It’s likely you’ve wanted to take up yoga at some point in your life. If not, why else would you be looking at our list of the best yoga apps for menopause?
Ideal for all ages and fitness levels, practicing yoga may be one of the best decisions you’ll make during menopause. The best part? You’re doing it today. With just a few taps on your screen, you’ll have access to yoga apps for menopause that contain everything from follow-along videos to one-to-one sessions and free tutorials.
But, since so much yoga content is available online, finding the best yoga app for menopause can prove challenging.
Lucky for you, we’ve done the hard work and rounded up the best yoga apps for menopausal women today!
Understanding Menopause and the Benefits of Yoga
How Yoga Supports Women's Health During Menopause
Many studies have shown how yoga can improve menopause symptoms, including a marked positive impact on sleep quality, stress, brain function, metabolism, and general emotional well-being.
Physical and Mental Benefits of Yoga
Outside of menopause, yoga is beneficial for the body and mind. Multiple research studies have shown that yoga practitioners are more flexible, have stronger cores, and have fewer problems with insomnia and sleep apnea.
Since yoga is less of an exercise and more of a way of life, the mindfulness practices it emphasizes can have a holistic impact on your life. By practicing yoga, you’re cultivating a better awareness while enjoying benefits like increased concentration and memory and generally feeling happier and more content.
Key Features to Look for in Menopause Yoga Apps
Staying on track with your sessions is nearly impossible unless you've practiced yoga for years. This is where our guide to the best yoga apps for menopause comes in.
For beginners, starting yoga can feel like coming in blind. Every pose feels new, and figuring out proper breathing is challenging, so you might feel like you’re way in over your head. It’s for this reason that using an app to practice yoga during menopause is so beneficial - it makes the learning process so much easier. It also allows you to practice whenever and wherever you want!
Menopause-specific Yoga Routines
Believe it or not, certain menopause-specific yoga routines can help target different menopause-related symptoms, like irritability, hot flashes, insomnia, and brain fog.
The best menopause yoga apps will contain routines designed for your particular use case.
Guided Meditation and Relaxation Techniques
Guided meditation and relaxation techniques help you relax, surrender, and clear your mind, but you can’t just do it alone, especially as a beginner!
You need an app that offers guided meditation and relaxation techniques, preferably hands-free, so you aren’t as distracted.
Symptom Tracking and Progress Monitoring
Staying consistent with your practice is easier if you can monitor your progress. It would help if the same app could help you track menopause symptoms.
Customizable Yoga Plans
With hundreds of flows and just as many programs, yoga offers enough variety for everyone to have a unique plan that caters to their specific goals and needs.
The ideal app lets you customize your yoga plans based on your preferences.
Community Support and Resources
Community is huge for menopausal women - a time in life when many report feeling isolated and alone.
Top 5 Yoga Apps for Menopause
App 1: Reverse Health Chair Yoga
Reverse Health is one of the best yoga apps for menopause. It’s designed by nutritional experts to help menopausal women promote healthy and sustainable weight management practices, including yoga, Pilates, and other types of exercises.
Features:
- A comprehensive menopausal app designed to help ease the transition by offering a wealth of tracking, educational resources, and other premium features.
Benefits:
- Customized workout programs
- Personalized meal plans
- Science-backed approach
- Responsive customer service
- Community access
User Reviews:
“Although I had my doubts about Reverse Health, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it provides a lot of beginner-friendly fitness and diet information for middle-aged women. For what works out to be a bit more than $10 per month, you get a lot of value in return—assuming that you stick to the program. However, the hosts Matt and Monika make it super easy to follow along and learn how to lose stubborn weight and, importantly, how to keep the weight off. Reverse Health is a great option for women looking to lose weight during or after menopause.” - Helya Glen, Gymless.
App 2: The Bloom Method
While primarily designed for prenatal/postnatal women, The Blood Method is one of the best yoga apps for menopause.
The Bloom Method focuses on educating users about strengthening and relaxing the pelvic floor, particularly pregnant women. While pelvic exercises are most beneficial for the mental and physical toll of pregnancy and labor, they’re similarly helpful for menopausal women.
