Eco Mats?

Mar. 10th, 2010 04:30 pm
bohemianmoon: sitting crosslegged in the windowsill (Default)
[personal profile] bohemianmoon
Hello. I'm a long time listener, first time caller.
Hopefully that is humorous to more than just me. ;)

Anyway, I recently realized that my beloved kitten has chewed my yoga block and mat nearly to pieces, much to my dismay. I hadn't used them in a week or two, partly because she nips at my feet and hands when I do yoga. I am thus on a quest to find a new block and mat, and am discovering that a lot of so-called eco yoga tools have appeared since I purchased my Gaiam PVC mat several years ago. I've been searching around and reading reviews, but am wondering if anyone here has any suggestions for me. I'm unfortunately a little broke right now and find some of the prices quite a bit above my budget (up to maybe $30).
Issues I'm seeing in reviews are not being sticky (particularly a Savasa eco mat), being heavy (the natural rubber ones, apparently), poor durability (the TPE mats?) and smell, though I'm pretty sure that fades with airing out.
I saw that Bean has a PER mat that's fairly affordable...though I'm kind of sad it doesn't have the pretty reversable/two sided colors that some other mats have. :)

Anyway hello, and any suggestions welcome.

p.s. Any tips for stopping yoga-time kitten attacks welcome.
rydra_wong: a yoga practitioner does a jump through, the motion turning into a blur (yoga -- jump through)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
I've had an EcoYoga mat for ages and been pretty happy with it, but I'm considering getting a second, thicker mat now that I'm starting to work towards things like "floating" jumps and handstand (especially since my floors are hard wood and concrete).

Questions:

a) Is it worth it? Do the extra millimetres make a significant difference?

b) Got any recs for thicker mats? (Preferably ones available in the UK.)
muck_a_luck: For yoga mods. (Yoga Mods)
[personal profile] muck_a_luck
I started out doing yoga on wall-to-wall carpet in my living room. I quickly added a yoga mat, and that was my practice surface for a couple of years. Mat on carpet.

Then we moved to a house with hardwoods on the main level, so I tried mat on hardwood.

Terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. It hurt my heels in forward bending postures. It crushed my feet in seated postures. Rolling over my toes hurt.

So in this new place, I was doing my yoga in the basement, where I could have carpet again.

Then, Husband began yoga mat shopping. Husband is much taller than me and broader in the shoulder. He was using my standard yoga mat, and finding it too narrow. So we shopped mats for him. And we found this:

Wide Yoga Mat 1

Wide Yoga Mat 2

That's Husband's new black mat, with my standard purple mat on top (for size comparison).

I mentioned this extra-long, extra-wide mat in a previous post. Husband got it from www.yogaaccessories.com. It was $27.83 with shipping. It is 84 inches long and 36 inches wide.

First, as you can see, if you have ever wanted a wider mat, it is definitely much bigger than a standard yoga mat. It is also really, really cushy. Springy. Nice and thick. Very sticky, too. Definitely a good mat for someone who is looking for a big mat. I would say a little heavy, if you carry your mat around alot, plus, of course, it is longer and more awkward to carry, too.

But I think you can see from the pictures where I'm going with this.

The two mats, combined, have made the perfect yoga surface! I like mat on carpet, but as a friend of mine points out, it lacks stability. Well, with the two mats, you get the stability of the hard floor, but also a lush, yielding surface that I find comfortable for all seated postures.

It has been a great solution for me.

Do you have any thoughts about surfaces or mats? I freely admit, my experience of mats is limited to the cheapy purple mat I bought at WalMart 6 years ago (pictured above) and the mat my husband just bought. I'd love to benefit from your mat experiences. Respond in the comments, or do your own freestanding post, tagged "mats."

I'm also intrigued by people's experiences with yoga on various surfaces.

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