Of all the ancient disciplines that encourage concentration, yoga is among the most popular worldwide. With its epicentre in ancient India, the practice has advanced significantly in recent centuries to find dozens of variants that allow different levels of meditation.
Although in-person classes are indeed recommended for all those who are starting in this art, there is more than one alternative if your routine allows you a limited amount of time.
Among all of these, free yoga apps are, without a doubt, the best option to take advantage of those free minutes and start exploring the benefits that the practice generates in our bodies. The best of all is that they are a great tool for getting started with yoga at home, without paying, without going to in-person classes and from the comfort of your home.
If you are looking for some, here we will present you the best ones you can find in the App Store and Google Play.
The best yoga apps at home for Android and iOS
Although many believe that you need hours for a complete yoga routine, the truth is that 15 minutes a day will be enough for you to get started and become familiar with the movements. Without further ado, we are going to show you some free online yoga applications that will help you guide your routine:
1. Down Dog
Perhaps one of the most popular yoga applications on Android and iOS, to the point of being a reference among beginners and advanced users. Its interface can be configured in a total of 10 languages and the classes are customizable to choose from a catalog of 6 teachers (in order to alternate the voice you hear).
Unlike many similar apps, Down Dog does not have static videos that will limit your repetitive practices, but rather you can make multiple personalized combinations so that you do not perform the same routine more than once (combinations exceed 60,000).
Although it is free, some of its content requires an extra investment and if you want to access all its functions, you will need a Premium version. You can install it from iOS 9.3 and Android 4.2 and you can stream directly through Chromecast for a more complete experience.
2. Yoga to burn fat in 30 days & beginners
A software that can be considered a virtual assistant, since it guides step by step how to do each exercise and provides recommendations on how to avoid inappropriate postures. This option is intended for beginners who want to experience a routine for 30 continuous days, which will systematically increase in difficulty.
In total, you can find 80 yoga exercises of 10 minutes each and with combinations of two variants of the practice: kundalini and hatha. All exercises have an audio, text and video guide so you can perform the movements with 100% reliability.
You can configure its standard values to increase the difficulty or average time of each daily routine. Its interface integrates a graph with progress and you can opt for virtual rewards that will motivate you even more to not abandon the cycle. At the moment, it is only compatible with Android from 4.4 or higher versions.
3. Yoga For Beginners Asana
Software that can be downloaded for free, but that expands its basic functions after a Premium subscription. Behind the app are experts from all over the world who give you advice and create routines based on your level. All videos are available in HD and have their respective audio accompaniment.
All routines can be downloaded to access them offline and it has a 24/7 recommendation system that takes your progress within the app as a starting point. You can also establish a direct advice channel with a coach to execute everything in a virtual format.
The music integrated into the software is 100% natural and it also has a special section on what diet to implement to complement the exercises you will do daily. It is compatible as of iOS 9.0 and can be synced with Apple Health with just one click.
4. Daily Yoga
Listed by The Wall Street Journal as one of the “5 Addictive Fitness Apps”, and belonging to the Editors’ Choice on Google Play, it is one of the applications best valued by yoga beginners. All its content is aimed at guiding users step by step in perfecting the movements.
If you want personalized attention, you can contact one of the 20 professional trainers who will provide you with programs appropriate to your age, lifestyle and time. If you do not want to access this function, you can use the virtual Smart Coach, which will give you different possibilities during a 30-day cycle so as not to give up on the process.
You can synchronize the software on multiple devices and it allows you to connect with Google Fit and Apple Health. After a trial period, you will have to opt for some of the available plans. Its content is frequently updated with new routines or participants.
5. Mudras
Although its operation may be a bit simple, it is an app designed especially for beginners. Once you have downloaded it, you will have access to more than 50 mudras and the gestures you make with your hands while practising yoga.
You can set up a daily notification system so you don’t forget your hand yoga practice and choose from a variety of natural musical backgrounds to accompany your practices.
