Yoga practice is traditionally about spiritual development and personal awareness, with an emphasis on breathing, flexibility and strength to support the mind and body.
However, many of today's popular yoga apps and programs seem to have lost the grounding of the practice, choosing to lure users with the promise of “losing weight” rather than their core value of physical, mental, and spiritual strength. Yoga should be all-encompassing, non-judgmental, and ready to meet you where you are. So forget about losing weight and practice yoga in a safe space with these apps and online resources.
1. Yoga with Adriene
The Yoga With Adriene YouTube channel, led by American yoga instructor Adriene Mishler, offers yoga videos that serve as an invaluable tool for viewers to improve their mental, emotional and physical health on an accessible level.
Charming herself and with a great sense of humor, Adriene encourages herself and her followers to enjoy yoga and not take it too seriously as she leads each class.
In short, here are three good reasons to try Adriene's yoga videos:
- Accommodating and accessible. Adriene leads yoga classes for all levels, from beginner to advanced, with a warm and inclusive teaching style.
- Rich content. Because the Adriene Yoga Channel has been running for over 10 years, you'll find tons of yoga videos to watch. Adriene often hosts challenges or yoga series, and posts exercises that focus on specific areas of mental and emotional health, meaning you'll never be short of options.
- Focus on mindfulness and self-care. There are very few of Adriene's videos about weight loss, and few of them are usually requested by her fans. However, throughout all of the exercises, Adrianne focuses on mindfulness and breathing to help her viewers manage stress and anxiety and improve their overall well-being.
Yoga With Adriene is a safe space on YouTube for people of all abilities and levels to practice yoga.
2. Weaknesses
Created by yoga teacher and body positivity advocate Jessamyn Stanley, The Underbelly is an inclusive yoga app that creates safe spaces for all bodies. Jessamyn strives to empower individuals to work toward self-acceptance and self-love, which is evident in her professional yoga app.
You won't find any weight loss focus in The Underbelly. Instead, yoga classes are divided into elemental categories: air, earth, fire, and water. You can take classes online and successfully turn your living room into a yoga studio, or you can practice yoga anywhere with The Underbelly mobile app.
Starting with a 14-day free trial, you'll discover the following features in The Underbelly app:
- Live classes with real-time participation
- Breathing and Meditation Videos
- Lessons organized by length (2 options of 10 minutes or under 20 minutes)
- Library section for saving all your favorite yoga videos
You can browse The Underbelly's content for free, giving you an overview of what's available in the app. To play any video, you need to start a free trial. Or, find more free yoga clips and related body-inclusive content on Jessamyn Stanley's YouTube channel.
download: Android's Weakness | iOS (Free, Subscription Available)
3. Yoga | Downward Dog
Yoga | Down Dog is one of six fitness apps that can be combined to create a complete workout program. Standalone, the app operates as a complete yoga tool, unaffected by weight loss discourse.
One of the best features of Down Dog's Yoga app is how highly customizable it is. During setup, you'll be asked the following questions about a fully personalized yoga session:
- Yoga experience. Choose from five different levels from beginner to advanced to suit your yoga experience.
- Choose a sound. Since many of the yoga exercises in the app are voice-guided, it's important to choose a teacher's voice that you find appealing.
- Choose a music style. Enhance your yoga experience by choosing your favorite soundscape or music style.
- Practice type. Choose the type of yoga practice that suits your needs. For example, if you pursue mindfulness and relaxation, guided meditation Might work for you. Chairman Process Great for a break from get off work, as well as other options such as flexibility process and Flow Do what they say on the can.
- pace. From slowest to fastest, choosing the pace that suits your yoga style is key to enjoying your practice.
- Body parts in focus. It's not about the “less partial” fallacy, it's about bringing strength and flexibility to two areas: the glutes or the hamstrings.tap not any If you don't need or want to focus on these fields.
- Savasana. The final resting pose of most yoga practices is known as Savasana, or “corpse pose.” Choose how many minutes you want to spend in Savasana at the end of each practice session.
After setting your yoga preferences, you can quickly start a yoga session by using the main menu to select a practice time and tap start.
download: Yoga | Downward Dog for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
4. Yoga for Beginners | Pure Calm
Yoga for Beginners is an inclusive app for anyone who wants to continue learning and practicing yoga, whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced yogi.
To help you understand any potential weight loss factors during the setup and navigation of the app, please follow the steps below:
- Choose goals that are not weight loss related. Yoga-centered safety goals include reducing stress, building strength, learning yoga basics, feeling more energized, or boosting self-esteem.
- Skip your body measurements. Yoga for Beginners will prompt you to enter your age, height, and weight, but these are not required fields. Click Continue without entering these details if you prefer.
- Ignore the progress tab. You can use Yoga for Beginners to track your progress, including workouts and minutes, at progress Label. However, since this tab includes space for calorie and weight tracking, you can avoid it if you find the tracking problematic, triggering, or useless for your yoga needs.
Once set up, Yoga for Beginners offers a range of inclusive and easy-to-access features:
- pose library. Learn common yoga poses with instructional videos.
- Discover. Find a yoga practice that's right for your level. You can also filter yoga videos based on your personal physical needs, for example if you're pregnant, need a knee brace, or want to improve your flexibility.
- program. Browse classes by level, yoga style, or goal such as strength, recovery, or flexibility.
download: Beginner Yoga for Android | iOS (Free in-app purchases available)
5. My possible self
My Possible Self is a Priory Healthcare clinically certified mental health and wellbeing app. Among its many features designed to support and improve mental health, My Possible Self offers users free yoga and meditation videos.
Since My Possible Self is a mental health and well-being app, you can be sure you won't be exposed to weight-loss blandishments while browsing its features.
To practice yoga with My Possible Self, follow these steps:
- click library Label.
- scroll down to find practise. tap view all.
- On the next screen, filter exercises by scrolling through the exercise icons at the top of the screen.tap yoga.
- tap beginner, Middleor advanced Filter yoga videos based on your yoga experience.
Although the yoga content in My Possible Self is limited compared to other resources on this list, they are not influenced by weight loss focus. You may also find the app an ideal tool to support your overall mental health.
download: Possible Me for Android | iOS (Free)
You Can Enjoy Yoga Without Focusing on Losing Weight
Practicing yoga is about creating harmony in your body and mind through mindful movement, breathing exercises, and stretching. The resources listed in this article can be used safely to avoid focusing on weight loss when learning and practicing yoga to improve your health.
