Sana: Yoga & Pilates For You

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Inspiration

Most fitness apps hand you a library of hundreds of classes and leave you to decide. Scrolling through them is overwhelming, and nothing tells you which one is actually right for you today, so you pick something that sounds decent, pick one at random, or close the app and skip it. People don't need more choice. They need someone who knows them to have the right session ready. We built Sana to do that in one screen, with one session that fits the day you're actually having, and to learn from how each session felt.

Studios and personal trainers are a great way to get that kind of guidance, but not everyone can fit them into their budget or their week. We wanted to make personal coaching available to more people, at home, whenever they have a few minutes, so moving becomes something they keep doing.

What it does

Sana builds your plan. Sana asks what you want to work on (strength, a stronger core, better sleep and more), yoga or Pilates, areas to go easy on, how long you have, which days, and what equipment you own. Tell Sana anything the questions didn't cover, like "I prefer standing sessions and shorter holds," and Sana keeps it in mind. Then Sana shows you your plan, in your own words.
Sana plans today's session. Today opens to a single session with one line on why it fits you, like "Something softer for a low-energy day", "To leave you feeling grounded", or "A lighter one today" after your last session felt like too much.
Sana adjusts to the day you're having. Short on time or low on energy? Adjust the length, your energy, and how you want to feel after: grounded, energized, stronger or looser. Or choose from a few other sessions Sana suggests, or take today off without losing your progress.
Follow along at home. Sessions are voice guided. A calm voice talks you through each movement while the video shows it, with the cue on screen, a list of what's coming, skip back and ahead, AirPlay to the TV, landscape mode, and resume if you get interrupted.
Sana gets to know you. After each session, tell Sana whether it felt too hard, just right or too easy, how you feel, and add a private note if you like. Sana uses every answer to shape what comes next. You can also talk to Sana the way you would talk to a personal trainer: ask why today's session fits, swap it for something shorter or gentler, say "tomorrow I only have 10 minutes", or change when you practice and which areas to go easy on, and Sana makes the change. The You tab shows your month and your history, with no streaks.

Made for the day you're having

Sana's whole job is turning what someone needs into one clear session for today. Setup answers, today's check-in (time, energy, how they want to feel after) and how past sessions felt all shape which session they get, and recovery sessions and rest days are part of the plan, not a missed day. Today shows one session and one line on why it fits, so there is nothing to decide before moving. Every other choice lives in a small sheet, and the player puts short cues on the video instead of screens of text.

How judges can try it

Download Sana from the App Store and go through setup (a few minutes of taps). Start the 7-day free trial when your plan is revealed, which unlocks everything. Today's session is then ready to play. You can cancel any time in Settings > Apple Account > Subscriptions.

How we built it

Sana is a React Native app built with Expo, running on Cloudflare with a Postgres database. Sessions come from a curated library of yoga and Pilates classes. Sana's coach is an AI agent with a small set of tools. Sana plans, adjusts and explains each day's session from the user's plan, today's check-in and past reflections, reads free-text notes for signals like wanting something gentler, and can change the plan in conversation. We test Sana against our own evaluation cases. RevenueCat powers the subscriptions, paywall and restores.

We found out about Shipaton late and gave ourselves one week to build Sana, without cutting corners on quality. We started with the product, the design and the brand: who Sana is for, what gets in the way of their practice, and how a calm, warm coach should sound. The technical work ran in parallel while the product took shape. The rest of the week went into testing every flow, fixing every issue we found, and polishing each screen until it felt finished. We worked alongside AI coding agents throughout, with automated tests and evaluation sets keeping quality high while we moved fast.

Challenges we ran into

Curating the library. A personal coach is only as good as what it can choose from. We reviewed hundreds of yoga and Pilates sessions, from 10 to 60 minutes, and kept only the ones that passed. Each one is tagged for goals, energy, effort, difficulty, how it leaves you feeling, equipment, focus areas, the areas it's gentle on, and whether it's a recovery session, and its voice guidance and video quality were checked, so Sana can reason about every session it suggests.
Personalized programming. Having good sessions is only half of it. The harder part is choosing the right one for this person on this day. Goals, areas to go easy on, equipment, the days they chose, the time they have, today's energy and how they want to feel all pull in different directions. Sana turns all of that into a plan across the week and still has a good session ready when the answers conflict.
Feedback that changes something. A reflection is only worth giving if the next session feels different. Turning how a session felt, how they feel now and a free-text note into the right next step took tuning: a session that felt too hard brings something lighter, one that felt too easy brings something stronger, without throwing away the rest of the plan.
An AI coach that follows through. Most AI chatbots can only answer. When someone's plans change, Sana updates today's session, sets up tomorrow's, or changes the plan itself, which meant giving Sana a small set of safe actions in the app and making sure every change still respects the person's equipment, time and areas to go easy on.
Choosing, not browsing. The hardest product decision was saying no to a catalog. Every choice lives in a small sheet on Today, so the default is always one clear session and one reason for it.
Video that flows. The next movement is always ready before the current one ends, so a session plays through without pauses, on the phone, in landscape or on the TV.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Designed, built and submitted to the App Store in one week.
Today opens to one session picked for you, with one line on why, so there is nothing to decide before you start moving.
Hundreds of reviewed yoga and Pilates sessions from 10 to 60 minutes, including dozens of recovery sessions, each tagged for goals, energy, effort, how it leaves you feeling, equipment and the areas it's gentle on.
A coach that changes your session or your plan from a chat message.
Voice-guided sessions that play through without pauses, on the phone, in landscape or on the TV.

What we learned

Personalization people can feel comes from a few questions asked at the right moment (how much time, how's your energy, how did that feel), not from a long quiz. And fewer choices, done well, make it easier to show up again the next day.

What's next for Sana: Yoga & Pilates For You

Apple Health and wearables. Sleep, heart rate and activity from an Apple Watch or other wearable will help decide how hard today's session should be, and show how your practice changes your body over time.
Mood and energy through the day. Quick check-ins that show how moving changes the way you feel, and help Sana suggest the right session at the right moment.
More full-length instructor-led classes alongside the voice-guided sessions.