Yoga - Guide, Tips, Resources: 10/18/10

But are yoga mats de rigueur? A small but passionate subset of yoga practitioners say no. Bravely entering studios with little more than a towel, they argue that yoga mats are overcommercialized, bad for the environment and less hygienic. Some even argue that synthetic rubber mats interfere with certain positions.

“The ecstasy of yoga can’t be contained by a mat,” said Dana Flynn, a director of Laughing Lotus, a yoga studio in New York and San Francisco. Many teachers at her studio have done away with mats and practice solely on the hardwood floor. “The lotus flow is a devotional dance,” she added. “The rubber just got in the way.”

Others have come to the same conclusion. “My mat was disintegrating at home,” said Matt Kebbekus, 29, a maitre d’hôtel at the hot spot restaurant Joseph Leonard who teaches occasionally at Laughing Lotus. “So one day, I just lost it and I loved the feeling.”

Carolyn Brown, who is on the leadership council of the Green Yoga Association, a nonprofit organization that fosters environmental activism, says the mats may be harmful. The synthetic material, she said, can release toxins. “Using a sticky mat is not at all traditional,” she said. “Like any product, there is an environmental impact when manufacturing and shipping.”

But what about cleanliness? Annie Pace, who runs Shakti Sharanam, a yoga school in Crestone, Colo., argues that a hardwood floor may be more sanitary. “It’s better than the atrocious practice of using mats used by other people,” she said.

Ms. Pace says she makes an exception when she isn’t sure how clean the floors are, like in a hotel room with a dirty carpet. Otherwise, she says that mats are just another example of how yoga has become overly commoditized. “Did the original yogis have a synthetic piece of plastic?” Ms. Pace said.

All yogis have a complicated relationship to their mats. They’re cumbersome and often cost extra for storage, which locks you into one studio or style of yoga.

There are benefits, like the comfort of marking one’s territory with a mat. Sticky mats prevent slippage, which is no small matter in a room full of sweaty yogis. And depending on the style of yoga, the mats provide padding for tender joints.

Yet there is something romantic about going au naturel. “The idea of practicing without a mat is idyllic in that the yoga practice in its essence requires nothing at all except your body,” said Alex Schatzberg, who teaches at Yoga Vida, a studio in Greenwich Village.

“But until one is very solid in the understanding of the type of support one needs to have a safe practice,” he added, “I would stick to using the sticky mat.”

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