Some people, when first beginning their practice of yoga, opt for a pair of cheap yoga pants. And, of course, that’s fine. You don’t really even need any sort of specialized yoga clothing to get started. Any sort of loose clothes like sweat pants or cargo shorts will do
But like with most things in life, you like to look good where ever you go, even in yoga class. First of all, if you’ve practiced yoga for even the smallest length of time, you know that you don’t want any yoga pants that are too tight or restrictive. With the number of postures and stretching exercises that you will practice you’ll need something loose and flowing. As well as being restricting, tight pants can be distracting. So what are the best inexpensive yoga pants?
Obviously, given the meditative quality of the system, comfort is of the highest importance. Even cheap yoga pants come in a wide variety of styles, colors, and fabrics. You might want to limit yourself to bright solid colors, although I’ve seen a number of very attractive prints. You might also want to get a recognizable illustration on your flowing yoga pants as well. Perhaps something like the “Om” symbol or a likeness of the Buddha.
As far as fabric choice goes, most people like natural (non man made) products like cotton, silk, satin, hemp, or linen. And I can understand this. You are going to be working out pretty hard and are guaranteed to work up quite a sweat and most folks don’t like the feeling of wet synthetic fabric sliding against their bare skin.
Unless you live near a big city you might have a hard time finding a store that sells good quality proper yoga clothes like Lucy yoga pants. So you may have to purchase your items at an on line store. Look for a site that sells yoga pants for man, woman, and child to get the widest selection.
Lightweight Yoga Pants
Date: Wednesday March 25, 2009Posted in: yoga apparel, yoga clothes, yoga pants
Lightweight yoga pants are absolutely perfect for the beginning yoga student on a tight budget. Like other traditional yoga pants, these should be loose and flowing in order to give you the proper room to get yourself into those difficult yoga poses.
The benefits of yoga are already very well known so I won’t bother to detail them here. How ever, for me, yoga has become a nice way of centering my mind and body together.
I’ve tried Namaste yoga and Bikram yoga, the latter being a form of “hot house yoga”. This means that the room is kept at a very high temperature. This really aids the yoga student, clad in lightweight yoga pants and perhaps a nice shirt woth the OM symbol on it, in starting out his or her yoga school routine well limbered because of the heat.
Many people like to wear natural fabrics like cotton, linen, silk, satin, or hemp traditional yoga pants and tops. These allow your skin to easily breathe and don’t inhibit your range of movement.
So, whether you wear your lightweight yoga pants or just shorts and a cheap T-shirt to your class, it is of the utmost importance that you remain comfortable. After all, that is what what yoga is ultimately all about-being comortable in your own skin.
Yoga Mats-A Basic Guide
Date: Sunday March 8, 2009Posted in: yoga accessories, yoga clothes, yoga mats
Yoga mats offer a wide variety of uses (Pilates, etc), but for our purposes we will be considering its use in your yoga practice. As this is a basic guide let’s start with the most obvious…what is a yoga mat? Traditionally it is a small rectangular piece of carpet but nowadays people tend to use more modern composite materials for their mats.
One of the first things you need to decide is whether you want your mat made from natural materials or if a man made product is o.k. The natural fibers tend to run into a lot more money, but some people don’t mid the price and prefer the green approach. For natural products you can choose from hemp, jute, cork, cotton, linen, silk, and if you are really traditional…you can get a sheepskin. I’ve seen pictures of yogis in India sitting on tiger skins but I’m fairly certain that is illegal now.
While I am all about cost cutting and saving money, the cheapest choice is a plastic mat. In that you are going to be spending a lot of time with your skin on this mat, you may not want all these fumes rising up from that mat. Depending on where the mat is manufactured a plastic mat can even have some cancer causing materials in it. It is a well known fact that some countries use poisonous ingredients made by prison labor in things they manufacture.
That said, there are a number of high quality man made materials out there that are perfectly acceptable. One great thing about an inexpensive man made yoga mat is it has a sticky quality to it. This helps in keeping you from taking a nasty spill when practicing.
The thing about natural products is that they can have a tendency to wear out after a while. Now if you can afford this in the first place this may not be an important consideration for you. Obviously natural fibers are kinder to the surrounding environment and you can be sure that no obnoxious fumes are going to be assaulting you during practice. And if you decide to go with cotton, the cost factor is greatly minimized.
Whichever type of yoga mat you decide to choose, make certain that you pick the right one for your own particular practice. You’ll be spending a fair amount of time on yoga mats, so your choice will be a very important one.
Next- a review of the most popular yoga pants styles.
