Oprah and Deepak want to teach you to meditate
Guided meditations, fitness and meditation on the go, and a way to find the perfect workout buddy. Here’s are ways to take it to the next level:
Monday was the kickoff for “Hope in Uncertain Times,” a 21-day digital audio meditation series offered by Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra. Participants get access to a daily 20-minute meditation voiced by Chopra that segues from learning to identify false hope in the first week, to how to use hope to inspire others in the third. Each recording includes a mantra and questions designed to encourage reflective thinking. There is also an interactive journal that encourages participants to note their progress.
Info: Free on iTunes or Google Play. Oprah.com/meditation
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FabFitFun — known for its quarterly subscription boxes stuffed with beauty and wellness products (Summer and Rose Yoga Towels, grip socks by Toesox) — is now in the business of streaming fitness videos.
Launched in March, FabFitFun TV is “a return to our roots,” said the company’s co-founder and editor in chief, Katie Ann Rosen Kitchens. “Health and fitness have been part of our DNA from the beginning.”
The approximately 50 videos covering yoga, toning, boot camp and cardio represent the best content from in-demand trainers such as Simone De La Rue and Christine Bullock, said Rosen Kitchens. “We choose them in the same way we curate our boxes,” she said.
Info: $180 annual subscription to FabFitFun TV includes four seasonal boxes of products. FabFitFun.com
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Type in “fitness videos” on YouTube and 11.6 million options pop up. The confusion inherent in that led entrepreneur Jitesh Chhabria to come up with the Koach TV app. Through three questions (covering goals, preferred workout length and what part of the body the workout is for), the app offers up specific YouTube fitness content. Users can schedule their workouts, track their results and easily scroll through parts of the video. (A 13-minute abs and arms regimen is segmented into punches, standing inner-biceps curls and dumbbell uppercuts.)
“YouTube has all this great content but there is no tracking for goals, planning for commitments or community to motivate you,” Chhabria said.
There are 120 workouts on the site, with more to be added. A Web-friendly and Android version is to be up in a few months.
Info: Free on iTunes. App.Koach.TV
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Looking for someone to go hiking with in Big Bear or to share in tossing around a Frisbee on Venice Beach? The 5F app, launched last August, might be able to help. Described as “a dating app for fitness” by its developer, Urs Camenisch, it pairs people of similar interests — whether that’s Crossfit, dance or unconventional sports such as base jumping.
“Sometimes it’s hard to find people to work out with who are at the same level and like the same sports,” said Camenisch, a former ambulance pilot in Canada. Over 100 activities are represented on the app, which Camenisch said could also be useful among people traveling to other countries and hoping to train like a local (such as playing bandy, similar to ice hockey, in Scandinavia.)
“It’s a good way to connect with others, instead of just working out in the hotel gym,” he said.
Info: Free on iTunes. app5f.com
Twitter: @renelynch
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