Stretch | Need a Yoga Class? Try Downloading One

Ángel Franco/The New York Times DO IT YOURSELF Lauren Cucinotta of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, says she used to exhaust herself trying to get to a yoga studio regularly. Now her class involves just video on the Internet, herself and her dog, Bella.

Is there a less hospitable home for yoga than this raucous, frenzied, brash capital of capitalism? This city where car horns vie with sirens for supremacy, slow walkers are mercilessly — if understandably — shoved curbside and today exists only through the prism of tomorrow (the next promotion, the next apartment, the next smartphone, the next hot restaurant chef)?

Which is probably why yoga studios are nearly as ubiquitous in New York as Dunkin’ Donuts or Duane Reade. We need them, desperately. They give us permission to be still for longer than an elevator ride. They are the urban equivalent of a decompression chamber.

Yet, life conspires. What with long workdays, overscheduled kids, the need to sleep, socialize and catch up on TiVo, getting to a yoga class can sometimes feel like just another item to cross off the to-do list. Then there’s the price tag: $17 to shed your frazzled self in the company of sweaty strangers, while a bargain in the cosmic sense, can sting deeply in these recessionary times.

Enter online yoga. As with online colleges, you can go at your own pace, in your own living room, and you don’t have to worry about having chic yoga pants. I quickly found a dozen Web sites offering scores of classes, from yoga for runners to Anusara with celebrity yogis. There are videos (including in high definition), audio and video podcasts and applications so you can take your workout with you by phone (and, I suppose, do yoga in a cab). Some are free, others have relatively low fees. On yogatoday.com, you can look out over the Rocky Mountains as you stretch. At yogaglo.com, you can download classes recorded in a California studio.

These classes are a boon for travelers and people who live in yoga-free zones, but Internet yoga can also be a great supplement for people like me who regularly spend time in a neighborhood studio. What’s liberating about online yoga is the variety: classes range from 10 to 90 minutes, and if you tire of one teacher or style of yoga, you can switch to another with the click of a mouse or swipe of a finger (no more getting bored of the same-old, same-old regimen on that DVD you got for Christmas). In the worst of times, you can squeeze in a few sun salutations between walking the dog and jumping in the shower.

“I’ll literally roll out of bed,” said Lauren Cucinotta, 26, who occasionally blogs about her solitary yoga as The Autodidact Yogi. Ms. Cucinotta, who does public relations and marketing for a jewelry company and has been practicing yoga for several years, said she was exhausting herself just trying to get to a yoga studio regularly. So a few months ago she set up a little altar — a baby statue of Ganesh, a few rocks, an elephant incense holder — in her studio apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. She lets her mood and energy dictate the style and length of class, something not easily done when you have to juggle studio schedules (and subway schedules). The other day she picked a free YouTube video of a rigorous class by Sadie Nardini, a well-known New York vinyasa instructor.

There are, of course, some drawbacks. As Ms. Cucinotta flung her legs into a handstand against a sliver of a wall, a picture frame crashed down onto her altar. Ganesh took an unfortunate tumble. And Ms. Cucinotta’s Yorkie, Bella, wanted to get in some doga time of her own, often directly under her owner’s stomach.

With cellphones within reach, barking dogs and yapping children, serenity can be elusive. My husband barged in on me in mid-tree pose one early evening as I was trying “Yoga for Mountain Living” via yogatoday.com. Ignoring my unmistakable frown, he tossed me the phone. It was my oldest daughter, asking if she could stay for dinner at a friend’s house. Yes, yes. Fine. Whatever. I remembered then that part of the relief of going to a yoga class was being away from domestic responsibilities for an hour.

It is also a lot easier to forgo that 12th chaturanga (a slow drop into push-up position) when you’re alone, with no instructor egging you on. I found my mind drifting and my energy flagging when I was going solo. I know that yoga is like golf: You compete against yourself. But there’s nothing like watching the person next to you hold plank pose without a bead of sweat to get you charged up.

If you’re new to yoga, online options can cut both ways. The bashful can take comfort that no one can see. But because there’s no instructor to adjust your shoulders, knees and feet, you can also hurt yourself more easily.

And sometimes you want company, a roomful of it, so you can orchestrate your breathing, commiserate with grunts and revel in that final om. “The community is what makes the classes,” Ms. Cucinotta acknowledged. “It’s being surrounded by people doing what you’re doing. I do miss that.”

A Tour of the Online Studios

YOGAGLO ($18 a month subscription) positions a high-definition camera at the back of its Santa Monica, Calif., studio and streams the classes (delayed). The picture quality is great, particularly if you hook up your laptop to a high-definition screen; you feel as if you are there. The site offers a variety of styles and teachers, including well-known guest teachers, and also has lectures and workshops.

YOGA DOWNLOAD ($1.99 to $6.99 per class) offers 180 audio podcasts and eight streaming videos. It features 12 instructors with a range of yoga styles, including Baptiste power flows. For experienced yogis, who need not see positions demonstrated, the audio podcasts are convenient; the site also offers a poses guide that you can print. Classes are sorted thematically: yoga for runners, yoga for back pain, etc.

MY YOGA ONLINE ($9.95 per month) streams videos in high definition and has iPod/iPhone classes with catchy titles like “Yoga for Anxiety” and “Creative Core Abs.” Some of its 44 well-qualified instructors conduct classes in stunning locations; there are 300 videos, with a new one or two added each week. The site also offers meditation, Pilates and workshops.

YOGA JOURNAL does not have a huge selection, but it is a great place to go for free podcasts — video and audio — with some excellent instructors, including Kathryn Budig and Jason Crandell.

YOGA TODAY (99 cents per video or $9.99 per month) has more than 200 video classes in its library, including “Embodying Fearlessness” and “Ashtanga for the New Yogi.” The site uses three instructors and some classes take place outdoors, against amazing backdrops.

ITUNES offers pocket yoga for $2.99: a graphic representation of an instructor takes you through poses.

YOUTUBE, not surprisingly, houses a large number of free yoga videos. Some favorites are ashtanga classes by Richard Freeman and sessions with Cyndi Lee and Shiva Rea. Sadie Nardini has her own YouTube channel, including a five-minute stretch before bed and multipart sequences that last an hour and involve all parts of the body. The price is right, but the quality of the images is often weak.

E-mail: stretch@nytimes.com