TOP 6 Best Yoga Mats

Cur­rent­ly, there are many arti­cles on the choice of yoga mats, but all of them do not reflect mod­ern real­i­ties. The mar­ket for yoga mats is grow­ing rapid­ly, and in recent years there have been quite a lot of new prod­ucts about the fea­tures of which, a wide range of yoga lovers are not so aware.

In this arti­cle, we will try to fig­ure out in detail how to choose a yoga mat in 2021. What to look for, what trends and nov­el­ties exist, how to save mon­ey with­out over­pay­ing for a brand and ulti­mate­ly choose a reli­able and high-qual­i­ty rug for your­self.

Which brand of yoga mat is better to buy

Accord­ing to expe­ri­enced instruc­tors, the fol­low­ing brands pro­duce the best yoga mats:

• starfit is a well-known Aus­tralian com­pa­ny engaged in the pro­duc­tion of exer­cise equip­ment and fit­ness prod­ucts. Its yoga mats are durable, reli­able and styl­ish along with very afford­able prices. The com­pa­ny’s prod­ucts were espe­cial­ly pop­u­lar due to the involve­ment of emi­nent ath­letes and fit­ness instruc­tors in their cre­ation and test­ing.
• Bod­hi is a Ger­man com­pa­ny that has been sup­ply­ing its prod­ucts to the CIS mar­ket for over 20 years. The com­pa­ny is engaged in the pro­duc­tion of mats and oth­er relat­ed prod­ucts for yoga, Pilates, med­i­ta­tion. High-qual­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly prod­ucts of the brand meet strict inter­na­tion­al stan­dards and are wide­ly pop­u­lar with cus­tomers.
• Man­du­ka is a well-known Amer­i­can brand spe­cial­iz­ing in the pro­duc­tion of yoga prod­ucts. The prod­uct range of this brand is con­stant­ly updat­ed with new tex­tures and col­ors. Tak­ing into account the wish­es of its cus­tomers, the com­pa­ny pro­duces mats for class­es in the halls and out­doors. Yoga mats of this com­pa­ny are famous for their high qual­i­ty and nat­ur­al mate­ri­als.
• Ojas is a world-famous brand, one of the pri­or­i­ty activ­i­ties of which is the release of goods for yoga. The list of its prod­ucts includes spe­cial cloth­ing, rugs, as well as a wide range of cov­ers and bags for them. The com­pa­ny aims to make this spir­i­tu­al prac­tice as pleas­ant and enjoy­able as pos­si­ble.

The best fat burn­ers for weight loss

Comfortable and elastic mat

The yoga mats that are wide­ly used today began to be pro­duced only in the sec­ond half of the last cen­tu­ry. Pret­ty quick­ly they gained pop­u­lar­i­ty in all cor­ners of the earth, where the wor­shipers of the ancient Indi­an phi­los­o­phy of body and spir­it, also called shravakas, lived.

Today, the mat, made from the lat­est poly­mers, is con­sid­ered an indis­pens­able com­pan­ion of every yoga adept. This is how moder­ni­ty and antiq­ui­ty con­verged, even­tu­al­ly cre­at­ing an ide­al bal­ance that pro­motes self-improve­ment and heal­ing.

Rating of the best yoga mats

When choos­ing a kare­mat for yoga, most buy­ers are guid­ed not only by the price cat­e­go­ry of goods, but also by their prac­ti­cal qual­i­ties. Accord­ing to numer­ous reviews on the forums, the fol­low­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics are impor­tant for a com­fort­able yoga mat:

• Qual­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness of mate­ri­als;
• Good adhe­sion to the floor and the abil­i­ty not to slip on its sur­face;
• Elas­tic­i­ty and soft­ness of the coat­ing;
• The degree of sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to defor­ma­tion;
• Dura­bil­i­ty and wear resis­tance;
• Light weight;
• Mois­ture resis­tant;
• Flex­i­bil­i­ty;
• Opti­mal ratio of para­me­ters (length, width and thick­ness);
• Avail­abil­i­ty of mod­els with sev­er­al col­ors;
• Price.

After ana­lyz­ing the opin­ions of cus­tomers and the demand in online stores for yoga and fit­ness mats, we select­ed the 6 most pop­u­lar posi­tions from more than 20 mod­els offered. All of them have good reviews and have the above qual­i­ties.

Best ellip­ti­cal train­ers

Lack of time for classes

Yoga and the med­i­ta­tion it preach­es help bring thoughts and feel­ings back to nor­mal, relieve anx­i­ety and calm the nerves. Alas, not all heroes of office work find at least one free hour a week in their busy work sched­ule to vis­it the yoga sec­tion.

