How to Pick the Best Yoga Mat: Your Complete Guide to Finding the Perfect Foundation fo your Yoga practice
By Laura Pearce, senior Yoga teacher, and founder of Kin Yoga Mats.
Your Yoga mat is more than just a colourful rectangle, it's the foundation of your entire Yoga practice. Whether you're flowing through vinyasa sequences, holding challenging poses, or settling into restorative stretches, the right mat can make the difference between a transcendent practice and a frustrating slip-and-slide session.
But with countless options flooding the market, how do you navigate the overwhelming world of Yoga mats to find your perfect match? Let's break down everything you need to know about how to pick the best yoga mat for your unique practice.
The Foundation of Great Practice: Why Your Mat Matters
Before diving into materials and specifications, it's crucial to understand why your mat choice is so important. A quality yoga mat provides stability, cushioning, and most critically - grip. When you're holding a challenging pose or transitioning through flows, you need complete confidence that your hands and feet will stay exactly where you place them.
Material Matters: The Science Behind Superior Grip
When learning how to pick the best yoga mat, material is your most important consideration. Different materials offer vastly different experiences, and understanding these differences is key to making the right choice.
PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) mats are budget-friendly but often lack durability and can become slippery when wet. They're fine for gentle practices but struggle with more dynamic styles, and not to mention are pretty devastating for the planet...
TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer) mats tend to be stretchy and foamy, an unstable and unreliable base for Yoga, they can work better in a more static Pilates practices (thick and squishy) but that's really all they're good for.
Natural rubber mats provide good grip when dry but can become problematic when wet with sweat. They also have a distinct smell that some practitioners find off-putting. Cheaper rubber mats also disintegrate pretty quickly, leaving a trail of little rubber breadcrumbs that are probably the bane of your Yoga studio cleaner's life...
PU (Polyurethane) mats represent the gold standard for serious practitioners. Here's why PU mats consistently outperform other materials:
PU is essentially vegan leather, and mimics the way that actual skin works. It creates a unique surface that stays grippy even when it gets wet. Unlike other materials that become slippery when exposed to moisture, polyurethane stays grippy.
The molecular structure of PU also provides superior durability. While other mats begin deteriorating after months of regular use, quality PU mats maintain their grip and structural integrity for years, making them more cost-effective long-term investments.
I personally also love the satin-like sheen that our Kin mats offer - and we wanted to create a beautiful fashion forward mat.
Thickness and Comfort: Finding Your Sweet Spot
Mat thickness affects both comfort and stability. Here's how to find your ideal thickness:
2-3mm mats offer maximum stability and connection to the floor, perfect for balance poses and advanced arm balances. However, they provide minimal cushioning for knees and joints. - See our 2mm Travel PRO mats.
4-5mm mats strike the ideal balance for most practitioners, providing adequate cushioning while maintaining stability for standing poses and inversions. See our 4mm PRO & HYBRID mats.
For most practitioners, a 4-5mm thickness provides the optimal combination of comfort and performance.
Size and Portability Considerations
Standard 4mm mats are heavier of course than a 2mm mat, lot of practitioners prefer to forgo the extra comfort cushioning and opt for a 2mm Travel mat that they can layer on top of their studio mat, or just use on it's own.
The Grip Revolution: Why Kin Yoga Mats Lead the Industry
When it comes to combining all these factors - superior PU material, optimal thickness, and exceptional durability, Kin Yoga Mats has revolutionized what practitioners can expect from their foundation.
Kin Yoga Mats utilize advanced PU technology that provides unmatched grip in all conditions. Whether you're in a heated class, practicing power yoga, or working through challenging arm balances, these mats deliver consistent traction that actually improves as you sweat.
While many brands compromise on material thickness or density to reduce costs, Kin maintains premium specifications throughout their manufacturing process. This attention to detail results in mats that maintain their grip, shape, and appearance even after years of intensive use.
Beyond performance, Kin Yoga Mats feature thoughtful design elements that enhance your practice experience. The surface texture provides optimal grip without being abrasive to skin, while the backing ensures the mat stays perfectly positioned on any floor surface. Designed by Yoga teachers, and built to last.
Testing Your Mat: What to Look For
When evaluating how to pick the best yoga mat, consider these practical tests:
The Downward Dog Test: Place your hands and feet in downward-facing dog and hold for 60 seconds. Your hands and feet shouldn't slide at all, even with slight movement.
The Sweat Test: Lightly dampen your hands and repeat the downward dog test. Superior mats (like PU varieties) will actually provide better grip when wet.
The Recovery Test: Press your thumb firmly into the mat surface. It should compress slightly then return to its original shape immediately when you release pressure.
The Edge Test: Examine the mat edges after several uses. Quality mats maintain clean, non-fraying edges even with regular transport and use.
Ready to Upgrade Your Practice?
The difference between a good yoga session and a transcendent one often comes down to the confidence your mat provides. When you know your foundation is secure, you can surrender fully into poses, explore your edges, and access the deeper dimensions of yoga practice.
Stop compromising with inferior materials that limit your potential. Experience the difference that superior PU technology and thoughtful construction can make in your daily practice.
Your practice deserves the best foundation. Discover why serious yogis choose Kin Yoga Mats for their superior PU construction and unmatched grip performance. SHOP NOW.
