Price: £2.99
Compatibility: Apple software (Information from the app store: Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimised for iPhone 5) I have an iPhone 4S (living in the stone age, I know!) and it works perfectly on mine.
Other Information: Voted 'Best Yoga App for iPhone' in the Best App Ever Awards 2013 (see app store for reviews and more information).
Verdict: HIT!!
If you have read my previous blog post on dealing with stress on my old blog site (www.georgiageorgiou17.wix.xom/beautyandtheteach) you will know that I am very much into yoga and have been since January 2014. Through my yoga practice so far, I have been to many different classes and tried a few different styles to see what suited me the most as I was mainly there for stress relief and relaxation. Personally, having a dance background, I found it easy to pick up techniques, poses and routines fairly quickly which meant that I enjoyed challenging myself with harder, more complex moves as time went on. One problem I did have was my schedule; I was too busy to commit to attend classes on a weekly basis and being a student sometimes meant that I didn't always have money to spend on classes each week. I decided to try and find yoga routines that I could follow at home when and if I had any free time, which is when I stumbled across Yoga Studio in the app store.
Now let me tell you straight, this app is good. I wouldn't be recommending a £2.99 app to you otherwise because we all love a good free alternative! The main things I love about Yoga Studio is that it has classes readily prepared for you to follow for all levels/abilities (which come complete with an instructors voice to follow and on screen demonstrations as well), there are different types of classes for different needs such as stretching, meditation etc and there is a whole bank of yoga asanas/poses at your disposal with a full description and accompanying image telling you how to do each one correctly. Each pose in the bank has the names in English and Sanskrit (if they aren't new variations) as well, so whichever way you have been learning the asanas in class or if you are a complete yoga novice you can understand everything. Also, there is a scheduling tool whereby you download the classes you want to do and schedule to do them into your day and it remembers the time and date to remind you! This links to your iPhone/pod/pad calendar so it's visible there too! What more could you need!
The 'Studio' section of the app is where you can customise your routines, classes, yoga focus and duration of the classes you chose to do. This is great because each person can make a full routine which suits their level, focus and time frame they have to do the workout in, so if you have 5 minutes to spare or 45 minutes there is something for everyone.I won't go on too much more because there are just so many great things about this app that really make it worth the price in my opinion. I have had the app for around a year now and always know I have a full yoga class to complete, tailored to me when I have the time to do it.
I hope this post helped to encourage more of you to go out and try yoga, especially with this great app at your fingertips, and be active no matter what your schedule is like! I'd love to hear in the comments what fitness apps you have been loving so I can try them out too! Thank you for reading and share this post if you liked it xoxo
Links for more information on the app and to download it:
http://yogastudioapp.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/yoga-studio/id567767430?mt=8
