I discovered Yoga Studio app a few months ago and so far I think it may be the best valued app I’ve ever downloaded. Only $3.99 in the App Store, it offers classes of multiple lengths in levels from beginner to advanced. The $3.99 is a one-time price, with no in-app purchases to buy, which makes it an amazing value. It works on the iPhone and iPad.
The Yoga Studio app has an extensive library of poses that it collects in various classes which runs the poses in near-seamless videos. Or you can create your own custom classes by picking and choosing whichever poses you want in the order you want. The options are practically limitless, which means you may likely never get bored.
The poses are narrated with a soft-sounding female voice and a light new-agey background sound. The narrator is comforting and encouraging as she instructs you how to position yourself.
Yoga Studio app is designed for all experience levels. The first classes I did were beginner level, which include easier poses such as downward dog, vinyasa, and warrior II. After I felt comfortable in those poses, I eased myself into the intermediate-level classes, which I am still doing. For more advanced yogis, however, the advanced-level poses include harder-to-master poses like crane and toe stand.
You can choose classes based on time and focus. The three focuses are flexibility, strength, or balance, but you can also choose a combination. If you are really short on time, you can still squeeze a 10-minute “Quick Yoga Fix” or a 15-minute class into your busy schedule. If you have more time, you can do a 30- or 60-minute class or one you’ve customized for much longer. You choose the right class to fit your own needs and your own schedule. I find the 30-minute classes work perfect for squeezing into a workday lunch hour.
You can customize classes. Because I have a slow-healing knee injury, I wanted to skip poses like camel because it adds pressure to my knee. I found that I could skip that pose by either pressing the right arrow on the screen when it came up, or by creating my own custom class that eliminates the pose. The custom classes are easy to make as you can model them off existing classes or start them from scratch. One draw-back of a custom class, however, is that it lacks the detailed narration of the ready-made classes.
There are some specially geared classes that I have not yet tried, including ones customized for back pain and for runners. For the overstressed, Yoga Studio app also features guided meditation sessions in 5-, 10-, or 20-minute lengths.
One neat function in Yoga Studio is a calendar that lets you schedule yoga session right onto your iOS calendar. When it is start time, the calendar entry includes a link that, when selected, starts the class immediately. It also allows you to repeat the class so you can do the same class at the same time every week or at another cycle, which is for great for people who like to keep a rigid schedule.
One thing I noticed is that the app has not been updated in more than a year, since June 2014. However, it works fine on the current iOS, so I do not think there would be any bugs to correct. Overall, this app is terrific. Five stars and well worth $3.99.
