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Which Yoga Mat to Bring to a Retreat

April 4, 2013 •

In a few weeks I’m head­ing off to a yoga retreat — my first-ever trip to Mex­ico. Hop­ing to travel light, my mind keeps pon­der­ing the ques­tion of which yoga mat to bring.

I’ll be chal­lenged with 4 hours of prac­tice daily for 6 days, so choos­ing the right mat is not as triv­ial a ques­tion as it might seem. Well beyond my phys­i­cal com­fort zone…

As with sail­boats, there is no per­fect option: each mat has def­i­nite pros and cons. My options are:

  • Bring no mat — take my chances and use what­ever the retreat cen­ter chooses to pro­vide
  • Bring an all-rub­ber Jade Har­mony pro­fes­sional mat
  • Bring my extra-long Man­duka mat

I’ve ruled out the travel light, bring-no-mat option. Given the time and money I’m invest­ing in this retreat, it would be a shame to jeop­ar­dize the expe­ri­ence by hav­ing to use a crappy mat while there.

So the choice comes down to the Jade Har­mony ver­sus the Man­duka. Here’s how each one stacks up for this Mex­i­can yoga retreat.

Jade Harmony

Pros

  • Weighs half as much as my Man­duka (about 4 pounds lighter)
  • Works bet­ter in a heated room (or a hot cli­mate) before my sweaty hands and feet start to slip
  • Nice cush­ion­ing under my hands and fin­ger­tips, espe­cially in DFD
  • Pretty blue color

This mat is flex­i­ble enough to be folded into a large duf­fle bag that could also hold my cloth­ing and yoga acces­sories. I’d pre­fer not to incur a bag­gage check fee just so I can bring my own mat. (The round-trip fees for check­ing an extra piece of lug­gage on an inter­na­tional flight would buy a new mat!)

Cons

  • Some­times too short for some vinyasa sequences or reclin­ing poses
  • Unsta­ble in some bal­ance poses, espe­cially when mov­ing from a sta­tic bal­ance pose to another pose
  • Deforms under my back foot in war­rior poses or lunges when the mat warms up dur­ing prac­tice
  • The open cell rub­ber some­times “catches” my legs dur­ing low-to-the-ground “jump through” tran­si­tions

In Mex­ico I’ll encounter day­time tem­per­a­tures in the 90s, so the mat will prob­a­bly deform under my feet more quickly or more often than it does in Pacific North­west yoga stu­dios. I’m some­what con­cerned about this risk.

Net net: the Jade is a bet­ter trav­el­ing com­pan­ion, but offers a less sta­ble foun­da­tion than the Man­duka.

Manduka Black Mat Pro

Pros

  • Sta­bil­ity, sta­bil­ity, sta­bil­ity
  • Plenty of room (it’s the extra-long model)
  • Well loved, well used — lots of great karma asso­ci­ated with this par­tic­u­lar mat

Cons

  • It’s heavy
  • It’s less grippy than the Jade Har­mony, so I’ll have to use a micro-fiber towel on top to absorb the sweat
  • It can­not be folded into a duf­fle and would require its own travel bag (adding $50–100 in extra lug­gage fees)

image of Manduka mat for yogaThe Man­duka’s extra weight is not too bad if I must carry it only dur­ing tran­sit between home and my des­ti­na­tion. If it’s unsafe to leave in the open air stu­dio, I face the has­sle of car­ry­ing it back and forth twice a day. We’ve been warned about the risk of theft (don’t bring valu­ables), so it’s quite likely I’d be lug­ging this 9‑pound mon­ster many times dur­ing the week in Mex­ico.

Net net: the most sta­ble foun­da­tion I could wish for, but not a good trav­el­ing com­pan­ion. $50–100 penalty to bring this mat…

My mind is not yet made up. Two more weeks before I must decide which is the bet­ter option.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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