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Downloading Dog

My Yoga Online

Yoga is moving online -- as in streaming audio and video classes. This was a recent discovery for us. We shouldn't have been surprised, as online yoga is clearly a good idea. Extremely practical for the times when you can't (or don't want) to make it to the gym or yoga studio. Cheaper than a DVD, and the selection is growing fast. Plus, you can play it from your laptop, and/or iPod or iPhone. Very flexible. The problem is finding the right site or class, and this is not a minor problem. The ecosystem of yoga download sites has something of the fragmented, low-budget feel of the online porn world. Not that we'd know. There are the full range of competing business models, and suffice to say that the video or audio quality varies greatly. Soundtracks tend to the new agey and flute-centric, and the instruction, under the glare of the camera lens, often seems to slow down and get extra cloying. Still, there is quality out there, and we aim to plumb the depths of this trove over time so you don't have to. Last week we blogged that many studios have started posting video classes (to mixed reviews). Here are three sites with solid offerings -- where online yoga is the main event...

• CorePower Yoga-on-Demand: Denver-based corepower runs a network of yoga studios in Colorado and across the West and Midwest. Clearly, some ambitious soul realized that the next stage in their expansion should be online, and they have built a fairly substantial, if somewhat complex, on-demand service. The videos are available on a subscription basis: $4.95 for a day, $14.95 for a month, and onward up to $99.95 for a year. Each video shows a teacher and several "students" on mats in the corner of a perfectly lit yoga studio. Not bad, though some of the teachers seem a lot more comfortable and less phony in front of the camera than others.
• YogaDownload.com: Seems much more web-native than CorePower, and that's probably because it didn't grow out of a bricks-and-mortar business. Also, traffics only in audio podcasts. Their reasoning on this: "An audio-only practice allows the student to drop their reliance on watching others or themselves in the mirror and requires them to really listen to their teacher." Decent point, and the sound quality is very good, but I suspect they also don't want to get into the messy world of video. One other differentiator for yogadownload is that the site allows the purchase of individual classes, iTunes style, with an average price of about $5.00. (They also offer subscription plans.) Selection seems wide, with dozens of categories to choose from, and the ability to search for classes by level, intensity, length of class, instructor, etc.
• MyYogaOnline.com: Also, slick and web-native, MyYogaOnline has an equally wide selection of videos. Instead of filming a mock class like corepower, however, MyYogaOnline streams videos of a single yogi. Usually one whose practice will instantly make you jealous. Pricing is subscription based, $9.95 for a month, and $89.95 for a year.