Non-Skid Mats and Towels: Cheating?

Hi Mary Beth

It’s safety first! Simple really. If you didn’t have the strength then you would fall out or over and learn how to garner that strength. That happens in a yoga studio or in a bathroom. However if you are on a dangerous material that causes slippage then you need to be able to ‘ground’ yourself in a way that lets you know what elements are at play. Is it the strength of your legs or is it actually that your foot is sliding on a slippery surface? Yes, as you get stronger you will slip less, but in a hot and steamy bathroom – if indeed you are heating it, or if there is moisture – you need to remove the possibility of slippage due to the physical environment. It would be the same in a studio where the floor is slippery or slick. The yoga mat is designed to keep your yoga space confined and also keep you safe!

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

This is a non-Bikram question, but I’ve found that people on this forum are knowledgeable and experienced with all different kinds of yoga, so I thought I’d solicit your collective opinion.

When I practice Bikram in my bathroom, I use only a mat and a regular beach towel. But I just started adding in-studio vinyasa, which has lots of poses that cause aggravating sliding.

When I was first learning Bikram, I really struggled with sliding in Triangle, so I tried all kinds of tricks (one foot on the mat, one foot on the towel) to stop it. My teacher told me that once I saw to my alignment and sank deeper on the leg, the sliding would take care of itself. I found that’s indeed been the case and that I needed to rely on my own strength to keep that foot in place.

But is this also the case with vinyasa? I have found that I don’t like to practice with a towel during vinyasa as it bunches up too much. And I don’t know much about the history of yoga, but obviously when it developed people didn’t have access to these high-tech non-slip materials, and managed to become amazing practitioners. Am I cheating my development in downward dog, wheel, and similar poses by using a non-skid surface, or is this a safety consideration (to avoid slipping into a fall) and a “small help” that I should take advantage of?

Thank you very much for your thoughts 🙂

MissBelle-
I do hot vinyasa and also hate using a towel on top of my mat. It bunches way to bunch and ends up just distracting me from my practice. I bought a cheap mat a while back from TJ Maxx when I first started yoga. I was slipping constantly and like I said towels were bunching so I was on a hunt for a non slip mat. I found a forum of people discussing this “Monster Mat” and how great it is for vinyasa, so I ended up going with that mat . It’s called the Yoga Monster Mat and its sticky enough so my sweat won’t make me slip. Ever since I switched i have noticed my poses are starting to look better and I feel more balanced somehow. It definitely isn’t cheating by using a mat, Safety First!
Here is the mat I purchased- http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_gear/yoga_monster_mat.do