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Yoga Mats - Info and Benefits


Today most yoga practitioners recognize yoga mats as being an essential accessory for the practice of any yoga session. It doesn’t matter whether you’re practicing at home or at yoga classes, there’s always the risk of slipping while executing certain poses, and yoga mats protect you from and minimize the risk of such mishaps.

Yoga mats are available in a wide variety of colors, thicknesses, textures and materials. There are certain factors that you need to consider when choosing a yoga mat.

  • Yoga mats are firstly very different from and can not be substituted with other types of exercise mats.
  • A yoga mat should ensure that you can practice on a comfortable surface with a good grip and enough room for maneuvering in and out of the variety of poses, without the need for you to use the floor surface.
  • The type of yoga mat ideally suited for you will also depend on other factors like your age, physical stature, your personal preferences and the type of yoga you are engaged in.
  • Thicker mats are generally preferable but try not to get one thicker than 6 mm, as mats that are two thick will tend to wobble and be unsteady when practicing balancing postures.
  • If you travel quite a lot to and fro practice and find that having to carry a yoga mat is irksome you can opt for mats that can be folded up and transported easily. Travel yoga mats are perfect for this as they are extremely thin, but they offer little other than protection from slipping.

In the context of the materials used there are two types of mats:

  1. Cotton yoga mats which are really good if engaged in power yoga workouts, and
  2. Rubber yoga mats, which offer great traction, but are not as natural as cotton mats.

Just as there exist a wide variety of schools of yoga, there are also a wide variety of yoga mats just to meet the specialized needs of each of these disciplines. There are in facts various types of mats like the yoga pilates mat, manduka yoga mat, natural yoga mat, ashtanga yoga mat, kid yoga mat, hot yoga mat, prana yoga mat and bikram yoga mat. These are designed keeping in mind the specific requirements of the yoga discipline. For example, Hatha Yoga mats are generally sticky yoga mats, while Ashtanga Yoga mats offer better padding and are also extremely durable. There are also other types of mats depending on and classified according to your sensibilities or age, like environmentally friendly mats and special yoga mats for the aged or for children.
Submitted on July 16, 2010
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Benefits of Natural Yoga Mats