Due to the untimely Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns, people and children have been cooped up at home for several months since early 2020. Thanks to the advancement of technology, offices, and schools were able to adapt to the new reality faster with virtual office spaces and classes via mobile and computer applications.
However, the work-from-home routine has caused a drastic change in lifestyle; people and children now work and study more than usual and avoid going out more often than not. With less physical activity, there is a surge in passive lifestyle-induced diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular health problems and even mental wellness issues have also increased particularly among city dwellers.
Some having realised the gravity of their health conditions started taking up virtual classes for exercises and yoga via mobile apps, but most of them are of limited help as they never offer holistic and precise training.
Here comes the Parjanya, a bootstrap startup led by a Bengaluru couple--Raksha Rao and Krishna Prasad-- who have developed a feature-rich Yoga app Prayoga.
Raksha and Krishna who have worked in many technology companies in America for more than 15 years, returned to Bengaluru in 2019. They soon hit upon the idea of creating yoga app that offers comprehensive training to the customers.
Both Raksha and Prasad's families have long been into practicing yoga and teaching too. Besides that, they also did a deep study and researched through credible sources of Yoga and interviewed teachers, to get all possible right information on the ancient body and mental wellbeing exercise.
Coincidently, Apple released the AR/VR (Augmented Reality /Virtual Reality) framework kits for body tracking, and the Parjanya team lapped it up and developed the Prayoga app. The company released it exclusively on Apple App Store in 2019, several months before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Back then, it was released on Apple App Store as a technical preview for a select audience. During the early days, team Parjanya interacted with experts at Apple App Accelerator in Bengaluru and the former offered technical feedback and how the team can make good use body tracking framework and also improvise the interface across all supported Apple devices.
At the start, the company incorporated two things-- one, camera-based body tracking and two, animated 3D models-- into Prayoga.
With the Prayoga app, users can place the iPhone on a stable platform to record their Yoga workout. With the help of the integrated LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensor of the iPhone (12 and 13 series) and the app's algorithm, Prayoga will understand the user's body pose, and offer precise feedback and also with 3D animation videos, subscribers will be able to finetune their Yoga pose.
In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Paranjya team scaled up their content with high-quality videos and also courses (or routines) to the Prayoga app with subscription plans.
With the pandemic still not under control, most corporate employees continue to work from home and Prayoga has received tremendous response from customers.
Last year, with more design inputs from Apple experts, the Parjanya team incorporated machine learning, Shazam kit, and enabled Prayoga app to support Apple Watches.
Also, with the release of the iOS 15.1 in October 2021, Apple introduced Shareplay feature. With this, users will be able to stream content through FaceTime including watching movies, music, TV series on Apple TV+, and Music apps with a group of friends and family members.
Now, Yoga tutors can use the Shareplay feature on Prayoga to train their wards during the latters' convenience.
Raksha also noted that with machine learning and integration with the Apple Health feature, the Prayoga app would know how active the use was during the day and send out a notification such as 'you had a busy but sedentary day', so try out this yoga routine to energise the body.
Krishna added that now Prayoga app has several routines and courses for particular age groups and other health conditions to ensure people don't get injured.
The app also shows details on each Yoga asana (pose) and how beneficial it will be, and who should do it. Furthermore, there is a list of routines as short as 20 minutes to longer than 60 minutes per day for five days of the week. There are further custom routines that are best suited to do in the morning or in the evening. Depending on the people's convenience, they have a lot of options to choose from and incorporate the routine into their daily life.
Krishna also noted that the app, based on the physical activity of the user over time, will be able to know how physically fit the person is. For instance, if he/she has an issue with his right leg, the app with the help of machine learning capability will know about the condition and it suggests only the particular yoga routine that the person would be capable of doing the asana.
For now, Prayoga app users get access to Yoga routines and individual videos of asanas. But, for professional training (courses), patrons have to a pay premium monthly or annually.
Will Prayoga app replace the Yoga teacher?
Raksha, CEO of Parjanya, told DH that their app Prayoga should not be seen as an alternative to a personal Yoga tutor, but as an enabler for both the student and the teacher to learn and teach Yoga virtually, as the prevailing condition of the pandemic at least in India, crowding of people in any small space or in a classroom is discouraged.
Krishna added that yoga instructors were really happy with the Prayoga app and also with Shareplay and the 3D animated feedback feature actually helped them to teach students better compared to 2D-based Google Meet/ Zoom video calls.
As of now, Prayoga has 75 asanas (facts and videos) in their library and has plans to add more Yoga poses and also bring redesigned interface, spacial audio-based meditation programmes (not just white noise such as rain, forest, and instruments but with instructions and shlokas), and another holistic wellness offering in time for International Yoga Day (June 21).
Also, the Parjanya team has plans to bring physical fitness offerings including cardio fitness routine, virtual running trails having scenic places of India (for both indoor bikes and treadmill), and also gamify the routine by offering option to challenge friends and family members with leaderboards to achieve daily targets.
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