Yoga Mat

We recruited two accomplished NYC-based yoga instructors, hatha/vinyasa specialist Juan Pablo Gomez and hot-yoga practitioner Arden Goll, to practice on and carefully evaluate yoga mats for the 2016 rewrite of this guide.

yoga mat

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We also talked to Charles Gerba, PhD, a professor of microbiology and environmental sciences at the University of Arizona, and interviewed Tsippora Shainhouse, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Beverly Hills and clinical instructor at the University of Southern California, to learn if a dirty yoga mat could make you sick.

Amy Roberts is a certified personal trainer and long-time amateur yogi with extremely discerning tastes when it comes to yoga mats, and nearly everything she buys. She has reviewed all manner of fitness products for Wirecutter, including resistance bands, foam rollers, and pull-up bars.

Wirecutter senior staff writer Ingrid Skjong is a certified personal trainer and off-and-on yoga enthusiast. She has taken numerous yoga classes (including prenatal yoga) and knows when a yoga mat feels right and performs well. She has delved into other fitness-related reviews, for running shoes, treadmills, connected indoor-cycling bikes, and GPS running watches.

Both of our yoga instructors praised the Voyager highly for its portability and traction, selecting it as either their favorite or second-favorite travel mat. Depending on the style of yoga you practice or your preferences, though, you may need to make a few adjustments. Our hot yoga instructor noted that the rubber felt almost too grippy and somewhat coarse on her skin and she had to put down a towel to absorb sweat near the end of class. Still, she preferred it over most of the travel competitors, which could become slippery during a heated session.

Although you can wash most yoga mats in a machine, the stretching and tumbling can easily tear a PVC or non-rubber mat. Rubber mats may fare better in the washer but suck up a ton of moisture and can take forever to dry.

Yoga mat materials can create a thicket of concerns for many yogis, and many companies that make yoga mats try to appeal to the environmentally sensitive nature of their audience. JadeYoga says it does not source the rubber for its mats from Amazon trees. Manduka will take your old mat (for a $10 fee on top of a new mat purchase) and have it downcycled.

We were interested in testing the Hugger Mugger Para Mat, which did well in a previous review, when we learned that a new XLXW version measuring 28 inches wide and 78 inches long was launching. Though our yogis enjoyed practicing on the extremely grippy, luxuriously thick ( inch or 6.2 millimeters) natural-rubber mat, they found it very heavy to haul around (nearly 10 pounds) and extremely pungent (our hot-yoga instructor described it as smelling like a tire factory, which even bothered her neighbor in class).

The Kulae tpECOmat Ultra mat is made of a TPE material with an extra-plush 8-millimeter (5/16-inch) thickness. The hatha instructor and Amy were big fans of the lightweight yet densely cushioned material, which Amy particularly enjoyed in restorative yoga practice during long-held floor poses. Our hot yoga instructor found it slippery and commented that the material stretched a bit underfoot. Its thickness makes this mat a bit unwieldy to carry when rolled up, despite its 4-pound weight.

The microfiber top surface of the Toplus 1/16 Inch Travel Yoga Mat has a nice feel, and the mat comes in a tidy plastic sleeve for storage. But our hatha instructor was not impressed with the traction; and though our hot yoga instructor thought it was decent on her trial run, she preferred the JadeYoga Voyager.

We also considered YogaPaws, a set of padded gloves and socks that could easily be the most portable mat-replacement option for traveling yogis. Unfortunately, neither yoga instructor nor Amy much liked practicing in them. Even the thinner version feels thick under your hands and feet, and the socks have a tendency to shift around as you practice.

Designed to help peacefully ground its user with soft, 100% mulesing-free merino wool, this option works for gentle exercises like yin yoga and yoga nidra. Even with its grippy base, it can be machine-washed and air-dried. Plus, its coordinating mediation pillow has a removable, washable cover made of the same wool from grazing sheep.

A yoga mat and a towel, this promises to get even grippier as it gets wet. Made from nontoxic materials like organic cotton with cushy design, these mats work for tall yogis, travelers, and hot yoga enthusiasts. Plus, it can be tossed in the washer after extra-active sessions of Ashtanga and Bikram.

A quality yoga mat will typically cost between $20-$150. Cheaper options may be tempting and could work if you're not looking for a long-term investment or if you don't plan on using your yoga mat very often. But they tend to be less durable than pricier mats. A dedicated yogi who practices yoga daily might want to invest in a more expensive mat that's made to last.

A yoga mat is typically thinner than an exercise mat, with a textured surface for helpful grip. Yoga mats also have a medium firmness for support, comfort, and grounding. Meanwhile, an exercise mat tends to be much thicker and is either very firm to support heavy gym equipment, like a rowing machine, or very cushioned to keep you comfortable during bodyweight exercises.

