Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your body, but also one of the hardest activities to start out on as a newbie. There are so many choices: do you go to the gym (and which gym?), run outside (how do you track your goals?), or try your hand at group fitness like yoga or boot camp? Once you decide what sounds like the right activity you have to figure out where to go? Stay home and do it on an app or try a studio/gym?
The options are endless and yoga and fitness apps have come a long way since their inception — there’s almost too many to go through. One of the oldest apps, with the most traction, is MINDBODY and was founded in 2001. MINDBODY still outperforms its peers, but does not offer in-app classes.
The ability to do a work out and sweat on your own time is game changer — you can pause, rewind, or grab a glass of water. Many of the newer fitness apps offer video components, some free of charge, others subscription-based. And then there’s YouTube. Honestly, navigating the world of YouTube can be just as overwhelming as finding the right fit in a yoga studio, and if you don’t want to pay, there’s ads.
There are so many choices, too. Do you want strength training, yoga, beginner’s help with running? MINDBODY is a good app to cover all those bases, and use of it is free. It finds studios based on your location and has suggestions in the search bar. It’s user interface makes it one of the easier apps to use as all the studios paired with MINDBODY are searchable and show prices and class times.
If you type in “fitness” in YouTube you get an endless scroll of videos that have very little to do with an actual work out, which is frustrating and time consuming. If you’re new to yoga you can use any number of apps to get started, one such app is Down Dog. You set your preferences and can start with “Intro to Yoga” and work your way up to “Advanced”. You get to choose the length, or if you want a “boost,” which is adding in abs or twists (some of which are free, some are “pro” features). You can add music and really customize your practice. It is a wonderful app for just starting out.
Daily Yoga is another yoga app that focuses more on community and you can track your practice with your phone, connecting to get points, and see how you’re progressing. When you log in there is a “Today’s Recommendation” section which recommends a program in the “pro” section, which, if you subscribe for a year is roughly $1.67/month for the silver program and $3.33/month for the gold. There are free areas in the app, but to get the best out of it you will need to subscribe. There’s a section to add friends and compare results and you can follow popular users in the “all yogis” section for a bit of a competitive streak.
All in all, there are so many apps out there and most of them offer basic intro classes/videos to advanced practice classes. There really is an app for everyone!
Author: Aly Casey