The Republic of Yogaland

When I was in high school, the gym program offered the then-novel option of yoga classes, and, as a sport-phobe, I gravitated toward it as a gym class alternative which seemed less intense and competitive than the team sports I would have otherwise participated in. I remember the class itself being pretty enjoyable; however, I didn't continue to practice yoga after my high school graduation.

Earlier this month, I came across the "Pocket Yoga" app and decided to try it out on a lark. I have been surprised at how much use I've gotten out of it already, and am hoping that I'll be able to make it part of my monthly routine.

The app provides five basic routines, including two sets of sun salutations and three different practice types (Ocean, Desert, and Mountain). The practices have different focuses, with Ocean as the "cardio" practice, Desert geared towards flexibility and relaxation, and Mountain geared towards building strength.

Once you choose a basic routine, you can modify the skill level (beginner, intermediate, or expert) and choose the length of the routine. You can also customize the routine in more superficial ways by choosing the background and replacing the default background music with something from your device's music library.

Unfortunately, you can't choose a different cartoon yoga practitioner; you're stuck with the ponytailed woman at the image to your left.

As the routine progresses, a voice provides instructions while the cartoon figure demonstrates them. The routine itself starts slowly with a warm-up, proceeds to some more intense rounds of poses (broken up with a couple of short rests), and finishes with a cool-down and a few minutes of rest and decompression.

In addition to a number of routines, the app has a glossary of poses, including instructions and descriptions of their benefits; the glossary can be sorted visually, by difficulty level, by type, or by name (in English or Sanskrit).

Over the past month, I've tried out some short beginner routines for the Ocean, Desert, and Mountain practices, and have just started to challenge myself with a couple of intermediate routines. The routines themselves are not extremely different from one another, as they share the same warm-up and cool-down sequences, but I am guessing that there is more variation once the routines get longer and more complex.

It has been exciting to challenge myself with a new (or long-forgotten) form of exercise, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover some immediate benefits. Unfailingly, I have felt very calm and refreshed after a routine is over. In addition, my flexibility was noticeably improved within the first week or so.

I am hoping that I'll continue to improve my strength and flexibility, and that I'll be able to gain more stamina master some of the "intermediate" routines that I am beginning to struggle with (I think I'll hold off on the "expert" routines until I take some formal classes, though). It will be nice to see how far I can go with this, and I hope I can keep it up for a while.

In any case, it is always exciting to try my hand at something random and enjoy it more than I expected!