FITNESS

How To Buy A Yoga Mat Guide – Ask Yourself The Purpose

Spread the love

Making a final decision to buy the right yoga mat may be little tricky one. Especially when you find too many other different mats from the online store and choosing the best one becomes little tougher. Well most of the buyers end up in a confused state without doing their basic search as to how to buy a yoga mat guide that can actually help them to make a right decision

When you decide to buy one for the first time, choosing among the various brands, various materials, thickness, sizes can put you in a confusion mode. This has happened to one of my close friend who struggled a bit choosing the right one. Finally he ended up purchasing one.

How To Buy A Yoga Mat Guide – Ask Yourself the purpose

This article will try to cover some of the basic aspects and will help you to make a clear decision. Before buying one, ask yourself these questions – Are you planning to dedicate a good time practicing yoga regularly or planning to do yoga only for few days. If you are new to this exercise, you should be looking to buy basic entry level mats.  Yes there are different sizes of Yoga mats available in the market.

Thickness of Yoga Mats

Mainly 3 types are available

1/16” – These mats are ultra-portable. You can carry anywhere and due to its thinness, person can actually feel the floor. Excellent option for those you want to carry the mats to different places

1/8” –  Most used yoga mat. Offers great comfort and cushioning. Easy to use, fold and carry

1/4″ – Most of the premium mats comes with this thickness. Offers best comfort and support. Little difficult to maintain

Type of Yoga Mats

You can select from the number of options available depending on your choice

Thermal Plastic Elastomer Yoga Mats or TPE Yoga mats – These mats are made up of a mix of plastic and rubber so that the mats are stiff yet flexible. TPE yoga mats can be rolled and folded easily.  These mats are environmentally friendly because these mats do not use PVC or any latex material.

PVC Yoga Mat 

You will find most of the basic entry level yoga mats are made up of Poly Vinyl Chloride. PVC makes a great yoga mat due to its durability, grip, ease of using it.

If you think doing yoga is health, never try it on PVC as these mats have received criticism for being environmentally unfriendly despite its performance as a yoga mat. Also unfortunately, there is no safe way to make or destroy these mats and its priced little extra too.

Foam Yoga Mats

Environmentally friendly yoga mat. Foam yoga mats offer the same level of durability, comfort, performance but without affecting the environment.

Although, the performance of these Foam mats are impressive, there are certain limitations with these mats since it is made up of Latex. People with allergy types may face problem with these Foam mats

Jute Yoga Mats

Considered as one of the most eco-friendly yoga mats by numerous yogis for the only reason it is made up of natural material. Jute fibers are bio-degradable materials mostly found in south east Asian parts.

Unlike other yoga mat materials, Jute is a  perfect mat for all kinds of routines because of the natural quality. However on the downside, it absorbs less moisture and a bit rougher

Cotton Yoga Mats 

Mostly these mats are found to be thin in size. These mats offers a better cushioning for yoga exercises due to its very soft texture and these mats absorbs sweat quickly. Easy to clean regularly after use.

When compared with other yoga mats, Cotton mats longevity is not that great because the cotton fiber breaks much faster and they are not as lasting as plastic yoga mats.

Rubber Yoga Mats

Most preferred among other yoga mat types. Rubber Yoga mats are eco-friendly when compared with PVC mats. Rubber yoga mats uses latex so if you are allergic, this is not your choice

Standard Sizes  

The standard size usually found in stores will be of 24” x 68”. Depending on the length of  yogis the Yoga mat length varies. However, the 24” width remain same in most of the mats. Length may sometimes be 74” or 72”. Most of  the yoga practioners fit in the standard size which is 24” x 68” itself

Yoga Mat Price

Getting good value for money spent on the yoga mat is a tricky thing as the price varies based on Yoga mat type, sizes, material & texture, brand and other factors. Some of the mats comes with additional features like patterns and its priced little on the higher side.

Ultimately it is purely the buyer’s choice to exercise to go for the high-priced mats or with the low-priced mats, depends on the preference and taste. We leave that with the buyers to decide.

Hope your search for how to buy a yoga mat guide ends here and enables you to buy the right mat next time when you do the shopping


Spread the love