The Yoga PassBook and Yogatoday.com

(There were a fair number of offerings in that same booklet for Pilates and dance classes, too.) The Yoga PassBook allowed me to explore (even with my irregular schedule), and I discovered some truly wonderful New York City studios. There is a similar PassBook for the Chicago and Los Angeles areas, and there’s a completely different booklet of coupons for sampling health clubs. The whole deal is described on the Web site. The practical chances of using each and every coupon is remote, but those I used from the book paid back my investment many times over. I gave away the ballroom dance class coupons to a lovely old couple I saw chatting in a diner on the Upper West Side. From their reaction, you’d have thought I’d arranged a personal concert by the ghost of Benny Goodman!

However, I still faced the challenge of what to do when traveling, or when I can only wedge in a little practice during off-hours. Yogatoday.com solved that. At midnight in a hotel room, when I have to choose between taking a class or getting laundry done … this site fills in my schedule.

It seems like a very generous offer to me—free, pre-recorded, live-stream yoga classes, a new one every day. That’s it. Spend a few moments on their home page to check out the overview video, then go directly to the downloads link at the top of the page. They usually list a couple of courses, sometimes focusing on different things—like flow, core, sports stretching, or hip openers. From what I’ve seen so far, the quality of streaming video and sound are consistently great. More important, the teachers are right on. They have a positive vibe, careful sensibility, and usually have some students on hand, so I can hear the common corrections they offer throughout the practice. I was never one for hauling a recorded class around with me, but if you are, you can download a class for later playback.

Overall, I have settled back into a modest yoga practice, without being anchored to one studio, schedule, or teacher. The benefits of having a single place and community within which to practice, and a personal relationship with trusted teachers, can’t be underestimated; but in a pinch, resources like Yoga PassBook and Yogatoday.com sure come in handy.