Jessamyn Stanley, founder of the wellness app The Underbelly, signed up for her first yoga class begrudgingly. It took a persuasive friend to convince her to attend—and once she did, it wasn’t a comfortable experience.

“I was very aware I was one of the only Black people—and one of the only fat people,” she says. “I felt so alone and alienated.”

The Underbelly, which Stanley founded years later, gives people a decidedly different entry point.

“The initial spark for The Underbelly app was to increase accessibility to radically inclusive yoga spaces,” she says, and she knew an app would be key to helping her achieve that vision.

“I see the app as a tool for global accessibility. Even if you regularly attend in-person yoga classes, an online practice allows you to stay consistent when you might not feel like leaving your house.”

From The Underbelly’s restorative “Bedtime Yoga” to the fully seated “Couch Potato Yoga,” a common thread in every class is how instructors make people of all body types and backgrounds feel represented.

“Other teachers and I speak specifically to parts of the body that others hide away,” Stanley says. “I talk about what to do with your belly or boobs when you’re moving through postures.”

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For Stanley, who had never launched a startup, creating The Underbelly has been an invaluable opportunity to put her own knowledge into practice.

“Creating the app has taught me the importance of slowing down, moving from a firm and steadfast intention, and valuing my community above all else,” she says. “I trust them to tell me what they need so The Underbelly can best be of service to them.”

Seasoned yoga teacher Rebeckah Price saw her reach skyrocket after she started partnering with the Editors’ Choice app Nike Training Club, which offers all of its classes for free.

“I get a lot of emotional messages from Black women saying, ‘Thank you for allowing me to exist differently than the way the world expects me to,’” says the Global Nike Trainer, who lives with multiple sclerosis (MS). “Joining the app aligned perfectly with my mission of making wellness accessible and inclusive.”

Price became a Global Nike Trainer in 2019, a year before the murder of George Floyd sparked marches across the world. “Wellness itself is a very political space,” she says, “so the act of taking care of oneself or practicing self-care is also political.” That is amplified in her Nike Training Club classes.

“It was important for people to see someone unapologetically holding space and also saying, ‘It’s OK to breathe, it’s OK to move your body,’” Price says. “That lands a little bit different when you see a whole bunch of trauma going on around you.”

The inclusiveness shows up in the modifications Price offers—like bending your knees if your hands can’t touch the mat in a forward fold—but also in the length of each workout, which can be as short as five minutes.

“The power of app-based yoga lies in its ability to meet people exactly where they are, whether they’re a new mother squeezing in practice between family responsibilities, someone managing a chronic illness finding relief through accessible movements, or a busy executive decompressing with a quick breathing exercise,” Price says.

Price meets people where their bodies are too. “People can become defeated because they can’t access a pose,” she says. In classes like “Pigeon Pose Primer,” she highlights all the ways to do a movement, and she reminds students to “meet your body where it’s at.”

“Sometimes our bodies aren’t allowing us to be able to reach that point,” Price says. “But the fact that you’re holding there, showing up to do whatever you can with your body, is better than not doing anything at all.”

Lina Nielsen, a sprinter and instructor in the Fiit app, knows firsthand the unique challenges athletes face when practicing yoga—insights she brings to her classes in Fiit.

“Athletes’ bodies are so different from those of people who practice yoga a lot,” Nielsen says. “We have tight Achilles, tight hamstrings, tight shoulders—it makes moves like downward dog near impossible.”

Nielsen offers a collection of classes in Fiit on yin yoga (a slow-paced restorative flow) aimed at athletes, plus a Yoga for Runners series. “I mention that it’s fine if your hamstrings don’t want to let go,” she says. “The hamstrings can still stretch through flexion! I’ve said that so many times in Fiit!”

She also tries to be open about her limitations: “I pride myself on the fact that there are certain poses I can’t do, and that’s fine.” She hopes her candor in her app classes will ease the pressure some might feel to achieve what they think yoga should look like.

For athletes especially, yoga offers mental benefits as well as physical ones. She encourages people to use the seven classes in her Yin for Athletes series to “let your mind take a break.”

“In high-pressure environments, if you can find that stillness, you’re at such an advantage,” she says.

That stillness can be helpful when you’re gearing up to speak publicly or navigating life’s unpredictability. It also comes in handy during intense situations—like the global games in Paris last summer, where Nielsen competed.

She used everything she learned from becoming a yoga teacher in that moment. “I was so grateful to have those tools to tap into when I needed them the most,” she says.

And it helped. As a member of the women’s 4x400m relay team, Nielsen took home the bronze medal for Great Britain.

Looking for more ways to bring yoga into your daily practice? Check out our class picks from these apps and instructors.

‣ Try classes by Peloton’s Aditi Shah if you want to work specific body parts (like her “Focus Flow: Hamstrings” session), or lean on instructor Chelsea Jackson Roberts for flows that fold in various genres—like “Gospel Yoga Flow.”

‣ Alkeme has hundreds of video and audio programs led by Black coaches, therapists, psychologists, and mindfulness experts. One of our favorites: Naomi Hutchinson’s “Restorative Yoga for Back & Shoulders.”

‣ Phyllicia Bonanno’s six-week yoga program in Sweat is a great place to get started for those just beginning their yoga journey.

‣ Apple Fitness+ yoga trainer Jonelle Lewis brings fun energy to her classes, which are perfect for music lovers looking for energetic flows with killer soundtracks.

Photo of Jessamyn Stanley credited to Justin Cook.