The Perfect App for Time Strapped Yoga Buffs

Frugalbits columnist Eve Johnson has developed an easy, inexpensive app for time-strapped yoga buffs. Here’s how you can win a copy.

TAKE FIVE | Have you ever thought you might lower your stress levels with yoga, then watched them soar into the red zone as you battled your way through traffic to class? Or noticed that the unlimited monthly pass at your local mega studio isn’t such a great deal if you only manage to use it twice?

What if you could work yoga into your day in small bites—five and 10 minutes at a time—with detailed instructions that take you deep into the pose?

And how about paying less than you would for a cup of coffee?

My Five-Minute Yoga Practice is a new iPhone app by Eve Johnson, a Vancouver Iyengar yoga teacher who also writes a Five-Minute Yoga blog and is yoga columnist for Frugalbits.

“We all have five minutes to spend, sometime in the day,” she says. And unless you’ve got a crisis on your hands, the way you spend your five minutes won’t make a difference in the way your day unfolds. But five minutes a day, every day, devoted to a yoga practice, can make you looser, happier and less tense.”

This “awesome resource for anyone interested in yoga,” according to well-regarded app review site 148 apps.com, has 11 five-minute segments ranging from dog pose and lunges to relaxation pose.

Turn the kettle on for coffee and you’ll have enough time to use your kitchen counter as a yoga prop for spinal stretch, forward bend and triangle pose. Or take a five-minute desk break and dissolve the tension in your shoulders. When you have more than five minutes, there are seven longer practices, from 15 to 35 minutes, ready to use.

Need an adaptation? Check out the “What and Why” tabs on each segment. You’ll find benefits, Sanskrit names and easy fixes for common problems. —Chris Smith

My Five-Minute Yoga Practice App sells for $2.99, for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (iPad users take note: the photos will appear phone-app size on your screen). To check out and/or purchase the product visit the iTunes app store http://itunes.apple.com

WIN A COPY of My Five-Minute Yoga Practice App. Follow Frugalbits on twitter (www.twitter.com/#!/teamfrugalbits) or like us Facebook (www.facebook/frugalbits) before November 04 and you will be automatically entered to win. 

Photos, top to bottom: Dreamstime, Eve Johnson