Also, few peo­ple work­ing in pompous build­ings of glass and con­crete get lucky in the form of a car­ing boss who pays for class­es with an expe­ri­enced guru in a cor­po­rate gym.

Best Inexpensive Yoga Mats

If you are just start­ing to com­pre­hend the basics of yoga and are not sure that this spir­i­tu­al prac­tice will appeal to you and become a hob­by for a long time, there is no need to spend mon­ey on an expen­sive gym­nas­tic mat. In this case, you should opt for more bud­get mod­els. Based on the opin­ions of expe­ri­enced teach­ers, we have select­ed the best yoga mats in this price range.

Starfit FM 102

Accord­ing to online stores, Starfit FM 102 is one of the most pur­chased care­mats. Made of qual­i­ty PVC mate­r­i­al, it is ide­al for stretch­ing as well. Its bright col­ors and orig­i­nal flo­ral pat­tern help to cre­ate a good mood dur­ing train­ing. To avoid dam­age to the integri­ty of the sur­face, the man­u­fac­tur­er rec­om­mends going bare­foot or in spe­cial sports shoes with soft soles.

Advan­tages

• Elas­tic and dense coat­ing;
• Bright col­or that does not fade over time;
• Does not twist dur­ing exer­cise;
• Good length;
• Does not slip on the floor;
• Afford­able cost.

Flaws

• Does­n’t wash off very well.

Reviews about this inex­pen­sive yoga mat are most­ly pos­i­tive. Some users note that the sur­face deforms slight­ly over time dur­ing train­ing. How­ev­er, this is only pos­si­ble when prac­tic­ing on a kare­mat in shoes with rough soles.

Bodhi Asana Mat

This effec­tive and light­weight yoga mat has all the fea­tures that are so impor­tant in yoga and fit­ness. It does not slip, wash­es well and does not stretch, it is con­ve­nient to roll it up and car­ry it dur­ing train­ing. The ide­al thick­ness allows you to feel com­fort­able in any asanas. The mat is made of high qual­i­ty rein­forced PVC and has good abra­sion resis­tance. Oeko-Tex 100 Lev­el 2 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for this prod­uct guar­an­tees its com­plete harm­less­ness to human skin. Out­ward­ly, such a mat is eas­i­ly rec­og­niz­able by the Bod­hi cor­po­rate logo applied to its sur­face.

Advan­tages

• durable;
• Pret­ty long;
• Smells good;
• Soft and elas­tic coat­ing;
• Wash­es well.

Flaws

• Hands move slight­ly.

This almost non-slip yoga mat is appre­ci­at­ed by stretch­ers, where flex­i­bil­i­ty and stretch are very impor­tant. And the fact that you can slide a lit­tle on it is con­sid­ered just an advan­tage.

FM-301 NBR

…We test­ed this mat for yoga and fit­ness, and, as promised by the man­u­fac­tur­er, it turned out to be soft and elas­tic, com­fort­able for a per­son even taller than 170 cm, and its cost is quite accept­able…

Expert opin­ion

The FM-301 NBR mat is anoth­er Starfit prod­uct. Like all prod­ucts of the com­pa­ny, this yoga mat is durable, soft, reli­able and of excel­lent qual­i­ty. The use of inno­v­a­tive NBR-mate­r­i­al in the com­po­si­tion gives kare­mat also hypoal­ler­genic prop­er­ties.

The prod­uct is intend­ed both for prac­tic­ing any kind of yoga, and for fit­ness train­ing, dur­ing which stretch­ing exer­cis­es are per­formed. The man­u­fac­tur­er advis­es to prac­tice on it with­out shoes and, if nec­es­sary, wipe with a damp cloth. With prop­er use, this acces­so­ry is able to serve the ath­lete for quite a long time.

Advan­tages

• Elas­tic;
• Wide range of col­ors;
• Responds well to water, can be wiped;
• Increased thick­ness;
• Good ther­mal insu­la­tion;
• Low cost.

Flaws

• On some floor cov­er­ings it is elec­tri­fied;
• Dur­ing dynam­ic loads some­times slips.

Kare­mat tol­er­ates mois­ture well, but wet palms can slip a lit­tle, so this option is not the best for those who sweat a lot in class.

The best fit­balls

Reducing pressure on the body

It should be not­ed that many years before the inven­tion of poly­mers, which made it pos­si­ble to pro­duce rugs of increased elas­tic­i­ty, adher­ents active­ly prac­ticed yoga right on the soft grass. In the absence of such an oppor­tu­ni­ty, ani­mal skins were used to alle­vi­ate pres­sure on the body.

How­ev­er, as the pos­es became more dif­fi­cult, yogis need­ed more and more soft and elas­tic mate­ri­als. So, cot­ton tow­els were used to take asanas, and after some time they were replaced by syn­thet­ic rugs.

