How do I hot yoga?
April 14, 2017 5:54 AM   Subscribe

I’m new to yoga in general, and I’m a sweaty mofo in regular unheated exercise. Can you help me find the right equipment to get through a hot(ish) yoga(ish) class?

I’ve been taking classes at Corepower and love their “Yoga Sculpt” class, which has a mix of yoga, strength exercises with weights, a little cardio, squats, and generally a little bit of everything. The class is around 90-95 degrees, and by the time class is done I’m soaked.

I have an inexpensive Gaiam mat from Target, and purchased an unremarkable yoga towel online to put over it. They get the job done, but I’d like to invest in things that are more conducive to the buckets of sweat that come out of me, stays put in all the different movements, and is easy to maintain/clean - and will last a long time. And that I can use in regular non-hot yoga as well.

I know nothing about the all brands and things out there. What's good? What's not? What do I look for, and what really works well for a hot yoga-ish class with a lot of versatility?
posted by raztaj to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I really like my Yogitoes mat towel. The towel has held up very well for about 5 years. I've been using the Manduka eko mat for about a year now. It's pretty solid. I also like the Lululemon mats too.

One other thing to remember, as you get stronger, you will have an easier time of not slipping and sliding because you'll be relying more on your strength and less on the stickiness of the mat.
posted by gregr at 6:14 AM on April 14, 2017


Have you tried the grippy socks? I can't vouch for boutique brands, but the Gaiam toe socks at Target work in conjunction with a towel to keep me from turning warrior poses etc into involuntary splits during CPs classes.
posted by jacy at 4:47 PM on April 14, 2017


I do hot yoga. I get very sweaty. Here's what I use:

The Original Eco Mat - it's natural rubber combined with jute fiber, which gives it a very rough (like the skin of a birch tree) texture so you don't slip when you get sweaty. I'm baffled that this mat isn't more popular, but I guess they don't market as well as Jade, Lululemon, PrAna, Manduka, etc.

I pair it with:

Manduka eQua yoga towel. Not the more expensive eQua Hold one or the yogitoes one. I opted instead to buy several of the cheaper towels so I could do a week of yoga before I had to wash them.

I also got a stack of cheap white hand towels from Amazon. These go at the top of my mat and I wipe myself down or dry my hands periodically.

Here's the Wirecutter on other mat reviews. Also, I found that my Rei camping store had a selection of yoga mats if you want to feel them in person (although not my mat recommendation. Aside from a NY Times article, it's pretty obscure.)
posted by bluecore at 7:20 AM on April 15, 2017


« Older I really hate talking on the phone   |   Professional Etiquette-filter: I got a better... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.