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Back to the Mat: Where’s the Stick?

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I’m one of those unlucky yogi­nis who strug­gles with sweaty hands and feet dur­ing yoga classes. As class pro­gresses, my sta­ble foun­da­tion becomes unsta­ble, espe­cially for strong poses held for a minute or longer — things like a low lunge, down­ward fac­ing dog, or a war­rior pose. I need a yoga mat with bet­ter stick.

As my prac­tice improves, I’m get­ting bet­ter at bring­ing energy up from my hands and feet to my core — but I tire more quickly. Legs start to shake, my poses lose their integrity.

Using the right mat can help, but I haven’t yet found the per­fect solu­tion. These days I’m exper­i­ment­ing with two dif­fer­ent com­bi­na­tions, for dif­fer­ent class styles.

For more in-depth dis­cus­sions of yoga mats, based on per­sonal tri­als, see: the quest for the per­fect yoga mat, the quest (take 2), and still wait­ing for the per­fect yoga mat.

The Yoga Mats Teachers Recommend

Obser­vant teach­ers who see me slip­ping will rec­om­mend switch­ing to a dif­fer­ent yoga mat. Although teach­ers have dif­fer­ent pref­er­ences, they tend to rec­om­mend either Jade or Man­duka brand yoga mats.

As a result, I now own and use two dif­fer­ent mats for class. Before head­ing off for class, I’ll choose the one best suited to today’s teacher — her yoga dis­ci­pline and what she tends to empha­size in the way of asanas:

Nei­ther mat fully solves the prob­lem, but for dif­fer­ent rea­sons.

The Jade Har­mony mat has a longer “mean time before slip­page”; how­ever, it deforms as it warms. So the Jade mat tends to be less suited for Anusara-style asanas with its focus on solid foun­da­tions and oppos­ing actions. The Man­duka never deforms, is always rock solid, but my hands and feet slip much ear­lier in class unless I’ve taken pre­cau­tions.

Mat Covers Can Help

Because nei­ther mat is sticky enough on its own, I’ve tested dif­fer­ent mat cov­ers, with vary­ing degrees of suc­cess. Here’s my cur­rent “class for­mula”:

For Vinyasa Flow

Dur­ing classes with lots of sun salu­ta­tions or other flow­ing sequences, I’ve found that Manduka’s micro-fiber hand towel does a good job keep­ing hands or feet sta­ble. I’ve used a sin­gle towel, but am about to try plac­ing two tow­els on the mat, one for hands and one for feet.

Manduka’s longer mat cover is less effec­tive dur­ing vinyasa flow sequences — it wrin­kles too eas­ily. (This may not be an issue for skilled yogi­nis who jump and float eas­ily from one pose to another, with­out grace­less foot drag­ging.)

When pos­si­ble, I pre­fer to bring the Jade Har­mony mat to class because it weighs a pound or two less than the Man­duka mat, rolls up nicely, and is easy to secure with a vel­cro strap. (That said, it took a cou­ple of months before the rub­ber smell dis­si­pated enough for me to ignore the Jade mat dur­ing class.)

For Anusara

My pre­ferred solu­tion for Anusara classes is the Man­duka Black Mat Pro with Yog­i­toes skid­less mat towel, which almost fully cov­ers my yoga mat.

Even after two years of use and mul­ti­ple wash­ings, the Yog­i­toes towel remains rea­son­ably absorbent, and the rub­ber feet keep it firmly in place — most of the time. It can wrin­kle dur­ing fast-paced sun or moon salu­ta­tions, so it some­times needs adjust­ing dur­ing class.

What I don’t like is the some­what bumpy feel of the rub­ber pro­tru­sions on the reverse side of the Yog­i­toes mat towel. This sort of spoils the zen-like beauty of the Man­duka mat.

The wrinkly mat towel is the rea­son my vinyasa teacher tells me to bring the Jade Har­mony mat to her classes.

