Yoga Routines Wherever You Are with Yoga Free

Maybe you do not have time to fit a yoga class into your schedule or you want to know the difference between a half crow and a dolphin pose before taking an actual class. Perhaps you already do yoga regularly, but want to develop your own program or learn more poses. Whether you are a beginner or advanced when it comes to yoga, the Yoga Free app has something to offer you.

All images from the Yoga Free app

Available on it iPhone, iPad, Mac and other devices, the Yoga Free app gives you multiple ways to access the over 250 yoga poses, ranging from beginner to yoga guru. In the free version, poses are organized by level of difficulty and type of pose (sitting, standing, lying on the stomach, lying on the back, from the table position and inverted) and each pose features a large picture of a woman in the pose and a short paragraph of instruction.  The photo and instructions are in separate tabs, making it difficult for those who benefit from seeing the pose while reading the instructions.

Customized Yoga Programs

While the collection of poses is extensive, what you can do with those poses is what makes the app worthwhile. Rather than just giving you a list of poses to complete, Yoga Free helps you design a yoga program. Choose from a quick recipe program or design your own program by choosing poses from the collection. When a pose is included as part of a program, you also have access to pictures of the muscles the pose works, allowing you to see the physical benefits of your program or to design a program targeting specific areas. Once you have chosen a program, you click start and the app takes you through the program, playing relaxing music, reading aloud the name of each pose and providing oral instructions and pictures to help you complete each pose.

Understanding and Motivating

To help you get into a routine and understand the benefits of yoga, the app offers a calendar feature which tracks your daily routines and provides you with inspirational quotes to keep you motivated. You can also share your workouts on Facebook and Twitter, encouraging your friends to applaud you for your efforts or hold you accountable for you workouts.

The iPad version of the app is designed to help you understand yoga even more, offering HD video guides, access to Yoga Magazine with articles on yoga, recipes and special programs, which are also featured on Yoga.com. It takes a few minutes to figure out how to use the different features, but once you do, you will be ready to say Namaste and click “start” on your first yoga program. In every version except the Mac version you can customize your music to set the tone for a yoga session that is designed to benefit you.  Don’t like a pose as you go through a routine? Delete it or add another pose if you think you need a bigger challenge. The goal of the app is to not only educate you about yoga poses, but to help you make yoga work for you.

All images from the Yoga Free app

By Stacy Zeiger
Stacy Zeiger is an 8th grade English teacher, writer and mother of two who holds a B.A. in English and M.Ed. in Secondary Education from Ohio State University.