amazon for the subscription program, averaging 4.4 stars.

Here are the main insights from these reviews:

Common Compliments:

• Great fitness option for anyone with back or joint issues
• Not intimidating for fitness novices to try
• Users lost unwanted pounds and inches
• An excellent way to improve flexibility
• Not “boring” like traditional yoga classes
• DDP brings inspiring energy to each class

Common Complaints:

• Android app can be glitchy
• Hard to sort workouts
• Doesn’t offer much for advanced yogis
• Doesn’t always use the traditional names for yoga poses, which can be confusing for those who have done yoga before

Pricing

All DDP app users are automatically enrolled in a trial version that gives them limited access to the program’s features. For full access, you will need to sign up for a paid subscription.

We were shown different pricing depending on whether we were using the android app or the web. The pricing listed on the website is in parentheses.

• One-month membership: $34.99 ($29.99)/ month
• Three-month membership: $49.99 ($39.99)/ every three months
• Annual Membership: $95.99 ($86.30)/ year

Each of these subscription plans will renew automatically at the end of the membership period unless you cancel at least 24 hours beforehand.

You won’t be refunded for any unused time within your subscription if you cancel early and will retain access to the DDP Yoga until the end of that subscription period.

Beyond the subscription service, you can also purchase the DDP Yoga program through DVD or digital downloads.

These give you the advantage of paying a one-time fee for access, but you won’t benefit from new weekly content, the leaderboard or the point system for rewards.

Currently, these programs range in price from $63.99–$95.20 and include between 16–42 workouts. Each purchase also includes three months of access to the app.

Popular Alternatives to DDP Yoga

At-home yoga programs are increasing in popularity, and two alternatives to DDP Yoga include Glo and Beachbody On Demand.

These three fitness platforms differ significantly. One look at DDP Yoga’s makes it clear that this program is designed to appeal to those who never imagined they would do yoga.

It’s masculine branding and no-nonsense workout structure strips yoga down to the basics of stretching and improving fitness.

Likewise, it offers workouts at a more basic level than the other two platforms in order to appeal to those dealing with injuries or no previous history of exercise.

Glo, in contrast, more closely mimics the experience of attending a traditional yoga studio. Instructors often use the original Sanskrit names for poses and include traditional flows.

It will appeal to those who love yoga and want to practice it on their own time but might turn off people who have little prior experience with it or have no interest in yoga.

Finally, Beachbody On Demand (BOD) offers the broadest categories of home workouts—and costs the least per month.

Once you enroll in a subscription, you gain access to any program on the platform, which means you can balance traditional yoga routines with heavyweight strength-training or Latin-inspired cardio dance classes.

This makes the platform appealing for anyone who doesn’t want to be tied down to one type of workout or instructor style.

Most BOD programs also include dietary guidelines and even recipes, similar to DDP Yoga.

So which program is best? If you’ve never worked out before and feel desperate for a change, DDP yoga offers what you’re looking for without being intimidating. If you’d rather replicate the feeling of your favorite yoga studio in the living room, Glo is a better option.

Those who want to explore a broader range of workout styles will likely be happiest with the variety of programs available from Beachbody on Demand.

The Bottom Line

DDP Yoga earns rave reviews online, and there are countless testimonials from class participants who share this workout program transformed their lives.

While some complain that many of the workouts are too easy for even beginners, the common consensus seems to be that this wrestling-inspired fitness program makes the principles of yoga and gentle strength-training accessible to a demographic that wouldn’t try it otherwise.

If you’re turned off by the “namaste” culture in contemporary yoga but want to do something new to improve your fitness, then signing up for a DDP Yoga trial could be a great choice.

The program’s app is well organized and includes plenty of extras besides the workouts, including recipes and nutrition information.

If, however, you’re like me and have practiced traditional yoga at home for years, DDP’s coaching style can be jarring. This program offered me little of what I like about yoga.

The biggest complaints about this service deal with pricing. The subscription costs vary based on where you shop, and a month-to-month membership is disproportionately expensive compared to an annual one.

For that reason, we think it’s best to take full advantage of the trial period and then sign up for a longer subscription time if you’re interested in continuing.