Yoga Without a Mat: The Pros and Cons

Ever been impinged by your yoga mat? Maybe throughout class you moved from a higher lunge to a standing forward fold and your foot placement wasn’t precise causing your sticky mat to bunch up underneath. Or, worse nevertheless, your mat smells funky from that hot class you took a handful of days ago and you get an odorous whiff each time you inhale in Child’s pose. A little but passionate set of yogis have just the resolution. They say, “No more!” to yoga mats and are tossing them aside.

Can you do yoga with out a mat?

Yes, you surely can! But prior to you attempt you should really recognize the pros and cons of not making use of a single. Your decision will also rely on the kind of yoga you practice and your demands for padding, space, hygiene and eco-friendliness.

“The ecstasy of yoga can’t be contained by a mat,” stated Dana Flynn, a director of Laughing Lotus, a studio in New York and San Francisco. Many yoga teachers in her studios encourage yoga students to practice with out a mat, specially on a wood floor. But there’s more to it. It appears there’s an underlying feeling that the mat is noticed as a status symbol and a way to mark your territory to these distinct yoga practitioners. It’s also viewed as unhygienic and poor for the atmosphere.

Who can argue with that? Most mats are produced of a synthetic plastic-kind item and when more and more “green” mats are becoming produced offered, the expense of generating and shipping the mats has some effect on the atmosphere. And, making use of studio mats following other men and women have applied them generally appears a tiny germy, even even though any reliable yoga studio will let you know the mats are cleaned in between classes.

Practicing with out a yoga mat

But have you ever practiced with out a mat? It’s a bit strange. What if you show up with no mat and the floor is dirty? Yuck.

There is a particular comfort level to becoming on your mat in your personal private space. It’s a rectangular region of space that is all yours, which is good in an atmosphere exactly where space is minimal and class attendance is higher. The mat is a boundary, a sort of marker, to your neighbor that can be crossed, but there is an unspoken understanding it is by invitation only or at times, by accident, if space is tight. So, there is a bit of a territorial really feel but I’m not so positive that is a poor point. I do not know about you, but at times that tiny bit of mat cushion is welcome, like when I’m in particular yoga poses such as Downward Dog or any time I’m going for a forearm balance.

I can get on board with the “idea” of practicing with out a mat, specially when I hear it place like this by Alex Schatzberg of Yoga Vida, a studio in Greenwich Village. “The idea of practicing without a mat is idyllic in that the yoga practice in its essence requires nothing at all except your body.”

Yes, I agree…totally…at property, on my clean floor, by myself, in my personal practice.

I have to admit, even though, I have found via teaching at outside yoga events and in classes at a park, it is frequently much easier to trade the mat in for a huge blanket or toss it aside entirely than it is to attempt to use it. There’s a sense of freedom that comes from becoming outdoors performing yoga and a synthetic mat with some stickiness just does not match. Plus, if the ground is even a tiny bit uneven, the mat tends to bunch up and protrude in odd areas.

Yoga designs that do not need mats

There are many specialized designs that do not use any mats. If you are curious to attempt a mat-absolutely free practice, these can be a fantastic location to experiment and discover. Bed yoga, paddleboard yoga, acro-yoga and aerial yoga are all taught with out a mat.