“Yoga Trainer” by NexStudios has a great app that you can load onto your iPhone or iPod touch for only $0.99 – or you could try their ‘Lite’ version for free.

The only major difference between the two is that the Lite version has advertising. Aside from that, they both pack over 70+ poses and nine pre-defined yoga sequences, in addition to their quick introduction to yoga.

On first appearances, this app seems relatively simple, but once you look under the hood and begin to put it to use, you’ll find it extremely customizable as it allows an unlimited number of possible custom yoga sessions.

You’re provided with some templates to get you started, but I usually find it more fun to make my own sequences.

From the home screen of the app, you can choose from a list of courses:

• Introduction to Yoga
• Advanced Poses
• Daily Warm-up Yoga
• Daily Yoga Session
• Full Course
• Meditation Course
• Pranayama Course
• Pre-Natal Course
• Sun Salute Series
• Yoga for Abs

Once you choose your class, a slide show will start immediately and there’s a small timer in the corner of each card that counts down the length for each pose. At the start of each new pose, a male voice announces both the English and Sanskrit name for the pose. There is a small five-second intermediary timer between each slide that allows you to make pose adjustments.

Aside from the brief audible title of the pose and a small chime between poses, there is no other auditory sound, which means if you’re unfamiliar with how to do the pose, you’ll need to pause it and flip the pose card over to read the back for a detailed step-by-step written instruction.

While this may seem a little cumbersome and perhaps even edging on annoying to a new yoga student, I actually found it quite useful not to have someone constantly talking throughout the entire pose.

There is also no background ambiance soundtrack or music (which would be a nice feature). However, you can load up anything you like in the iPod and play it in the background while the Yoga Trainer app is running, which means you can essentially create your own soundtrack.

A few other noteworthy features include:

• Making your own notes on each pose
• Being able to adjust the times for length of each pose
• Shaking to shuffle random poses
• Basic searching for poses

Creating a custom sequence is by far the most useful feature of this app. It’s a very efficient and easy process as you can simply give it a name, browse or search through all 70+ poses and quickly add as many as you like. Once you’ve added all the asanas that you want, you can quickly reorder them using the same standard sorting feature found in other native iPhone apps.

It’s also useful to be able to hear the correct pronunciations of each pose in Sanskrit, which is great for those who love learning these tongue-twisters. I always find it interesting to learn the correct Sanskrit names for the poses and often it takes me a long time and many classes before I’m able to remember which names are for what poses. This function is especially helpful if you aren’t attending live classes or your instructor doesn’t choose to use the Sanskrit names.

Either way, I’ve found that the search function of this app works well as a flash card system. All 70+ poses are categorized into various sections (e.g. beginners, advanced, core, arm balancers, etc.) You can simply browse through each category, read the English name and attempt to remember the correct name and pronunciation of the Sanskrit name, which is what I do. Then you just need to tap the pose to see if you’re correct.

This could also be a very handy feature for newly practicing yoga teachers who need to brush up on their skills before their next class.

As mentioned above, you can customize the time and length of each pose, which is very helpful. However, it’s a global setting so you can’t have one time for a child’s pose at 60 seconds in workout session #1 and a different time (say three minutes) for a second workout session. I found that out when I was trying to create my own Yin Yoga sequence.

My work-around was to simply buy the Yoga Trainer Pro app and keep the Lite version on my phone so that I could keep most of my custom yoga sessions in the Pro version. But in the Lite version, I’ve changed the time for each of the poses to last three to six minutes, which I use for all my Yin yoga sessions.

In conclusion, I give this app a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. I’ve seen a few revisions to the app over the past six months and will upgrade my rating to 5 full stars when they post full voice guided instructions, and possibly even a full motion video (although I’m not sure it’s necessary for some of the more basic poses.)

A few other features that would be nice to have are:

1) To be able to see the time and length of each sequence from the main screen since there is currently no way of determining the length without having to go through the entire process and time yourself, or skip through each slide and total up all the minutes.

