Yoga has gained popularity over the years, with it’s meditation, breathwork training, and movement to boost your body and mind. Research has found many benefits to doing yoga: flexibility, strengthening your core, stress relief, improving insomnia and sleep apnea, and much more. Unless you are in a very good habit of practicing yoga, it can be difficult to stay on track. This is where a yoga app may come in handy.
But why a yoga app? Yoga teacher and founder of Peachy with Zoe Warren rates yoga apps and particularly recommends them for those struggling to find time for IRL sessions. “Very few of us have hours of time for home practices or can make it to a class every day,” she shares.
Using a phone app allows you to practice anywhere at any time, says meditation and yoga teacher Aysha Bell. With this range of options available, and from a plethora of teachers, you’ll be able to nail what kind of yoga you’re into. Each app will have it’s focal point, as Eloise Skinner, yoga, breathwork, and meditation instructor notes.
Bell says there isn’t a “best” way to use a yoga app, per se. “Set yourself a routine,” she urges. Just short scheduled yoga breaks in the morning or evening can be beneficial.
Warren agrees. “With our phones often glued to our sides it is so helpful to be able to squeeze in a twenty-minute wake-up flow before breakfast, a five-minute meditation while the bath runs, or perhaps a ten-minute wind-down stretch after a busy day,” she says.
There’s really no downside to using yoga apps. Any movement is good movement. However, technology has changed the way we work out at home, so it’s worth remembering the fact that you’re not actually in the room with a qualified professional.
“There is nothing quite like having a real life adjustment – I would say this is the only drawback [to using a yoga app],” says Bell. “Always stay in tune with your breath,” she says in regards to how to deal with this. “Use downward dog to come back to a nice balanced expansive breath and find stillness in between postures.”
Keep scrolling to find Warren, Bell, and Skinner’s favorite yoga apps.
- Gaia
Gaia contains an abundance of online resources featuring meditation, alternative healing, and personal transformation content, including yoga classes. Skinner says there’s a good offering on the app for beginners. However, it’s also great for experienced yogis too, featuring Vinyasa, Hatha, Ashtanga, breathwork and meditation classes.
Cost: Free seven-day trail, then $11.99
2. Alo Moves
This app is a great option for those who also love pilates and barre, as it also offers those practices, too, while maintaining a strong yoga offering. Skinner loves the easy-to-use filtering system, which enables you to easily maneuver through a vast range of styles, instructors, and class lengths to find the ideal match.
Cost: Free 14-day trail, then $20/month.
3. Yoga with Adriene (Find What Feels Good)
Adriene’s Youtube channel has become a complete success with 11.4 million subscribers. Well now fans of Adriene can find extra content on the app. The Find What Feels Good app provides users with bonus content you won’t find on YouTube, and guest teachers and topics (such as meditation and lifestyle topics) are featured on the app.
Cost: Free seven day trial, then $12.99/month.
4. Pocket Yoga
Pocket Yoga is a popular app among beginners thanks to the ease and openness of its flows. Both Skinner and Bell rate it, with Skinner adding that “instructions are clear and straightforward, plus you can select your difficulty level to tailor your experience even further.”
Cost: $2.99 one-time cost
5. Down Dog
“Great yoga anywhere” is the tagline of this app, which is stocked with choices for all ages and levels, including prenatal yoga. Skinner adores how the app offers a personalized experience by taking users through basic questions about their yoga journey and preferences, prior to downloading.
Cost: Free, but some content is locked. For full access, a subscription is $9.99
6. Move Your Frame
This app began from the London studio, Move Your Frame. It hosts more than 200 on-demand and live-stream classes (plus allows you to book in-studio classes if you’re in London). Skinner loves the fun and energetic vibe and notes that it’s a go-to for yoga classes with a more playful practice.
Cost: Free, but on-demand workouts cost $7/month.
7. 5 Minute Yoga
“A perfect option for anyone who feels like they don’t have time for yoga,” says Skinner. “Each five-minute sequence is carefully designed to give you a balanced – but -brief – experience of the practice.”
The app includes a timer, so you’ll easily have to stick to those five minutes.
Cost: $4-19.99 depending on selection.
8. Happy place: Fearne Cotton
Warren suggests checking out Fearne Cotton’s new app, including yoga meditation, breathwork, and other features from her top pick of experts.
Cost: Free.
9. Headspace
It’s probably the most widely-known meditation app out there, but what many don’t realize is that it’s also yoga friendly, too. Skinner says, “One type of meditation that yoga students might be particularly interested in is Shavasana – traditionally the closing meditation to a dynamic yoga practice.”
“Headspace has a dedicated article to the practice which takes you to their recommended accompanying meditations,” she explains.
Warren also enjoys the app, calling it, “a simple but highly effective meditation app for beginners and beyond.”
Cost: Free seven-day trial, then a subscription of $12.99
10. Insight Timer
Even though this isn’t your traditional yoga app that may offer Vinyasa and Hatha flows, it’s ideal if you’re trying to improve your meditation, mindfulness, or breathwork skills. Skinner loves Insight Timer, due to its large options of meditation practices, with highly qualified instructors. She suggests it as an app for yogis who are trying to supplement their practices: “Try adding on to the end of a yoga session, or even begin your practice with a brief meditation.”
Cost: There are 13,000 free guided meditations and the app is free. For Member Plus subscriptions, there is a seven-day trial followed by $59.99/year.
No matter which one (or ones!) you choose, these yoga apps should get you on the track to a better yoga practice in no time.
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