Features:
- Prenatal/postnatal workout app designed to help women strengthen and relax their pelvic floor.
Benefits:
- Instructor-led workouts
- Focus on pelvic floor exercises
- Educational resources
- Multiple exercise types
User Reviews:
“I'm a very active person - I run, hike, and do workout videos multiple times a week - and these classes always feel like a good workout. I also like that the strength and express classes are shorter so I usually do a few videos in a row but it’s also very convenient for those days you only have a few minutes.” - jabiles11, App Store
App 3: Alo Moves
Remember the brand responsible for making Goddess Leggins so popular? Well, they have a yoga app.
This yoga app lets you reach out to experts and instructors who offer classes in different categories, including yoga, mindfulness, fitness, and skills. Upon sign-up, the app will ask you questions about your fitness goals and preferred methods, allowing you to choose the right classes and even your instructors.
Alo Moves is just like Netflix, except it’s for yoga. The best part? The app replicates the feeling of working out in a studio!
With a 14-day free trial, the worst thing that can happen is that you try it out and find out it isn’t for you.
Features:
- Extensive library of class-like yoga sessions with personalized recommendations
Benefits:
- Wide workout variety
- Intuitive layout
- Expert instructors
- Downloadable videos
User Reviews:
“I also use AloMoves, and have been for about 2 years. The classes and instructors are high quality and there’s good variety. At this point I have a core of 15-20 videos that I watch, so it would be great if I could just buy the videos instead of the modern subscription model. I found Alo through a sampler playlist they made on YouTube if you want to get a feel for some of their instructors. They also always do a good intro deal at New yeaYear's" - CactusFabric, Reddit.
App 4: Down Dog
The app claims to provide a “studio-like yoga experience in the comfort of your home.” Users have access to over 60,000 configurations, from beginner-friendly practice types to more complicated flows and poses.
With its ease of set-up, workout history tracking, and support for specific muscle groups, many consider Down Dog one of the best yoga apps for menopause.
Features:
- Configure more than 300,000 different workouts with robust customization for practice options.
Benefits:
- Gentle reminders for breathing, posture adjustment, and more
- Detailed narration
- Beginner-friendly
- Progress tracking and goal-setting
User Reviews:
“I love everything about the app. I have different music and different voices for each genre. I love deciding that yesterday I wanted to do 60 minutes of Intermediate Vinyasa with 5 minutes of Savasana. But today, I wanted to do 25 minutes HIIT, 15 minutes barre, and 20 minutes restorative with 10 minutes Savasana.” - CurlsintheClouds, Reddit.
App 5: Headspace
Sometimes, it’s not the physical part that menopausal women are having trouble with but the mental aspect of this natural biological process. Stress, anxiety, and depression are all common among women in their late 40s and early 50s. These feelings are exacerbated by the hormonal shifts associated with menopause.
Enter Headspace. It’s an app dedicated to helping you learn to relax, manage your stress better, and release tension so you can sleep better and feel happier.
As a bonus, Headspace also offers yoga and mindful movement courses (and other exercises).
Features:
- A mindfulness and meditation app that helps you stick to making mindfulness a daily habit.
Benefits:
- Guided meditation and mindfulness exercises
- Kid-friendly and family-friendly options
- Backed by scientific studies
- Women-specific resources
User Reviews:
“If you’re like us, you need all the help you can get turning rare quiet moments into true meditation. Headspace’s rich, accessible lessons gently explore how to improve mindfulness. Oh, and we love how Headspace’s Apple Watch app lets you hit a literal panic button when extra-stressful situations arise.” - Editor’s Choice, App Store.
Benefits of Using Yoga Apps for Menopause
Improved Flexibility and Strength
Yoga can improve your physical and mental health in the long term, fighting off symptoms like the lack of estrogen that may eventually result in osteopenia and osteoporosis (brittle bones), sarcopenia (muscle loss), and a heightened risk for cardiovascular disease. Regular yoga practice helps you retain, if not improve, muscle flexibility and maintain general mobility and balance as you age.
