Yoga is a fabulous practice -- it's good for the mind and body, and balances other types of exercise. But, despite it's ascetic origins, practicing yoga is hardly an inexpensive hobby. With classes often starting at $20 a pop and expensive instructional DVDs that become stale after a few takes, a few bucks for an app seems like a steal.

There are an endless number of apps for practicing yoga in the App Store, both free and for pay, but none of them cover quite the depth of Pocket Yoga. The app really does it all.

While most yoga apps just offer a dictionary of poses or a single prescribed workout, Pocket Yoga lets you delve into three different types of classes that vary in focus and intensity. You can practice each for either 30, 60, or 90 minutes at 3 different difficulty levels, or if you want something even simpler, you can just opt to follow the classic Sun Salutation sequence. Keep things fresh by adding your own soundtrack, or use the music the app provides; or otherwise, simply browse the huge library of illustrated poses. You can also keep track of your practice history in case you forget what you tried last.

Paired with an Apple TV and streamed to your television (or linked up via one of Apple's AV-out cables), Pocket Yoga is as good as it gets for a home yoga practice. It's great for beginners and advanced yogis alike, and a must-have if you just want to wet your yogi toes. Pick it up in the App Store for $2.99 on iPhone or $3.99 for the iPad version.

The Best is a weekly column in which we spotlight the most helpful or impressive iOS app to fit a certain need, whether it's a part of your day-to-day life or just something cool that might come in handy down the line.

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A Look at Pocket Yoga

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  Open Pocket Yoga and you'll be prompted to practice, browse available poses, or view your workout history.

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  Each class offers something a little different. Select Ocean Practice for high intensity interval training, Desert Practice for improving flexibility, or Mountain Practice for building strength.

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  Pocket Yoga includes a huge visual library of poses. Each pose features a detailed description of how to perform it, which is especially handy for beginning yogis.

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  If you know a pose by name, you can also look it up this way. Poses are listed by both their English and Sanskrit names, and you can also organize them by difficulty level.

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  If you'd like to practice to your own music, just go into the app's settings and select songs from your music library.

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  Pocket Yoga keeps track of your workout history, showing how many times you've practiced, duration of time, dates, and type of practice.

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