krisfit73

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

When I first started hot yoga I also lost my appetite. I found that eating small meals helped me a lot. Before my night class I would usually eat a sweet potato or grilled chicken to give me energy before class. I found it hard to eat before a morning class so i would usually make a smoothie and added some whey protein powder in it.