If you are only beginning your yoga journey, you may find contradictory advice coming from different sources. Do you need special yoga pants? Or will simple workout pants do just fine? Should you go to a yoga class for beginners or can you practice at home?
For practicing yoga, you basically need two physical things – yourself and a yoga mat. Everything other than that will only make your practice more comfortable. Of course, getting the best fitting yoga pants is always a good idea. They will help your body achieve its best results without any discomfort.
However, if all those yoga accessories like yoga pants, socks, towels, blocks, and bolsters are just pleasant yet unnecessary extras, a good yoga mat is a must. If you get a cheap yoga mat, you'll only pay more in the end. Getting a high-quality yoga mat might seem expensive at first, however, in the long run, you will see that it was a good decision.
If you try practicing without a yoga mat, you will find that a lot of poses are inaccessible to you. Trying to do a downward facing dog on carpeting, linoleum, or wooden flooring, your hands and feet will slip in different directions, making it impossible to maintain the pose. Carpeting may offer way too much cushioning, making you feel unstable in balance poses. Wooden flooring, on the contrary, is too hard, which will make even lying in Savasana highly uncomfortable.
A yoga mat is a solution to all those problems. It offers perfect traction so that your hands an feet will not slip even when you start sweating. It is rather soft to create some padding yet not too thick to make keeping balance positions impossible.
Today, the market is overflown with yoga mats from different manufacturers. They differ in price and quality, and it is not always clear, which one is best. Let’s find out what you should pay attention to when choosing a yoga mat.
• Material. Most yoga mats available today are made of PVC. However, this is not the best option as this material contains harmful phthalates that can ruin your health and affect the environment in a bad way. The best option will be to choose a mat made of natural rubber.
• Traction. Make sure that the mat has some stickiness to it, so that you can maintain any posture without overstraining. Mats that are not perfectly smooth but have some texture to them generally provide better traction.
• Size. Make sure that the size of the mat allows you to stretch out your whole body on it. If the mat is longer than needed, that’s okay; but, if it is shorter than your height, that is not good. 68 and 72 inches are two standard lengths when it comes to yoga mats.
So, yoga novices, if you are not sure, what to buy first – a yoga mat or a pair of yoga pants, there can be only one answer to that. Get a good yoga mat!