5 Of The Best Apple Watch Apps If You Practice Yoga

Yoga is an exercise that helps people find inner peace through meditation and harnessing their inner power to still the mind and body. It has its roots dated back thousands of years, and seemingly originated in ancient India. These days, of course, there are numerable yoga studios in every city you can visit for better fitness, but as you probably already know, you also don't need a studio to practice. 

Along with numerous books, websites, and instructional videos, one great way to learn and practice yoga exercises is by using one of several excellent Apple Watch apps. Even the World Health Organization recently threw its hat in the ring with apps for iOS and Android. These are designed to keep you focused on your poses and find a sense of fulfilled consciousness without pulling you out of the moment. Whether you use yoga to exercise, relax, stretch, or find inner peace, it's great to have an app that can help guide your sessions with the added convenience of it being on your wrist.

Daily Yoga is one of the most popular apps for practicing poses (also known as asanas), with information that will be valuable to beginners as well as long-practicing Yogis. The app has more than 500 poses to explore and over 200 guided courses. What's cool about it is you can do normal-length sessions or – for a quick fix – you can set up a 5-minute session when you just want to relax and become a little more centered. It's perfect for parents with a lot on their plate or anyone whose time is in high demand.

It's also important to note that Daily Yoga prides itself on being able to help anyone regardless of experience level or ability. It supports couch and chair yoga along with wall Pilates if you're not able to do full workouts. But if you're ready for more advanced sessions, it also has new classes that come out weekly so you won't have to do the same stale routine over and over. The app has a subscription price of $20.99 for a month, but if you stretch it out to a year subscription, it comes out to just under $6 a month.

Pocket Yoga offers a great way to go through your daily workout with more than 500 illustrated poses on the iPhone. But once you've learned the poses, you can switch to your Apple Watch to participate in over 25 pre-planned classes. It offers a soothing voice to guide you through your sessions with background music, but if the music gets repetitive you can also use your music library or Spotify if you want to supply your own.

The way it works is that you start the session on your iPhone (for audio), then just set it down next to you so you can start each pose and listen to the voice of the instructor. While you go through the various poses, you can glance at your watch to see the current pose, your heartbeats per minute, how many calories you're burning, and other important stats. The app tracks your progress with a log of all your exercises so you can see what you've done before and how far you've come since you started. It also integrates with Apple's Health app so you can add your sessions to your daily exercise regime. Pocket Yoga is a one-time purchase of $2.99.

Asana Rebel guides your exercise regimen using Yoga techniques to get your body into shape. It's more of a structured fitness routine than some of the other apps in this category as it challenges you to reach your goals and keep coming back every day. It offers over 100 yoga sessions, several meditations, and even provides daily food recipes to give you healthy eating options.

What's great about the app is that it keeps you coming back by gamifying your Yoga routine. For example, as you progress, it will encourage you by offering multi-day challenges for your workouts that target specific goals. The classes are named things like "Core Strength" or "Boost of Energy" to give you an idea of what you're getting into and what you'll be focusing on. It also has a path for beginners that teaches yoga basics, so you can learn how it all works.

Asana Rebel is a subscription-based service with a monthly fee of $15.99, but it's $35.99 for a year. But if you're looking to get in shape using Yoga, it provides a structured workout plan that's great for keeping you on track.

Glo is a yoga and meditation app that's great for people of all experience levels and offers live daily classes. Even if you don't want to go live, the app has plenty to offer with tons of classes you can pick at your skill level. You also can download classes for a completely offline experience and track your stats right on your Apple Watch. There are lessons for experienced users that will get your heart pumping and classes for beginners if you just want to learn the basics. All of the sessions are taught by professional instructors.

What's great about Glo is that it has curated class collections so you know what you'll be doing in coming workouts. It also has excellent search features so you can focus on specific muscle groups and you can choose particular instructors if you like their teaching techniques. Glo costs $30 a month or you can get an annual subscription for $245.

Prayoga is packed with features for your daily yoga routine. It offers a 21-day beginner yoga program so you can ease into learning the poses and get the foundation you need to move on to more advanced classes. It's also compatible with Apple Watch and shows the amount of time for each pose, a picture of the pose, and helps with breathing exercises. Classes can be as short as 20 minutes though some go for over an hour depending on your skill level and how much exercise time you have. Prayoga even works with Siri so you can say "Prayoga, start evening routine" and it will start your workout.

What really makes Prayoga unique, however, is a feature not found in any of the other Yoga apps. It has an "A.I.-based coach" that can help you with perfecting your form. All you do is set up your phone on a stable service with the camera pointed towards your yoga mat. As you get into a pose, the app can detect your posture and give you suggestions for how you can improve your form. Prayoga also works with the Apple Health app so you can add it to your daily rings.

Prayoga, like many Yoga apps, is a subscription service. It costs $4.99 per month, $11.99 for three months, or $29.99 per year.