Best Natural Yoga Mats

Yoga is a spir­i­tu­al prac­tice aimed at the “reuni­fi­ca­tion” of the soul and body. There­fore, many peo­ple for whom such activ­i­ties are an inte­gral part of their lifestyle pre­fer high-qual­i­ty mats made from nat­ur­al mate­ri­als. These mats are more com­fort­able to use and last much longer. This cat­e­go­ry con­tains the best yoga mats, select­ed accord­ing to cus­tomer reviews.

Rishikesh

Like any Bod­hi prod­uct, the Rishikesh yoga and fit­ness mat is made of real Ger­man qual­i­ty. It holds its shape well, does not rub off, and is able to with­stand shock, so it is suit­able not only for exer­cis­ing in the gym, but also for train­ing at home or out­doors. The man­u­fac­tur­er has pro­vid­ed for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of wash­ing it in a type­writer, while the mat does not lose col­or and does not stain the sur­face. The Rishikesh yoga mat will suit those who choose com­fort, dura­bil­i­ty, light weight and good val­ue for mon­ey.

Advan­tages

• Made from nat­ur­al mate­ri­als;
• Dense;
• Sticks well to the floor;
• Does not slip;
• Rich col­ors;
• Wear-resis­tant, suit­able for var­i­ous types of train­ing;
• Has two work sur­faces.

Flaws

• The weight of 1.6 kg seems con­sid­er­able to some users.

Expe­ri­enced yoga teach­ers praise this mod­el for the abil­i­ty to select the required length, var­i­ous options are on sale, from 175 cm to 220 cm. Due to the fact that this yoga mat is non-slip, it is easy to make var­i­ous racks on it.

Manduka PRO

For the past 15 years, Man­du­ka yoga mats have been regard­ed as one of the best. The divid­ing line in the cen­ter helps to build up the asanas cor­rect­ly. The acces­so­ry is made of high qual­i­ty sta­ble PLUS foam, which guar­an­tees safe­ty for health. The pores of the sur­face are secure­ly closed, which pre­vents the pos­si­bil­i­ty of repro­duc­tion of harm­ful bac­te­ria. Many cus­tomers appre­ci­ate these yoga mats for their envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness and high qual­i­ty.

Advan­tages

• Light weight;
• Hypoal­ler­genic;
• Dense;
• Nice tex­ture.

Flaws

• Trav­el mod­els not includ­ed.

Both instruc­tors and their stu­dents speak very pos­i­tive­ly about Man­du­ka mats. Such yoga mats serve about 3–4 years, do not break or rub. True, buy­ers pay atten­tion to the fact that they are not very con­ve­nient to car­ry, so it is bet­ter to leave such mats for sta­tion­ary prac­tice.

Ojas Salamander Optimum rubber

Ojas Sala­man­der Opti­mum rub­ber yoga mat is suit­able for all types of prac­tice. This yoga mat is made from nat­ur­al mate­r­i­al in accor­dance with the requests and rec­om­men­da­tions of pro­fes­sion­al instruc­tors. It is strong, durable, resilient, com­plete­ly non-slip and odor­less.

Anoth­er dis­tinc­tive fea­ture of this kare­mat is its abil­i­ty to absorb mois­ture. Due to the large num­ber of micro­scop­ic pores on its sur­face, which cre­ate the effect of a sponge, sweat quick­ly seeps inside and then evap­o­rates, leav­ing no unpleas­ant odors. The man­u­fac­tur­er has pro­vid­ed for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of wash­ing the rug in a wash­ing machine with gen­tle deter­gents at a tem­per­a­ture of +30°C.

Advan­tages

• Soft cov­er;
• wear resis­tant;
• Good grip on the floor and palms;
• Does­n’t smell;
• Can be machine washed;
• High qual­i­ty ther­mal insu­la­tion.

Flaws

• The kit does not include a car­ry­ing case;
• High price.

Judg­ing by the reviews, this mat is appre­ci­at­ed not only by yoga prac­ti­tion­ers, but also by Pilates fans. It does not slip at all and, if desired, by pur­chas­ing a cov­er, you can car­ry it with you to group class­es in fit­ness clubs.

Lotus position on the living room floor

The only way out of this vicious cir­cle is to train right in your apart­ment. There will always be time and place to take a few heal­ing pos­tures and escape from the eter­nal van­i­ty of van­i­ties.

To ful­ly bal­ance pas­sions and desires, in this case, you only need a video with med­i­ta­tive music launched on YouTube and, of course, a fit­ness mat.

