Musings from Joel

As my practice continues to evolve and my athleticism increases on the mat I am once again on the hunt for a satisfactory yoga mat. I, like so many other started with the store bought $20 varity and used those for years. Which was fine when I was doing yoga once a week and usually not in a warm room. The sweat wasn’t much of a factor nor was the mat slipping. But as I stepped up to a daily practice this past year I quickly reached the limit of the cheap latex mats that are sold all over the place. As I started practicing in a heated studio I would drench my mat and half way through class I would slip and slide all over the mat. I decided to invest $60 in a yogitoes mat towel, which are great at absorbing sweat, I highly recommend these if you sweat a lot. But the mat still gave me issues, as it quickly started to break down and blister on the surface.

So I did my homework and decided on a Jade mat after talking to several people that liked them. I think my mistake was in talking to women who don’t sweat like a man does. I bought this mat back in Dec. and enjoyed it for several months. But the mat apparently is somehow impacted by the humidity. I’m no chemist but my mat seems to have become a lot more elastic. It could be months of sweat seeping through my yogitoes towel and it is simply moist or it could be the humidity. I started to notice this past month that my mat was moving forward in my poses. It literally was stretching  out underneath me while I was in downdog. The result is a mat that seems to bend and curl at the most inoportune moments and I am constantly having to adjust it and pull it back 3-4 times in class. I joke with my instructers that I should place my mat at the back of the room and by the end of class I would be at the front.

One of my instructors, Katherine, let me use her Manduka for a class. I noticed a remarkable difference in the mat versus mine. No movement or bunching up. The mat stayed put and I didn’t have to mess with it. I was sold and ordered one at Amazon immediately. I am now waiting for it to come in. I am thinking I will bring the Jade home and set it out to air out for a long time then put it in my trunk when I am at other studios.