How to Practice Yoga at Home for Free

Being a high school teacher is a high-stress job. I haven't found any way around it. It's worth all of the stress when you love teaching those goofballs. Because of all of the stress, I've developed some mean knots in my upper back and between my shoulder blades. Massages have somewhat helped me in the past, but I don't have the money for them now.

At the advice of a couple friends in the medical profession, I decided to try yoga. Since I'm watching my finances, I decided to search for a low cost, quick yoga option that I could do from home. Imagine my surprise when I found FREE YOGA online!

I found a great site called YogaDownload that has both free and paid yoga classes in varying lengths and difficulties. Since I'm relatively inexperienced in yoga, I looked for the courses that were beginner level, and because I don't like yoga enough to do it for a whole hour, I also looked for classes that were 30 minutes or less. I found several classes that fit my criteria!

YogaDownload has a variety of audio and video classes and offers pose guides (PDFs that contain pictures of each pose in the order of the class) that are especially helpful for beginners.

• Beginner Yoga (10 minutes. The website says 20 minutes, but I think it's really only 10.)
• Office Yoga #1 (5 minutes)
• Power Yoga #3 (20 minutes)
• Yoga for Strength #1 (20 minutes)
• Yoga for Weight Loss #1 (20 minutes)
• Yoga with Weights (20 minutes)
• Yoga Sculpt #1 (20 minutes)

At the time of this posting, the listed yoga courses are free on YogaDownload.  I downloaded them to my laptop and made sure to back them up using Dropbox in case my laptop ever dies a sudden death.

Now, I'm practicing yoga at home about 1-2 times per week, but my goal is to practice 3-4 times per week. Even with one 20-minute class per week, I already feel a huge difference in the tightness in my back. Bonus points for better flexibility and posture.

If you find that you love YogaDownload and can't live without it, I suggest spending a few bucks and buying a few of their more specialized paid classes (most around $1-5) to keep them in business!

Do you have other sites for finding free yoga online?  I'd love to vary the courses I take.