I nonetheless bear in mind the primary time I attempted yoga. Just a few cute women in my sophomore highschool class had began a “yoga membership” after college, and a buddy and I assumed that becoming a member of up can be a surefire solution to get into their good graces.
An hour of sweat, gritted tooth, sore muscle mass later, I threw within the towel. Yoga was arduous, I discovered. It additionally was considerably painful, as a result of whereas all the women had yoga mats, my buddy and I had been doing “yoga” (or our greatest imitation of it) on the arduous tile flooring of the varsity hallway.
Quick-forward fifteen years.
I am on the cusp of thirty, and yoga has change into a key a part of my morning routine. The distinction between a day once I’ve carried out 10 to twenty minutes of sunshine stretching within the morning and a day once I have not is fairly vital. I’ve additionally discovered that yoga’s much more enjoyable when you’ve a little bit of cushion between you and the ground. Enter the common-or-garden yoga mat.
Yoga mats aren’t simply good for yoga, both. My mats are among the most versatile and helpful items of “gear” in my closet. They’re good for just about any flooring train, from push-ups to sit-ups, planks, mountain climbers, burpees, bicycle kicks… the checklist goes on. They’re additionally useful for savasana (mendacity down) meditation, and a thick(ish) yoga mat may even function a fairly first rate mattress for tenting. I typically use yoga mats to arrange climbing gear earlier than a visit, and greater than as soon as have slept at the back of my Subaru with a thicker yoga mat as a sleeping pad.
Yoga mats, in fact, are available quite a lot of thicknesses and supplies. Thinner mats supply extra stability and a extra “grounded” really feel that’s typically most well-liked by critical practitioners (they usually’re additionally simpler to hold round city), whereas thicker mats supply extra cushion and alleviate strain on the joints, excellent for rookies, aged practitioners, the arthritic, and so forth.
The mat I acquired to check on this assessment was the retrospec Solana, their thickest (1-inch) mat. Priced at a really affordable $39.99, this mat is on the market in a dozen completely different colours, and is made out of soft NBR foam. However retrospec’s lineup of yoga mats is a flexible, reasonably priced unfold. In addition they have a thinner Solana (0.5″), made out of the identical NBR foam, a 6mm mat, the Pismo, and a 5mm mat, the Laguna, which mixes a polyurethane higher layer with a rubber backside for grip.
This sun-dappled, lithe and limber mannequin is most actually not the writer….
Yoga mats are a reasonably simple piece of substances. By that I imply that until the producer does one thing significantly heinous—like infuse their yoga mats with poison ivy or asbestos–what you see is what you get.
A yoga mat does not have to reinvent the wheel, it simply must be steady, grippy, sturdy, and (relying in your desire) supply some degree of portability and luxury.
With that in thoughts, I am very pleased with my Solana. It ticks all of the packing containers. These yoga mats supply strong no-slip help, are simple to wipe clear on the finish of a session, include a carry strap to retailer and transport, and better of all, are very reasonably priced. The Pismo and the half-inch Solana are simply $25, and all retrospec’s yoga mats are beneath $50.
That is the kicker right here, for me. That worth level is corresponding to what you’d pay for a knock-off yoga mat at Walmart or Goal, however the high quality here’s a noticeable step up. I have never seen any of the scuffing and ripping on my retrospec mat that I usually see on $20-$30 yoga mats. It is held up very effectively even after a number of months of standard use.
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