Free Online Yoga

Complement Your Practice

Whether you don’t have a class near you, have a hectic travel schedule, or just want more variety in your routine, free online yoga provides many options for extending your routine.

The option to have a variety of instructors is a big benefit as well. New perspectives, different teaching styles, and fresh information will enhance your practice on a number of levels. Additionally, many online yoga sites offer workshops in different yoga disciplines, Pilates, guided meditation, chakra balancing, and healthy living.

Practicing yoga online may also be more cost-effective than buying new DVDs or videos when you’re ready to advance.

Getting Started

You don’t need much to practice free online yoga.

• An Internet connection to a computer desktop screen, laptop, or TV. For a computer-to-TV hookup, you need to have a laptop with S-video/VAG capabilities and an S-video cable.
• High-speed Internet connections work best for online yoga videos, although some sites stream low-stream versions that flow pretty well without a lot of interruptions.
• Plenty of space to maneuver, especially if your desktop computer is in a small office.
• Your usual yoga equipment such as mats, blocks, and bolsters.

As with all yoga practice, listen to your body and understand your limitations. These streaming videos offer diversity of practice, but if you’re not ready for a particular asana, return to mountain pose or lotus pose for centering before easing into the next posture.

Following an online practice is just like watching a yoga DVD. Without the instructor on-hand to caution or reposition your stance, it’s important to build skill within the flow sequence gradually.

Finding Free Online Yoga Options

This is tricky. Most online yoga sites are membership-based, and prices vary by site, with a basic month plan starting at around $10.

However, many encourage you to try the routines through free trial memberships, complimentary introductory videos, and other perks.

Here are some places to try free online yoga.

Yoga Journal

Yoga Journal’s morning practice, featuring three free streaming videos.

My Yoga Online

My Yoga Online has a site demo, a free video when you sign up for the newsletter, and a promotional code to be used for a buy one month of online yoga for $9.95, get one free.

Vinyasa Yoga Cards

Instructor Mark Giaburelli helps you structure your own sequences by breaking the flow down step-by-step. His tutorial site has two-minute video clips to accompany each stage of the sequence.

The Yoga Learning Center

The Yoga Learning Center offers both a video and audio demo, as well as a free one-week trial that comes with a free video to download to your portable digital player.

Target Workouts

Target Workouts offers a three-day trial membership for free online yoga, as well as an opportunity to try their other workout videos in a variety of fitness areas, such as aerobics, strength training, and specialized routines to improve certain fields, like your golf or tennis game.

In Summary

Obviously, nothing is completely free. But if you’d like to sample of a few of the sites offering online yoga, there is a wide selection from which to choose. If you don’t like an instructor or sequence, at least you don’t have to go back to the store to return anything.