2) Advanced search that would not only search the basic English titles but also give the ability to search the Sanskrit versions, the full pose descriptions, and your own custom notes. It would also be great to have an icon displayed on the face of each pose card to indicate which slides have custom notes.

There are dozens of other yoga iPhone apps available, but in my opinion this one ranks in the top five. Stay tuned for future reviews of other apps.

Tags: iPhone, iPod touch, iTouch, Apple, yoga iPhone, yoga apps, yoga trainer, Yoga Trainer Pro app

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]]> http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-iphone-apps/feed/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-price-incentives/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-price-incentives/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:00:27 +0000 Jane Community Yoga http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-price-incentives/ At a time when more mom-and-pop stores of all types are closing because people are spending less money, businesses that are staying afloat are finding ways to earn your business and help you save money. During this downturn in the economy, we are even seeing big business disappear. For those that are going strong and still operating, they are changing with the times. They are offering huge incentives and benefits to customers.

Have you seen the car commercials? No maintenance costs for a year, assurance programs that allow you to return a car if you lose your job, or other car manufacturers that will make your monthly payments up to a year due to a job loss.

It seems everywhere I turn there are savings to be had, from clothing to dining out offers. However, if you’re like many Americans, we are keeping a close eye on our pocket books and choosing very carefully where our hard-earned money gets spent. As we cut back on certain luxuries, consider all the important things we need to keep up on, like our health. Let’s face it – stress will take a toll on anybody whether you feel it immediately or later. Everyone has their own way of managing it. Maybe you go for a jog, a hike, or do a certain hobby. Of course, there’s also yoga as another great practice to ease stress.

Studios want you to keep up your physical practice, so they will come up with programs and payment plans to help you save on membership. Some yoga studios are quite generous. I know of one that keeps track of the current classes you are attending and gives it a dollar amount. At the end of the month, it totals your attendance and multiples it by an allotted dollar amount to offer you a good discount on your next set of classes. Check out incentives at your local yoga studio. You’ll pat yourself on the back for attending regularly and smile when you save money the next time you plop your yoga mat down for a good stress-relieving pose.

Tags: keeping up yoga practice, cost of doing yoga, staying healthy, yoga savings, businesses offering deals

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]]> http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-price-incentives/feed/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-during-surgery/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-during-surgery/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:47:36 +0000 Angie Yoga and Health http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-during-surgery/ I recently had surgery done on my eyes. Based on personal experience, it is not something that I would want to do again. I’m sure you can imagine the amount of discomfort one would feel, having to lie awake while people are inserting foreign objects in and around your eyes.

The surgery I had was Epi-Lasik, which was done about two weeks ago. Yes, I know it is not an “intense” surgical procedure like ACL replacement, but it is still surgery nonetheless - AND on my eyes, for that matter. Epi-Lasik is a cross between Lasik and Lasek, where it requires the doctors to cut the outer layer of the cornea - the epithelium. They do this by inserting a tubular device into the eye to suction the layer prior to cutting it. I won’t go into gory details about the procedure, but natural human instinct shies away from having things done to the eye area. People don’t normally go sticking things into your eyes, and to have to force yourself to calm down while this procedure is taking place takes a lot of effort.

Even though I was given a healthy dose of numbing drops for my eyes and some valium to calm my nerves prior to surgery, neither helped me. I think it’s funny what goes on inside your head when you are lying around waiting for the surgery to start.

I therefore decided to try some yoga to see if it would help calm my nerves.

As I was lying on the table, I did the best I could to try and relax as the doctors started the surgical procedure on the first eye - my right eye. I took a deep breath in and mentally focused on my breathing as I lay there in Savasana (corpse) pose. That helped calm me down a lot better than the valium did. Having my first eye operated on was definitely not a very pleasant experience. In fact, my eye felt rather irritated due to the numbing drops that they put in as well as the suction device that they were using.

