Choosing a Yoga Mat - Best Non-Slip Material, Thickness & Prices 2022 | Emily Rowell Yoga

Transcript

there are so many different types of yoga mat on the market today if you're fairly new to yoga it can be quite a daunting task trying to figure out which one is going to suit you best so in this video i'm going to break down some of the important things to factor in the type of material you're looking for how thick you need your mat to be and how much money you can afford to spend on it and hopefully that will help to make your decision a little bit easier [Music] hi my name is emily i'm a yoga instructor and if you're new to this channel you will find some yin yoga here some hatha yoga and some chatty videos like this just breaking down some common questions that i get asked as a yoga instructor in this video i thought we would dive into yoga maths because it is a question that i get asked a lot when new people come and start yoga for the first time they want to know how much they should be spending what kind of map they should buy where to go to get them so i'm going to put as much information as i can into this short video to help you make an informed decision on either your first yoga mat if you're buying for the first time or maybe you're looking to upgrade or change to a different one so let's go through the three most important things to factor in the thickness of the mat the material of the mat and the price point let's start with thickness so the standard thickness for a yoga mat is around four millimeters that might sound very very thin but you do want it to be fairly thin so you can easily balance on the mat so that you can feel the ground which is quite important in yoga arsenal practice the only downside is it can be a little bit tough on your wrists and your knees most people get used to that quite quickly but if you are someone who likes to have a little bit more padding if you've got any conditions or injuries that affect your joints your knees hips wrists and shoulders then you might like to go for a slightly thicker mat now you might be tempted to go for one of the really spongy exercise mats and i do see people bringing these along to yoga class sometimes i don't recommend using those because they are so spongy that you kind of sink into them it makes it quite hard to move around on the mat i usually notice that when people are on those kinds of mats in class they end up slipping around quite a lot as in the mat slips around on the ground because they're not they don't have the grippy kind of material that we like in yoga so they don't really stick to the ground and it's really hard to balance on those kind of really thick spongy mats even in poses like a low lunge it can be quite hard to find your balance so i don't recommend thick spongy exercise mats if you want a bit of extra padding for the knees just going up to about eight millimeters for a yoga mat can make quite a lot of difference it might not sound like a very thick mat but it will help to keep those joints feeling a bit more supported but you can also still move around more effectively and without slipping and sliding which is very important in our yoga arsenal practice so as a general rule i would say if your joints are quite happy with a fairly thin mat go for something between three and five millimeters if you'd like a little bit of extra support go for something between six and eight millimeters anything thicker than that you're gonna find a little bit too spongy you're gonna sink into it and it's going to be quite difficult to move around on so then it's very hard to just focus and enjoy your practice now let's talk about the material of the mat because one of the big issues that people tend to find when they're first starting out with yoga is the slippy hands particularly in things like downward facing dog so we want a mat that we're going to grip to easily this is where if you're using a spongy standard exercise mat they don't really provide any grip so you're going to find poses like downward facing dog really difficult so a good starting point is this kind of pvc material most budget-friendly yoga mats are made from this if you go back sort of five or ten years pretty much every yoga mat was made from this kind of material they work really well they have a nice level of grip they're easy to clean they last fairly well but the downside is they're not particularly eco-friendly and if you're using it really regularly more than once a week you're going to find after a while that you will get some wear and tear on it it will start to fall apart after a few years or maybe less than that please excuse how mucky this one is i only really use this one outside now so it's always pretty dirty looking if you're after something a bit more eco-friendly then there are lots of different options available now we have natural and recycled rubber which is this kind of mat here there's also jute and cork yoga mats which i haven't personally tried but they're they work for some people from my experience the rubber mats are really great they grip they grip really really well they feel nice it's quite a smooth texture it feels a little bit more luxurious than the pvc and they last for years they last really really well there are a lot of different brands making mattes now from this natural recycled rubber and this would really be my recommendation and then the third thing to consider is how much you actually want to spend on your yoga mat because there are mats on the market from anywhere between about five or ten pounds all the way up to over a hundred if you're just testing out yoga and you're not sure you're going to practice very regularly then you can get a pvc mat for around about 10 pounds i would recommend spending a little bit more than that if you can afford to if you go around the 20 to 30 pound mark it's likely to be slightly better quality and last you a little bit better i've used a few different brands of pvc mats over the years and i can recommend yoga mad and ecotechs which i think are both around the 20 pound mark then if you're interested in a rubber mat as i said before this is the material that i really recommend up until a few years ago you could only really get rubber mats from a brand called lifeform which is this mat here and these cost a hundred pounds today a lot of different brands are making rubber mats so fortunately you can get a rubber mat without spending a fortune just from a quick look on amazon i can see that you can get rubber mats from around 30 pounds there's a few different brands on there i haven't tried them myself so i can't particularly recommend them that it's worth shopping around and looking at reviews if you're looking to invest in a mat that is definitely going to last you for years and is made by an eco-friendly and environmentally responsible brand i highly recommend yogi bear this is a uk brand i've had this map for a couple of years now and i just think it's fantastic i will definitely be buying from them again this video is in no way sponsored by yogi bear i just think that they're a brilliant brand and can highly recommend their mats these mats are about 75 pounds so it is an investment but if you are practicing yoga regularly and you can afford the investment i would recommend it it will last you easily three or four years maybe even longer than that depending on how often you're using the mat in another video soon i'm going to compare the lifeform 100 pound yoga mat with the yogi bear 75 pound mat because they're similar materials but there's quite a big difference in that price point so i thought it'd be helpful to do a full review i've used both of them for about two years at a time so hopefully there'll be some useful information there if you're interested in investing in one of those slightly higher price point yoga mats so once that video is up i'll put a link to that in the description box below so here are your three considerations thickness four millimeters is standard but go to up to eight millimeters if you want a bit more padding for your joints what material do you want if you're looking for an eco-friendly option that's really good for grip then i highly recommend rubber and how much do you want to spend if you're fairly new to yoga and not sure how often you'll use your mat i'd recommend going for the 20 to 30 pound option maybe a pvc mat or maybe one of the rubber ones again check with the reviews and things online and see what works for you if you're going to be using your mac daily and you want it to last a few years then if you can afford the investment i recommend yogi bear i think they have mats between about 60 and 80 pounds the lifeform 100 pound mat is also an option if you want to spend a little bit more as i say i will do a full review of the difference between those two on this channel soon so make sure you're subscribed so you get to see that video when it's up if you found this video helpful remember to like the video and leave me a comment below let me know what else you would like me to talk about on this channel make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss any future videos i hope that you will be able to find the right yoga mat to suit you now thank you again for watching