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The Quest for the Perfect Yoga Mat, Take 2

October 7, 2009 •

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.

Trackbacks

  1. The Quest for the Perfect Yoga Mat | Musings of a Marketing Maven says:
    October 9, 2009 at 8:20 am

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  2. Black Yoga Mat – Latest Black Yoga Mat news – Yoga Mat Relief says:
    November 22, 2009 at 1:24 am

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  3. Black Yoga Mats – Insider Secrets to the Business of Teaching Yoga, Part 1 says:
    July 12, 2010 at 9:01 pm

    […] The Quest for the Per­fect Yoga Mat, Take 2 […]

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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