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 those yoga mats. 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.
Thanks for coming to Yoga Pants Online.
Next- a review of the most popular yoga pants styles.
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