Script:
Previously, I reviewed the company Down Dog signature app, Down Dog Yoga. Watch that review if you haven’t already seen it. Today, I will be trying to improve my mental health with sixty days of Down Dog Meditation. Is it as good as Down Dog Yoga, which I previously said was my favorite app? Nope… It’s even better.
Down Dog, the company makes auto-generative fitness and mindfulness apps. Currently, six apps are available: Yoga, Running, Prenatal Yoga, Barre, HIIT, and the one I am reviewing, which is Meditation. These apps are available on the App Store and Play Store, with me reviewing them for iPhone. The cost is sixty dollars a year or ten dollars a month for all the company’s apps, which is a pretty good price.
All of their apps, including this one, are auto-generative. Auto-generative means everything is created based on inputs you select within the settings. There is no set list of classes to choose from. That provides users a fresh new experience every single day that closely resembles what you want to do. The downside is that the company offers sessions missing a bit of that personal touch, as it is machine-generated. That was one thing I was worried about with Down Dog Meditation. After doing the beloved Breathwrk and Othership app reviews, watch my reviews. I thought Down Dog Meditation would be missing something. But surprisingly, they pulled it off with this concept very well.
First, you must create a meditation session within the app utilizing the fully customizable controls. First, you choose how long you would like to meditate for. You can choose from as short as four to nine minutes to as long as eight minutes. The time range allowed depends on the type of practice you choose. These types of practices range as your first choice on this slide menu. You can choose from guided Meditation to a mindful walk to guided breathwork. You can even choose an option to fall asleep to the narrator telling you fairytales. How nice!
Once you choose the type of practice, the options underneath will change. For example, you can pick a theme you will be meditating on in some types. From health and science to friendship to self-care, there are many topics to choose from. Under the Breathwork section, you can choose your level, how often the guide will talk to you, and more. All in all, there really isn’t much else I would want added to the options in this app. I want a cool background to look at as, for now, all you get is the voice caption. You guys are watching me see this black box, which isn’t interesting. I understand your eyes should be closed, but a trippy art generator like Yoga Master would be amazing.
The actual meditation video that is generated is nice. I always kept the voice as the default British mum. I love her soothing voice. Each section I did was unique and never repeated. It is the same with the music, which you can choose from ambient sounds to piano and string samples and more. I had a ton of fun doing each one for about ten to twenty minutes a day.
After your practice, you get to review the songs played for you during the section and any feedback you have for the company. If you like your practice, you can download it and keep it when you don’t have internet. Outside of that, once the session is over, you can redo it by going to the history tab. There is a calendar where you can view the history of your sessions. In the settings tab, you can view your subscription and connect to Apple Health to log mindfulness minutes. Outside of the main meditation mode, there are enough tracking and settings to cover basically everything you need. It would be nice if there was a journal section to review your progress in Meditation, but other than that, everything looks good.
I do my reviews as challenges; my challenge here was to improve my meditation. I am someone whose mind is constantly racing and have had trouble meditating. Just sitting for over a minute has my mind racing and breaking into consideration. My Goal was to increase my number on how well I’d rank myself in Meditation. I started off at a two out of ten, with me constantly thinking about work problems. That number dipped and rose depending on the day, but I saw an upward trend. At the end of day thirty, I gave myself an eight out of ten, being able to concentrate for long bouts of time without breaking concentration. I will say that I was dealing with less around the end of that time, which most definitely contributed to my improved results. Right next to me are my sheets for this review. They are also uploaded to the website if you want to review them. I recommend everyone try different challenges, so if you are interested in Down Dogs suites of apps, then download it and give it a try.
Overall, I had an absolute blast with this generative workout app. As a comparison, Is it as good as hand-crafted sessions like Breathwrk and Othership? I would probably say no, but they give off very different energies. Most people interested in the company come for the Yoga and see the other apps as a bonus. I’d say, why not give them a chance and see if you like them? I think Yoga would have benefited from more structured leveling and courses with different sessions. Meditation has a much lower level of athletes needed, which is perfect. As for the next app, I am looking at doing Down Dog Running, which will hurt. I am a nearly three-hundred-pound man, so this will not end well.
So, guys, that is it for today’s video on Down Dog Meditation. If you like this review, please give me a big thumbs up. Subscribe to the YouTube channel as I post a new video every Friday. While subscribing down there, please leave me a comment with something you want me to review. I will do any topic that is within the realm of self-improvement. Follow me on X and Instagram @truejackjenk. Visit my website at jack-jenkins.com. Lastly, I want all you guys watching to have an amazing day. If you are looking to improve your life well, do you know how to do it? We can improve together. Now, let me play out to that app’s sultry British voice.
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