”Since you’re a Yoga Teacher, what yoga mat would you suggest me to buy?”
I get this question a lot so here’s my answer what you should consider before your purchase (other than beautiful color that fits to home decor)
This post includes:
1. Size of the yoga mat
2. Travel or home yoga mat? -weight & carrying
3. Grip of the yoga mat
4. Eco yoga mat materials
5. Ayurvedic colors for yoga mat
6. How to take care of your yoga mat
What yoga mat do I use?
Modern yoga mat was founded by Angela Farmer in 1982⠀
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Before that yoga was traditionally practiced either on hardened cow poop base 🐮💩 or on kusha grass 🌱⠀
1. Size and shape of the yoga mat
Well let’s start with simple facts: the standard size of a yoga mat is around 180cm long and 60cm wide. If you’re a tall person, you might want to consider longer yoga mat, so that you can comfortably lie down on it, having both feet and head on the mat. For most of us the standard size works just fine though.
There are also wider yoga mats in the market, and this is mainly a personal preference if you prefer a bit wider mat instead of the standard form. It might come handy if you flipping your dog and don’t want to end up out from the yoga mat every time. 😊
Secondly, there are also round shaped yoga mats, which are not only beautiful, but handy for seated meditation. But I would say if you’re not taller than average, everything else than standard size is just something extra on tp, and most of us can perfectly flow, focus and find bliss on a standard-sized yoga mat
2. Does it need to be easy to carry around – Travel or home yoga mat?
Second thing you might want to consider is the thickness of the yoga mat. Normally yoga mats are around 3-6mm thick.
If you travel a lot and want to have a travel mat, choose a thinner mat, which is lighter weight as well.
Normal yoga mats weigh around 3 kilograms, but lightweight travel mats can be under one kilogram. If you travel a lot, make sure the yoga mat comeswith carrying strap as well.
3. Don’t slip from the down dog – Grip of the yoga mat
Depending on the type of yoga you are practicing, you may want to think of the grip of the yoga mat. Personally I like yoga mats with great grip, and in eco materials this means eco rubber. Personally I’ve noticed cork yoga mats are a bit slippery. It’s just much easier and grounding to practice on a yoga mat with great grip.
It enables better balance, more grounded warriors and less fear on inversions like shoulder stand, because you don’t need to think whether your fingers or toes slip.
4.Eco friendly yoga mat material – for yourself and nature
As mentioned shortly already, eco rubber and cork are examples of eco friendly materials. Why does it matter then? Well, obviously we want to practice sustainably and non-harming way, following the first limb of Patanjali yoga sutra yamas
Ahimsa (in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist tradition) respect for all living things and avoidance of violence towards others.
Secondly, you want to practice in a healthy manner, and deeply inhaling chemicals and plastic doesn’t sound like a good idea. Typically cheap yoga mats are made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride made from petroleum) which gives yoga mat a good structure, but we need to pay for that with negative environmental and health effects. So instead of that, let’s take a look at:
Eco yoga mat materials you can choose and what to consider about them:
- Sustainably harvested tree rubber (make sure you’re not allergic to rubber)
- Cork (might be slightly slippery, so works for less intense flows)
- Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) (=this is a mix of rubber and plastic, which gives the benefits of both materials, and it can be produced with less energy) (NOTE: There hasn’t been much research yet about the ecological and health effects of this material)
- Jute (overall good material with great grip and absorbs sweat a bit) (many times there’s either plastic or rubber added to jute mats, so make sure it doesn’t have any suspicious extra ingredients)
5. Ayurvedic color -more than just visual pleasure
Now that we’ve tackled the most technical information about choosing the yoga mat, let’s go to the visuals and colors. Sure, you can choose your favorite color or one that fits your home decor, nothing wrong with that, or you can try to choose it based on ayurvedic science.
You can do a test to figure your ayurvedic construction.
Once you’ve found whether you’re mostly Vata, Pitta or Kapha, you can add some ayurvedic knowledge to your yoga mat color choosing.
As a rule of thumb, you should use those colours that calm down the own dominating or aggravated Dosha.
Dosha Vata prefers warm and energetic colours like red, orange, yellow or even white.
Therefore, pastel colours are to prefer for this Dosha, while black, brown and grey are absolutely to avoid, as they turn off and inhibit the Vata type.
Dosha Pitta, having a natural inclination to warmth and aggression, prefers cold, pale and mild colours. Since Pitta is dominated by the fire energy, blue and light blue colours are surely good to calm down the Pitta type.
The Kapha ”heaviness” can be stimulated through warm, bright and lavish colours like purple red and yellow, or even gold. Red is the best colour for Kapha, as it stimulates and harmonizes this Dosha. Kapha should avoid pale colours like white, grey, blue, and black.
Other yogic way of choosing the yoga mat color can be based on chakral colors. However, I would say don’t take this too seriously – maybe the right yoga mat is the one that looks the most beautiful or practical for you.
Shapes may help to find the centre
Central and horizontal lines may help finding correct alignments on your yoga mat, but it’s not necessary. I personally love everything symmetric (yeah weird fetish :D) so I prefer having at least central line on my mat.
6.How to take good care of your yoga mat
Now that you have all the knowledge to choose the perfect yoga mat, you also want to prolong its life by taking good care of it. Clean your yoga mat (preferably with eco-friendly cleaner) regularly. You can find simple recipe for self-made eco detergent on my Insta highlights ”yoga tips”.
Don’t either leave your mat directly to sunlight or very cold temperatures.
7.What yoga mat do I use?
Personally I like the most eco rubber yoga mats, as they have great grip from the very beginning. My current mat is from Moonholi, sustainably produced and with Pro grip. It’s slightly bigger than regular yoga mat (185 x 68cm). And it comes with a handy carrying strap. I also love the design of the yoga mat with symmetric lines, astrological shapes and calming colors. If you want exactly this one, it is called PRO yoga mat STICKY VENUS
Sometimes I also use cork yoga mat for more calm yoga when I don’t need so much grip. This may sound weird but also the natural cork color of the mat gives a bit similarly calming feeling as being in nature.
Hope this helped you choosing your yoga mat! Feel free to comment or message me on Instagram for more info! But don’ t either overthink it, because in the end
yoga happens everywhere, not just on your yoga mat
Namaste!