6. Track Yoga
Compatible with 10 different types of yoga, including Baba Ramdev, ashtanga and pranayama. Although it can be used by anyone, the application has been focused especially on the less experienced, since everything is reviewed step by step so that you will soon become an expert in the area.
To encourage you to carry out daily routines, the software integrates the following functions:
- A personalized notification system that reminds you what type of routine you have.
- A progress graph where you keep track of the days and the average time spent on the app.
- A points system with which you can unlock Premium content.
Regarding the latter, although it is free to download, you will need a subscription to continue having access to all the content. This is divided into 3 levels (low, medium and high), it has more than 15 variants and the poses are distributed in a system of categories that allow you to explore and combine new routines.
7. Yoga Workout
If you are looking for an application to start yoga for free, with this software you will find everything you need in one place. Unlike the other options, it has long routines that you can implement on weekends, or if your schedule is not particularly heavy.
The content available is 100% free, with no videos to unlock or Pro subscriptions. The sessions are divided into several categories, with some especially recommended, such as morning yoga, tension detox or just for stretching.
The videos that accompany each routine are in 3D. Its entire interface has been designed educationally so that you are encouraged to use the app every day, you will have no problem following the graphics and videos you see on the screen.
8. Yoga Studio Mind and Body
Although you can download the app on your tablet or mobile, its developer has made it compatible with Chromecast so that you can turn your living room into a place to practice yoga. Its free version is available for 7 days. Next, you will have to subscribe to some of the plans offered by the developer.
The routines have been developed by experts and have comments on how to perform each movement, how they benefit you and extra curiosities of interest. As you progress, the classes increase in difficulty, to the point that when you finish you will have the necessary knowledge to function independently.
Its interface distributes 80 classes available in HD videos that have an average duration of between 5 and 60 minutes. Although you can follow the standard classes, you can also customize your own to expand the repertoire of options once you have progressed through the entire process.
9. Yoga postures and classes
Ideal for people who don’t have much free time and want a peaceful escape for a few minutes. Although it integrates HD video, it also has a series of step-by-step graphics of more than 110 postures of the main yoga variants.
To navigate between all of these you can do so with their name, type, skill or focus. In total, the app has 9 classes that last between 10-30 minutes. If you interrupt one of these halfway, you can stop it and continue it the next day through its history.
In case you want to enlarge the screen of your mobile, you can do so through AirPlay or Chromecast. The application also includes a series of tips to improve your posture or your progress in each class and offers a whole range of apps for doing exercise at home that you can download as a complement.
10. Hatha yoga at home
Probably the best app to do hatha yoga of all. The classes take up time ranging from 30 days to 3 months and can be extended much more based on the combinations that you can make yourself within the app.
Something new that is not present in the previous alternatives is that it has an initial stretching system that lasts from 5 to 10 minutes and that prepares you to face the postures of each class.
You can also sign up for challenges suggested by the developer, where you will quickly improve your flexibility and skill in certain asanas. Monthly updates include new material so you can continue using the app on an ongoing basis.
11. Simply Yoga, perfect for family practice
An application whose degree of difficulty is levelled for amateur practitioners, so it can be a great excuse to share a different moment with the family and establish a new hobby among everyone. For greater control, you can pair it with the Health app on your iOS devices.
The software is distributed in 2 versions: one free and one paid. In the first, you have access to 3 predefined video routines, 30 poses and training levels ranging from 20, 40 or 60 minutes. Each material has been reviewed by a qualified professional and each poses you see in the videos is developed by one of these.
The Premium version, offers personalized routines, access to new classes and removing ads from the free version. It also allows you to access daily routines of conventional exercises, such as sit-ups or squats so that everyone in the family begins to explore a healthy lifestyle.
12. Pocket Yoga, perfect to get started
The graphics in this app are not from real trainers, but from virtual avatars that guide you step by step on how you should develop each posture. In total, you can find more than 200 that are distributed in 27 guided classes.
