Yoga mats offer you comfort and prevent bruises and injuries. This is why you need a yoga mat. Read further to learn more about them.
Yoga is dedicated to aligning the heart, mind, and soul towards a healthy lifestyle. It includes systematic practice of breath control, physical exercise, diet control, and also meditation. People practicing yoga often use yoga mats for their sessions.
A yoga mat is designed keeping in mind the requirements of modern yoga techniques. It provides a non-slip and cushioned surface, which makes it easier for users to perform asanas safely.
However, you might wonder whether a yoga mat is really that important. After all, why do you need a Yoga mat when people have been performing Yoga for centuries without it?
What Is The Point Of A Yoga Mat?
Mats specially made for yoga have several advantages for your body when you perform yoga asanas. Check out some of these benefits below.
Comfort
First and foremost, a yoga mat provides comfort to the practitioners. In the initial sessions, yoga asanas can be quite uncomfortable. While holding postures, breathing, or stretching, you might need some extra support and comfort.
This is where a yoga mat comes in. Also, if you have joint pain or suffer from a knee injury, a yoga mat is a must. A yoga mat offers optimum padding that can make you feel comfortable during practice.
Lower Injury Rates
While performing yoga asanas, you challenge your body when you stretch or twist. If anything goes wrong, chances are that you will end up hurting yourself, especially if you are a beginner.
A non-slip yoga mat reduces your chances of injury as injuries are mostly caused by slipping out of place while performing challenging yoga poses.
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Stability
It’s common to stretch your body while performing yoga, particular in poses like a Yoga Full Split. Hence the body needs maximum stability while stretching. A good quality yoga mat offers stability and helps balance the body while doing yoga asanas.
Also, when you are meditating or lying on your back, you get an extra layer of cushioning that makes you feel more comfortable.
Warmth
While you perform yoga, you produce a tremendous amount of energy. This energy helps you keep going, hence it needs to be preserved.
A yoga mat prevents this energy from penetrating into the ground. It rather preserves it and helps keep your body warm throughout the session.
Helps Set Up Poses
A yoga mat helps in setting up the postures correctly. The surface of a good yoga mat should provide you enough traction such that you do not slip or fall while moving from one posture to another. It will also help you to hold on to the pose correctly and for a longer duration.
Hygiene
Doing Yoga on the ground can be harmful as you can get in direct contact with germs, dirt, and insects. When doing any Asana, the body becomes sweaty, the chances of you attracting germs becomes high.
Body Guidelines
Maintaining your posture while doing asanas becomes difficult if you do not use the mat. Perfecting your body placement and position become difficult.
When you do Yoga on a mat, you have a specific space in which you have to move, and there are guidelines that you need to follow. But without a mat, it becomes difficult to restrict your body to a certain space, and the chances of doing pose incorrectly increase.
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Is It Ok To Do Yoga Without A Mat?
A simple answer to this question is, yes! Yes, you certainly can do yoga without a mat. Your choice will also depend upon the type of yoga you practice and for how many hours in a day you practice. We discussed the pros of practicing yoga above, let’s look at some cons of doing yoga.
Some Reasons Not To Use A Yoga Mat
Connect With Nature
Practicing Yoga in the open on grass or sand with nature helps you get positive vibes and makes you feel fresh. Concentrating on the breath is of utmost importance. Thus, doing different asanas by being in touch with nature helps you get abundant freshness, positivity and helps draw inspiration from nature.
Eco-friendly
Some yoga mats are made of not so eco-friendly materials like vinyl, leather, and synthetic fiber. PVC, which is widely used in yoga mats, is considered unhealthy for the environment. Keeping in mind the impact of your yoga mat’s material on you and on the environment, you might want to avoid a yoga mat.
Natural Movement
For some people, a yoga mat restrict your natural movement and might not let you perform at your full potential. This might happen if you feel constrained or limited to the rectangular area of the mat.
Risk Of Losing Or Hassle Of Keeping Them Clean
If you have a yoga mat, it is your responsibility to take care of it. Regular washing and maintenance need to be done to keep your mat fresh and smell-free. If you do not have one, then you are free to work out anywhere you feel like.
Do You Need a Yoga Mat? If You Are Serious About Yoga, You Should
You can practice yoga indoors and outdoors. But, if you get to choose between the two, we would suggest you do it outdoors with nature and on the yoga mat.
Today, yoga mats are really necessary when doing yoga. Its main benefits are that it prevents you from injuring yourself, is more hygienic and will help you hold your postures better.
As for size, you will find different size options, based on your requirements in premium quality yoga mats like Manduka PRO Yoga Mat or Gxmmat Large Yoga Mat.
If you conscious about the nature and impact of yoga mat material on your health, you can chose from various eco-friendly yoga mat options like Floele Eco Friendly Yoga, Ajna Organic Yoga Mat and Yoga Design Lab Cork Yoga Mat.
The next time you think of joining a yoga class, make sure you carry a nice, non-slippery yoga mat along with you.