Some carpet replacement options

It is log­i­cal to ask if it is pos­si­ble to do with­out a spe­cial rug dur­ing Indi­an med­i­ta­tion prac­tice?

In gen­er­al, you can, replac­ing it with the first ones that come across:

• Plaid;
• table­cloth;
• Ordi­nary palace.

If you wish, you can also make a soft bed­ding with your own hands by study­ing sim­i­lar home-made sam­ples from a pho­to of a yoga mat pub­lished on the World Wide Web.

Which yoga mat is better to choose

For those who often work out in nature, it is bet­ter to choose a yoga and fit­ness mat made of syn­thet­ic mate­ri­als. It weighs less than nat­ur­al prod­ucts, which are more rel­e­vant for prac­tice in the gym.

Based on the results of our rat­ing, we can draw the fol­low­ing con­clu­sions:

• The Man­du­ka gym­nas­tic mat can be con­sid­ered the most pop­u­lar among yoga prac­ti­tion­ers at a pro­fes­sion­al lev­el.
• If you are look­ing for an unas­sum­ing yoga mat for your trav­els, then Rishikesh is the per­fect trav­el bed.
• For Pilates, the Ojas Sala­man­der Opti­mum rub­ber mat is best suit­ed.
• Fans of stretch­ing and stretch­ing most often pre­fer Bod­hi Asana Mat.
• Those who choose a gym­nas­tic mat for chil­dren will def­i­nite­ly like the design of Starfit FM 102.
• Begin­ners for tri­al class­es should opt for the bud­get ver­sion of the FM-301 NBR.

In the mod­ern mar­ket of goods for fit­ness, there are many dif­fer­ent offers. There­fore, when mak­ing your choice, remem­ber that the best yoga mat should encour­age you to get start­ed as soon as pos­si­ble.

The path to inner harmony

The ancient teach­ings of yoga have accu­mu­lat­ed a huge vari­ety of tech­niques:

• Mind heal­ing;
• Purifi­ca­tion of con­scious­ness;
• Putting in order a shat­tered psy­che;
• Expelling fears, includ­ing reg­u­lar pan­ic attacks;
• Gen­er­al bod­i­ly health.

Yoga classes with children

With the grow­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of yoga, the old­er gen­er­a­tion is increas­ing­ly intro­duc­ing young peo­ple, youth and chil­dren to this teach­ing. More­over, many par­ents insist that their chil­dren begin med­i­ta­tion and prac­tic­ing asanas from an ear­ly age.

Accord­ing­ly, it is quite log­i­cal to ask what cri­te­ria should be tak­en into account when choos­ing a chil­dren’s rug.

It is clear that it should be dec­o­rat­ed cheer­ful­ly and col­or­ful­ly, but this does not say any­thing about what per­for­mance qual­i­ties will suit the young yogi the most.

No point in saving

As fol­lows from the reviews of numer­ous shravaks, a rug that is com­fort­able in every sense will not be cheap at all. How­ev­er, this does not mean that you need to look for a more afford­able option.

It is bet­ter to save up the miss­ing amount, and then the med­i­ta­tion will take place in much more com­fort­able and spar­ing con­di­tions. On top of that, an expen­sive mod­el will last sev­er­al years longer.

Wide range of benefits

Judg­ing by the impres­sions of avid yogis, the use of a mat allows you to raise the effec­tive­ness of med­i­ta­tion and asanas to a whole new lev­el.

The fol­low­ing advan­tages of a mod­ern fac­to­ry mat are espe­cial­ly obvi­ous:

• Oppor­tu­ni­ty to choose the opti­mal bed­ding in terms of thick­ness, length and fric­tion force;
• Increased resis­tance to dirt and ease of wash­ing;
• The widest choice of design solu­tions, as well as the pos­si­bil­i­ty of apply­ing an indi­vid­ual pat­tern or orna­ment;
• Pleas­ant tac­tile sen­sa­tions deliv­ered by syn­thet­ic fab­ric;
• Effec­tive insu­la­tion from the cold floor.

Softness, tenacity, environmental friendliness

A suit­able choice for a begin­ner shrava­ka, oth­er­wise called athama, is the Man­du­ka Pro Mat mod­el. This is a very soft mat, per­fect­ly adapt­ed for the med­i­ta­tor in his apart­ment.

• More than half a cen­time­ter thick pro­vides just the kind of cush­ion­ing that is need­ed for the yet untrained athama joints.
• The high fric­tion force will not allow this mat to slip out from under the begin­ner yogi at the most inop­por­tune moment.
• This mod­el is also good because it does not accu­mu­late any odors and does not sat­u­rate athama clothes with a sharp poly­mer aro­ma.
• The devel­op­ers man­aged to achieve this effect through the use of envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly raw mate­ri­als.