I keep hop­ing that some­day I’ll find a yoga mat that doesn’t com­pro­mise on sta­bil­ity while retain­ing its stick­i­ness for the dura­tion of the class. Per­haps this is just a fan­tasy…

The Quest for the Perfect Yoga Mat, Take 2

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A while ago I wrote about my search for the per­fect sticky mat for in-home yoga prac­tice. I’m still look­ing, but have a more informed opin­ion based on fur­ther tri­als. It’s a toss-up between prAna’s Rev­o­lu­tion mat and my long-time favorite, the black mat pro from Man­duka. Both are top-of-the-line mats designed for seri­ous yogi­nis who want years of ser­vice from their sticky mat.

prAna Revolution Yoga Mat

There’s a lot to like about the Rev­o­lu­tion sticky mat, par­tic­u­larly its gen­er­ous pro­por­tions and rock-solid sta­bil­ity (shown here). It’s great for peo­ple with broad shoul­ders and long arms, like me.

yoga-matt-home-studio

I appre­ci­ate the fact that prAna worked with John Friend, the founder of the Anusara branch of yoga, to get deep insights into the right bal­ance of fea­tures and per­for­mance. Its aes­thet­ics are nice too, although the logo place­ment is a bit odd. In my expe­ri­ence the prAna Rev­o­lu­tion mat excels at bal­ance poses that require sta­bil­ity, such as Tree Pose, Crow or the war­rior poses.

Advan­tage: Man­duka

Now that autumn has arrived in Seat­tle, I’m less sat­is­fied when it comes to prac­tic­ing asanas on the Rev­o­lu­tion mat: the nat­ural rub­ber sur­face often feels cold and clammy under my bare feet. For bare­foot prac­tice in a chilly room, I def­i­nitely pre­fer the Man­duka Black Mat Pro.

Unfor­tu­nately, my hands and feet tend to get sweaty after 30 min­utes of prac­tice or so (or even sooner with vig­or­ous vinyasa series), and I don’t find the anti-slip qual­i­ties of the Rev­o­lu­tion to be effec­tive enough. To man­age the prob­lem of slip­pery hands and feet, I’m forced to use a yoga towel.

I’m also dis­ap­pointed with the Rev­o­lu­tion mat’s cush­ion­ing and resilience. It’s less “giv­ing” than I had been led to believe from the online reviews and prod­uct descrip­tions. When doing poses that put weight on fin­ger tips or bony knees, I strongly pre­fer my Man­duka mat. For an hour of asanas, the Man­duka offers a bet­ter bal­ance of cush­ion­ing and sta­bil­ity trade-offs. I also find the Man­duka to be less sus­cep­ti­ble to slip­ping when my hands and feet get sweaty – or maybe this is just the con­se­quence of two years’ of usage… The Rev­o­lu­tion has had fewer hours of “break-in” time.

For Yoga Classes Away from Home

Both the Rev­o­lu­tion and Man­duka mats are really heavy to carry to and from class (some­where in the 7–8 lb. range). I’ve tried both sev­eral times. Although they are way bet­ter for asanas than the typ­i­cal mats stocked by yoga stu­dios, they’ll make you work dur­ing the trans­port phase.

If you own the longer mats (the ones sized for tall peo­ple), nor­mal mat sacks are too small. As a result you either have to roll and then secure them with straps, or buy an extra-large car­rier. (Or look into sewing your own car­ry­ing bag, as I plan to do – once I find a suit­able fab­ric.)

I use the 85-inch Man­duka sticky mat at home, but find it way too big and heavy to carry back and forth. So I’ve recently pur­chased the stan­dard 71-inch Man­duka mat for use in class and keep it rolled up in my car­rier bag. It seems a shame to own more than one yoga mat, but this approach is a work­able com­pro­mise given the lack of a per­fect mat that suits all my require­ments.

Net net: the Man­duka Black Mat Pro still gets my vote as the best mat for a tall yogini.

The Quest for the Perfect Yoga Mat

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See my lat­est post for an update on this quest.

For some time I’ve been look­ing for the per­fect yoga mat, but have not yet found it. Over time and with daily usage the mat becomes a kind of sacred place so it’s impor­tant that you find one that really fits your needs and val­ues. Here’s what I’ve learned over the past cou­ple of years. [Read more…]