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Favorite App Friday: Pocket Yoga

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Sergio Tacconi had been doing yoga for 8 years, when about 3 years ago he decided to make his practice into an app. As he told us in a recent interview, “When you make it for yourself, you know what you want, so the product turns out better.” Because he was working for Microsoft doing software engineering at the time, it was easy for him to test out the product and fix issues immediately.

pocket yogaSo do you have to be an avid yogi to enjoy this app? Not at all. This Pocket Yoga ($2.99) was made for anyone interested in doing yoga, whether they have never seen a yoga mat previously, or they have been practicing for years.

iphone_ss_4Certified yoga instructors created all of the yoga routines, and a lot of work went into making the expert level.  However, most users are at the beginner/intermediate level, so there is a wide range of opportunity for improvement with this app. Users have the option to choose a 30 minute, 45 minute or 60 minute class, depending on the time they have available.

For users who are advanced, and even may already be yoga instructors, Pocket Yoga-Practice Builder ($9.99) may be worth a try. With this app, by the same company as Pocket Yoga, there are no set routines. Instead, you use this app to create your own. While Pocket Yoga has everything built in for your practice, Pocket Yoga-Practice Builder is made for teachers to use and share.

While some other yoga apps only contain videos and photos, Pocket Yoga created a look for their app that is stylized with only information that you need. As Sergio informed us, “ We took pictures of all photos that you see and had an illustrator draw on top of them to make them simpler.”

The backgrounds were created to be soothing and they offer different types of yoga classes. There are cardio based or strength based class, depending on your preference or your goals, and there are different environments to mimic your personal yoga journey.

ipad_ss_2Cardio yoga has an ocean background, flexibility yoga has a desert background, and power yoga has a mountain background. As you progress, the backgrounds change, showing you your progress. In the last progression, you can even see Hindu sculptures and  unlock nirvana.

This takes a long time to achieve, however. You would have to practice for about 100 classes to get to this phase on the app, but it is an intriguing reward.  As Sergio put it, “The reward for practicing is yoga itself, but we wanted something else to portray your success in the app.”

There are big plans for Pocket Yoga in the future. One update on the horizon is to expand the app to encompass all different yoga disciplines. While the app is currently Vinyasa flow, our users let us know that they would like to use Pocket Yoga for Bikram and other types.

Pocket Yoga is available on iTunes, for your iPhone or iPad, Google Play for your android, or on Windows 8!

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