natural yoga mats

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Natural Yoga Mat

By Robert Probert

 

What is the most recommended yoga mat and what are the advantages of using one? The natural mat is the best one so far. The materials used in this are pure rubber extracts.

Thus, it has no harmful chemicals that can cause irritations in your skin unlike most of the mats of today that contain Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC). Prolonged contact with PVC contents can have various effects on the health of the user. A natural mat is therefore good for the body since it does not cause any negative side effects.

If you are going to make a research about the natural rubber yoga mat, you will find out that they are actually the one recommended by yoga professionals. The composition is solely 100% rubber and free from any synthetic materials. A drawback of using a natural rubber one is its rubber smell. However, if you can tolerate a slight odor of rubber while you are doing yoga, then this will suit you best.

Another drawback of the rubber yoga mat is its quite heavy compared to other mats. For this reason, it is not suitable for travelling yoga practitioners. Unlike the travelling version, the natural rubber mat cannot be folded or rolled thus it cannot fit in small bags. In addition, carrying it around for transport is a little exhausting.

Some of the advantages of using the all-natural yoga mat is it can allow the user to be more daring in practicing yoga positions. Being 100% pure rubber, has a high traction giving the yoga practitioner a better grip of the supporting surface. This is actually necessary because if the mat is slippery chances are the practitioner will sustain an injury due to accidental slips.

Another great thing with the natural rubber yoga mat is its thick enough to give support and comfort to the user. The comfort is for lessening the amount of stress the body of the practitioner is going through. This would allow him or her to practice yoga for as long as the yogi likes it.

There are many places that you can buy a natural rubber mat. Most sport stores keep a stock of mats for yoga however, not all of them have the natural rubber version available. To sum it all, a natural rubber yoga mat has many benefits to the user. With the current pace of advancement in technology, soon, all the drawbacks of the natural version will also be gone. Thus, if you want to start practicing yoga, take into consideration the mat that you are going to use.