Moving well into your old age is crucial in minimizing slip- and fall-related injuries.
Enhanced Mental Clarity and Stress Reduction
One study by the Boston University School of Medicine found that yoga can help with menopause-related anxiety and depression - a common condition among menopausal women and even perimenopausal women.
Researchers found that even a single yoga session had a pronounced effect on the participants’ mental health.
Better Symptom Management
Yoga helps ease hot flashes and sleep problems in menopausal women, but did you know it can also make the transition from perimenopause to menopause more manageable because of its positive impact on hormonal imbalance?
As a side benefit, yoga isn’t just helpful for menopause - it’s also great for conditions that affect hormonal balance, such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).
Hormone fluctuations are often at their worst in between these phases of menopause.
Increased Relaxation and Sleep Quality
Yoga helps you feel better about yourself, so you start feeling well and can make healthier decisions about your lifestyle, including nutrition, exercise, work-life balance, relationships, and even sleep quality!
Getting Started with Yoga Apps for Menopause
Tips for Choosing the Right App
Before subscribing to yoga apps for menopause, consider these factors first:
- Your goals: What are you looking to achieve? Do you want an app that scales with your Yoga journey? Do you prefer five-minute sessions? Are you looking to supplement on-studio classes? The ideal Yoga app for you is built for what you have and your goals.
- Class type and duration: Nothing feels worse than being forced to do an hour-long Yoga class when you only have 20 minutes to spare during a busy day. Find an app that lets you filter and find the available time.
- Location: Do you like to do Yoga on the go, or do you prefer to do it only at home? The best lets you curate sessions based on your preferred locations.
- Community: An app that lets you chat among peers is perfect for your menopausal yoga journey.
- Price: Choose an app that fits into your budget. Free apps are great, but studies show that paid apps give an extra step of accountability.
How to Maximize App Benefits
Are you stuck on your phone? You’re not alone. You might as well take advantage of this.
During menopause, when your free time becomes more sporadic due to multiple commitments, squeezing in a quick wake-up flow session to start or end your day becomes so helpful.
Sometimes, you have time to do multiple sessions a day. Other times, you can only do it once a week.
The best yoga app for menopause is sustainable for your lifestyle and every use case.
Conclusion
There are countless workout apps, yoga apps, and menopause apps.
The best yoga apps are ideal for those who are going through menopause and want to dedicate more of their time to this mindfulness-focused practice.
Use yoga apps that let you try out different kinds of yoga sessions and types. These apps should also allow you to practice other yoga-adjacent techniques like meditation and Pilates, which are proven beneficial for menopausal women. Other yoga apps even include different workout types, giving you even more options!
Ultimately, whether you choose a dedicated yoga app that has everything you need for menopause or you prefer juggling multiple apps to fit your lifestyle, what’s important is you get started.
The best time to start taking up yoga for menopause was yesterday. The second best time to do it is today!
FAQs
What are the benefits of using yoga apps during menopause?
Yoga apps designed for menopause can help manage symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, and insomnia. They offer tailored routines that focus on reducing stress, improving flexibility, and enhancing overall well-being.
What features should I look for in a yoga app for menopause?
When choosing a yoga app for menopause, look for apps that offer menopause-specific programs, guided meditations, hormone-balancing poses, and customizable routines. Features like progress tracking, expert advice, and community support are also valuable.
Are there any free yoga apps that cater to menopause?
Yes, there are yoga apps that offer free content or trial periods specifically for menopause. These apps may include free classes, routines, and tips tailored for managing menopause symptoms.
Can yoga apps help with weight management during menopause?
Many yoga apps include routines designed to support weight management during menopause. These routines often combine yoga with strength training and mindfulness practices to help maintain a healthy weight.
Is it safe to use yoga apps if I'm experiencing severe menopause symptoms?
While yoga can be beneficial, it’s essential to consult with a healthcare provider if you’re experiencing severe symptoms. Some yoga apps may also offer programs developed in collaboration with medical experts to ensure safety and effectiveness.