If you have questions about them, you can find a dictionary with all the asanas, their definition, how to do them, the most common mistakes and their main benefits for our bodies. If you want, you can keep a record of each of your routines to measure your progress day after day.
As for background music, although it has an internal repertoire, you can use the one from your iPod library. You can also sync it with your Smart TV for a more vivid experience. For now, the app is only in English and can be installed from iOS 11.0.
- Download for Android
- Download for iOS
13. 5 minutes of yoga, for the busiest
Their exercises never take more than 5 minutes and are designed to encourage movement when you have been working non-stop for hours or have spent a lot of time in a sedentary posture.
Its interface allows you to configure a notification system up to 5 times per day. This way, you will not overlook each of the routines and will facilitate a healthier life. You cannot only use it in the work context but also before starting your day or at the end of it.
The best of all is that you can choose the posture that best suits your age, weight, gender and even the space you have at that moment to develop it. Although it is free to download, some features are only accessible after a paid subscription.
14. Yoga & Meditation by Glo
We cannot say goodbye to this list without talking about YogaGlo’s star app, Yoga & Meditation. If the previous options have seemed a little limiting in the routines, with this one you will be able to compensate for any possible loose ends because its software integrates 3,000 classes of approximately 12 different yoga styles.
You can also find pilates tables for mobile and meditation, it has a personalized recommendation system and you can also access classes guided by experts in each of the areas. If you don’t want to follow some of the routines that are already designed, you can create your own with just one click.
Allows you to download the sessions to enjoy them offline. It can be used by any yoga fan, although we recommend it for those who already have some basic notion. If you want to access all its content, you must get the paid version after the free trial.
The benefits of practising yoga
Although you may have already searched for them, it is almost impossible not to introduce you to some of the benefits of yoga.
It is no coincidence that the practice has managed to cross cultures and time barriers with relative ease until it has established itself as the favourite of millions of people around the world. The moment you start your routine, your body will be benefiting from the following:
- Some postures contribute to weight loss (such as surya namaskar and kapalbhati pranayama).
- It helps release tension and relieve stress and anxiety.
- Improve your nighttime habits, because your body secretes serotonin during prolonged periods of tranquility.
- Improve your mood.
- Helps strengthen your concentration.
- It encourages flexibility in your body, which results in better health.
- Correct some defects in your posture (also some pain derived from it, whether muscle or bone).
- It teaches you to control your breathing.
In recent decades, yoga has been the subject of numerous scientific studies that support each of these attributes. Recent research, for example, concludes that the sum of all these factors can serve as an antiaging therapy.
If you practice it regularly, following the postures to the letter and also adding small changes to your daily routine, you can motivate yourself to a new direction in life that will only bring advantages in the medium and long term.
Tips for doing yoga at home
To say goodbye, we will accompany everything we have mentioned so far with some recommendations so that you can take 100% advantage of the apps that have been analyzed. You just have to implement them at the precise moment you use them so that you don’t throw in the towel when you still have a lot to experience:
- Don’t try to do more than your body can. Normally, you want to skip a couple of basic postures to go to the most popular ones, but this will only lead to fruitless actions and, sometimes, injuries. All in due time.
- Define which style of yoga best suits your tastes and needs. This will be your starting point for consolidating your routines.
- Create an ideal space for postures. To do this, try to make it transmit as much peace as possible and make it large enough to perform some exercises.
- Set fixed hours for your practices. Although it can be a bit monotonous, in principle it is a great help so that you don’t give up.
- Buy extra equipment such as mats, cushions and appropriate clothing. Depending on the type you are practising, you may need more complex elements.
- Encourage other members of your family to practice with you. With this you will have extra motivation and no one will interrupt you when you are fully active.
The extra advice we can give you is that you don’t stop researching this wonderful ancient art. There are hundreds of books and videos that you can consult so that you not only become an expert in the practice but also in the theory. In a short time, you will start to see results and you will never want to give up again.