High quality bags to take your practice anywhere. Shop yoga mat bags, yoga mat straps, and carriers. Manduka bags are designed by Yogis for Yogis on-the-go. About us: Manduka feels a responsibility to reduce global consumption and make high quality products that last longer. Made with precision and passion, Manduka yoga mats are crafted with durable materials so you can feel good about using our products.

Yoga mats are specially fabricated mats used to prevent hands and feet slipping during asana practice in modern yoga as exercise. An early variety made of rubber carpet underlay, pioneered by the yoga teacher Angela Farmer in 1982, was called a sticky mat.

Before modern times, meditative yoga and hatha yoga were practised on bare ground, sometimes with a deer or tiger skin rug. Modern mats suitable for energetic forms of yoga are made of plastic, rubber, and sometimes other materials including hessian and cork, trading off cost, comfort, grip, and weight.

In ancient times, meditational yoga was practised in India on kusha grass, on hard earth without any cover, or on a rug of deer or tiger skin, as specified in the Bhagavadgita and the Shvetashvatara Upanishad as suitable for attaining enlightenment.[2][3][4]

With yoga's introduction in the West, many practitioners used towels or cotton mats on wooden floors.[7] Feet tended to skid on these surfaces, requiring strength just to stand still in a pose like Trikonasana.[8]In 1982, while teaching yoga in Germany, Angela Farmer used carpet underlay cut to towel size during yoga classes; she returned home to London with the material. Angela's father, Richard Farmer, contacted the German padding manufacturer and became the first retailer of "sticky mats".[9] The first, purpose-made yoga mat was manufactured and sold by Hugger Mugger Yoga Products in the 1990s; the company initially imported Farmer-style mats, but finding that they began to crumble with use, developed their own more robust alternative.[10][11]

The first commercially produced "sticky"[13] yoga mats were made from PVC; they have a smooth surface, and tend to be cheaper.[13] More recently, some supposedly "eco-friendly"[13] mats are being made from natural jute, organic cotton, and rubber.[13] PVC mats are the spongiest, resulting in more "give" when stepped on; fibre mats such as cotton and jute are the firmest.[13] Jute mats are the roughest; "sticky" PVC mats give good grip, but some of the modern textured mats in other materials also grip well.[13][18] Smooth mats provide the most grip, so are suitable for the more energetic styles such as hot yoga and Ashtanga vinyasa yoga; the trade-off is that they may be less comfortable and appear dirty more quickly.[19] Mats with more padding are useful for styles such as yin yoga where poses are held for longer periods. Travel mats are thinner and lighter, but provide less padding.[19]

Some yoga practices in Scandinavia use cotton futon mats.[20][21] They consist of a mattress, usually with pockets of cotton batting, sometimes with wool or polyester-cotton mixes, and a washable cover.[22][23] They give good cushioning and grip.[24][25] However, futons are much heavier than other mats, weighing as much as 4.7 kg.[20]

Yoga Journal asked five yoga professionals for their views on yoga mats. They varied widely in their brand preferences, some choosing the traditional "sticky" type, but they agreed that mats must not be slippery.[16]

A hessian mat reviewed by The Independent gave good grip and was both comfortable and attractive; its rubber underside made it stable on any surface, but somewhat heavy; a cork mat provided both good grip and an exceptionally warm surface with a pleasant texture, and the property of being to some degree self-cleaning.[19] The best grip was given by a smooth latex mat; in the review's opinion, its 4 mm thickness both gave enough padding for yin yoga, and the stability for energetic yoga styles.[19] The review noted that a circular mat was at first unfamiliar, but helpful for personal practice of poses such as Prasārita Pādottānāsana (wide stance forward bend) and sequences where a rectangular mat would have to be turned through 90 degrees at intervals; it was also ideal for demonstrating asanas to a class.[19]

The yoga mat has become the definitive symbol of modern yoga as exercise.[8]The journalist Ann Louise Bardach wrote in The New York Times in 2011 that "precious few of the estimated 16 million supple, spandex-clad yoginis in the United States, who sustain an annual $6 billion industry, seem to have a clue that they owe their yoga mats to Vivekananda."[29][30] The yoga scholar Andrea Jain wrote in The Washington Post that "One of the most ubiquitous symbols of yoga's commercialization is the mat, which many consider a necessity to prevent slipping, to mark territory in crowded classes or to create a ritual space."[1] She noted that "committed adherents" could pay over $100 for a luxury mat.[1] The yoga scholar Noora-Helena Korpelainen agreed that the yoga mat had a ritual function: every Ashtanga Yoga session "starts with opening a yoga mat, taking a straight standing pose (samastitiḥ) and chanting a mantra. ... The practice ends with a mantra, relaxation, and rolling up the mat."[31] 041b061a72