Once they were done with my right eye, it was onto my left one. When they began to suction my left eye, I accidentally moved my eyeball at the last minute and the wrong part was suctioned, which was very uncomfortable. I asked the doctor to give me a minute as I tried to re-center myself and my mind. I took a couple of breaths and focused again for the next part of the procedure. Again, more irritation.

I was so relieved when the surgery was finally over! And you know, while it wasn’t my intention to write a full blog regarding my Lasik surgery, I think I’ve proven to myself that it really is possible to do yoga practically anywhere!

Tags: Savasana, corpse pose, breath, Epi-Lasik, Lasik, surgery

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]]> http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-during-surgery/feed/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/amazing-baby-yoga/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/amazing-baby-yoga/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 19:34:21 +0000 Madoka My Yoga Practice http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/amazing-baby-yoga/ It’s been a long time since I posted my last blog, although it feels just like yesterday. I can’t seem to catch up with my daily life – it’s that fast how the days have been passing by.

Even though I have such a busy schedule, however, I sometimes play with Christina’s child. The other day he was in a “Yoga mood,” which started in the morning when he was teaching yoga to his baby-sitter. That evening, I decided to look for a yoga video on YouTube and started watching it with him.

While I was encouraging him to do yoga with me, he kept looking around and moving some stuff, so I thought his “yoga mood” was gone. But after a few minutes, I found out he was actually looking for a yoga mat for me!! The yoga mat he found was the plastic mat that you use under the office chair to make the chair move smoothly(!?)

He knows that we practice yoga on a yoga mat, so he wanted to offer a mat for me because I was just doing yoga on the carpet. I gratefully accepted his offer and started practicing yoga on the plastic mat. As you can imagine, it wasn’t very comfortable but I did just for a while to show my appreciation.

So what did he do after finding the “yoga mat”? Well, he brought his own “yoga mat,” which turned out to be the plastic mat that you use in the bathtub to prevent yourself from slipping. According to Christina, he wanted to bring two mats to the room where the TV is and start practicing yoga on the mat!

Actually, a few days ago, I’d asked him, “Can you do yoga? What’s yoga?” He’d responded by putting those two mats on the floor and asked me to use one of them while he used the other. Then he started doing downward facing dog. So I did the same on the mat that he kindly placed for me, even though it was only two or three feet long.

It’s so amazing that an almost two-and-a-half year-old kid knows what yoga is and wants to start teaching it to us. His favorite challenging pose is tree pose. What’s next?

Tags: baby yoga, yoga mat, downward facing dog, tree pose, yoga practice with a baby, yoga for child

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]]> http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/amazing-baby-yoga/feed/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/guided-meditation/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/guided-meditation/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 15:00:07 +0000 Jane My Yoga Practice http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/guided-meditation/ The ten or 15 minutes of a guided meditation at the end of each yoga class is a contemplative thing for me. I think too much about the meditation itself, but I must admit that it’s time allotted for relaxation. So I take advantage of the fact that my time on a mat means a moment not to think about outside plans and tasks. However, I end up filling my mind with the words being spoken to me, telling me to imagine a light, or at other times think about “melting into the earth”.  I start wondering about the idea of a sparkling light traveling through different parts of my body and how that light is supposed to help a particular area.

I’m wondering if, in some subliminal way, this light is healing, or if it simply allows me to put some attention to my throat or abdomen as it travels down to my toes. Maybe it’s just a way to not neglect or take for granted those body parts that we don’t always think about but use everyday.

When we identify each part and, in a sense, permit our foreheads to relax, our jaws to relax, our wrists…and so forth, we become more aware of those muscles. It’s like my wrists are a different entity from my chin and that I need to give them each their own time.

I do appreciate this type of attention to specific parts of my body, but each time I go through a guided meditation, I really do think about them, as opposed to going into a meditative state. To me, a meditative state is an unknown feeling of incredible bliss, which I don’t believe I have experienced in a room full of people. I have heard others in my class snore because they are so relaxed that they go into sleep mode. I cannot do that. And honestly, I don’t want to because I feel that meditation is very intimate.

