I’m a big fan of online yoga video websites. Of course, nothing beats going to a live yoga class, but when you get busy, especially during this hectic month of December, you may have a hard time making it to a yoga studio at the exact time when they offer classes (like those nights when taking a class at 10 PM seems like a swell idea).

The beauty of online video classes is that you can do them WHENEVER YOU HAVE THE TIME and wherever you have an internet connection. They offer flexibility in terms of length, yoga style, intensity, and an amazing variety of different teachers.

I’ve written about My Yoga Online and Do Yoga With Me, and now I’d like to share the top ten reasons why I’m digging Yoga Download.

1)      Free pose guides (this is the coolest feature!) – If you like a class and want to do it again, each class has a pose guide you can download as a PDF. These guides show the sequence of yoga poses from the class, and under each pose picture is the name of the yoga pose. You can save these guides to your computer and print them out for a visual reference during class or to use again for your own home practice.

2)      Try it out for FREE first – Yoga Download offers 47 classes that you can try for free. The free class is 20 minutes, and if you like it you can try out the longer versions of these classes. There is a huge variety of free offerings like Jivamukti, Power Baptiste, Forrest Yoga, Anusara, Yin, Prenatal, and Pilates, to name a few. If you’ve always wanted to try out these different styles of yoga, now you can for FREE.

3)      Stream it or Download it – If you are one of those people who like to buy the DVDs of your favorite movies, Yoga Download has an option like this. Try a video first, and if you love it, you can download it and keep it forever.

4)      Chill-out yoga music – There’s a whole section of chillaxing style yoga music you can check out and purchase. If you dig electronic and organic instrumentals and are looking for some cool new tunes for your yoga classes, you’ll find a great selection of new artists and styles here. For each featured album you can view the tracklist, listen to a portion of each track, and either buy individual tracks or the full album.

5)      Community – Yoga Download gives a portion of their proceeds to these organizations: The American Cancer Society, Foundation for International Community Assistance Small Loans (FINCA), Big Changes, Plan USA – Helping Children Through Sponsorship, and Cambodian Children’s Fund. In fact they’ve developed a special class, Yoga for Cancer Survivors, and for every download, they donate 50% of the fee to the American Cancer Society.

6)      Awesome pricing plans – For just $10, you can get unlimited streaming classes for a month. For $24, you get unlimited streaming for 3 months, and for $90, unlimited streaming for a whole year! If you want to add downloads to that, it costs just a little more. Don’t want to commit to a full month or year? You can stream most classes for a $1.99 a la carte price.

7)      Stress release – Yeah, December is a tough month. Let yoga get you through this stressful time with classes like Yoga for Anxiety and Yoga for Back Pain.

Shiva Rea live at Tadasana Festival 2012

8)      Shiva Rea’s Solar and Lunar Flow classes are available! – I got to attend a few of Shiva’s classes at Tadasana Festival, and they rocked! If you can’t make it out to one of her live classes, this is the next best thing.

9)   Great gift idea – Yoga Download is the perfect gift for a busy friend or someone you know who doesn’t live near a yoga studio. Give the gift of unlimited yoga for a month or a year to someone you love!

10) Yoga for Peace –Yoga Download established the Yoga For Peace program to show support for American troops overseas and current members of the Peace Corps. In the true spirit of yoga, the entire Yoga Download catalogue is available FREE to active duty servicemen and women as their way of thanking those who have offered themselves to a greater mission.

If you or anyone you know is serving in the armed forces or Peace Corps and would like access to free yoga classes, please send an email to help@yogadownload.com for more information.