At times I wonder what time it is in the darkness of the room, I know, I’m so strange. Once, I became quite uncomfortable. My eyes moved back and forth fairly rapidly under my lids and I could not wait to be done with meditation. That was an unusual day; I must have wanted to go and do something else right after yoga. Like I said though, that only happened once and I still can’t explain why, but now I just allow myself not to be hurried. I just occupy my mind with the curiosity of meditation that takes the space of stress or worries, and I can accept that.

Tags: meditation, relaxation, attention to body parts, restfulness

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]]> http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/guided-meditation/feed/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/painting-for-mothers-day/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/painting-for-mothers-day/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 09:00:00 +0000 Jane Spirituality of Life http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/painting-for-mothers-day/ What are you doing this weekend? Are you planning anything fun and exciting? Perhaps it’s one of those weekends to catch up with friends? Or maybe even better is finding time for yourself. That’s the kind of weekend I’m going to have.

My first priority is to start each morning on the mat, doing yoga of course. Then, my goal is to finish a painting I started months or perhaps even a year ago – I can’t remember. At any rate, I am determined to put the final touches on it. The painting is of a plant that my mother was very proud of. Whenever I visit her, I often find her tending the garden. This particular plant, whose name escapes me at the moment (it’s been that long), started coming into bloom. From the way she spoke of it, it’s almost a rarity that this happens. So we took a photo, capturing the shades of green of its leaves and the almost fluorescent appearance of its petals with the deep lavender tones and vibrant coloration.

I have since taken the photo and taped it near my easel while I painted. You may ask why it has taken me so long to finish the painting. Well, I have been stuck with the way I’ve mixed the oils. Part of the beauty of this plant is its color brilliance, and I have been fiddling with it and leaving it. The canvas sits in my kitchen and is about 2 x 3 feet, so I can’t miss it. Anyone who has seen it wonders what else I could possibly be finishing, but I know it’s not acceptable for me yet.

When I do put the final brush stroke on it, this will be my mother’s day present. I know she’ll like it, as mothers often do like gifts from their children. Although painting is at times challenging, I quite enjoy it, as I find it relaxing. I do this for myself; it’s my time to play and be creative. And if it ends up making my mother happy, that’s a big plus.

Tags: painting, mother’s day, gift for mom, oils, relaxation, hobbies

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]]> http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/painting-for-mothers-day/feed/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/more-men-yoga/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/more-men-yoga/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:28:01 +0000 Jane My Yoga Practice http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/more-men-yoga/ Last week, I went to a yoga class in the middle of the week. Normally, I wouldn’t have time to do that right after work, but I was able to squeeze in a session before dinner.

Needless to say, this is not my regular class, so I was struck by the number of men there– they outnumbered the women. It brought to mind one of our newsletter article topics about how most yoga classes are attended by women even though men have been instrumental in teaching and developing yoga. That article encourages more men to do yoga because of all the benefits they would feel from practicing it.

When I arrived to find that I was the only female to join the three men already standing and stretching on their mats, I thought, “Cool”. Then two more guys walked in – wow, even better. It’s good to see the trend happening where yoga is attracting more diverse people. From what I can guess, their ages ranged from the late twenties to early fifties, and they were all of different races. They all looked very happy to be there. And since no partners were with them, I figured they had come on their own volition, and no one had dragged them to a dreadful new experience.

To further diversify – and as much as I liked being the only female in the room – I was glad when an older woman walked in and took a spot to my right. Then two young ladies also came in right before class began.

As for our instructor, who was substituting for another teacher, he turned out to be a guy. So there you have it – a yoga practice where the men outnumbered the women that night.

But hey, who cares whether there are more men or women in a yoga class. We should be proud to keep doing what’s good for us.

Tags: men do yoga, benefits of yoga, diversity in the yoga class, yoga for all ages, yoga for all body types

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