For full disclosure, I'm very out of shape, female, 210lbs, 5"5, 27 years old, and am starting yoga again after years of inactivity. I used to be VERY active in high school, so I have some of my old flexibility and strength, but not much else. I am clearly not a yoga expert and no mat will make exercise, on any level, easy for me. That being said, I think I need more time with this mat to really decide whether I like it or not. I'm not going to return it either way because my cats have already jumped on it to play with one another and made a few clear puncture marks (little jerks!), so I wouldn't feel right about returning something my animals damaged. But here's my review thus far after 3 days of use doing some light to moderate yoga and other stretching for thirty minutes an evening:
PROS:
– The thickness REALLY helps with my hands, knees and butt. I'm no spring chicken, so I need all the cushioning I can get! It's almost like memory foam, comfort-wise, and I remember severe wrist and knee pain on previous mats in years gone by. This reduces that pain considerably, so I can keep up the exercise longer than I might have otherwise.
– It rolls up and unrolls nicely, and the carrying strap is a nice touch for portability and storage. It turns up a bit at the ends, but it doesn't interfere with my workouts.
– It definitely seems durable; despite all the pressure and pulling from my yoga stances, which makes me feel like it WOULD start tearing, but it doesn't tear. Yes, there are some nice new tiny holes in it from kitty claws, but it isn't flaking off or anything and it isn't interfering with any activity on the mat. Another mat might flake down to nothing from one encounter with a cat.
CONS:
– Because it's so thick and pliable, I struggle with my balance more on it than I do on my wood-laminate floor. For one-legged standing moves, I get off my mat for fear of falling over and hurting myself. I also got off the mat for warrior 1 and 2. Devil's advocate: me and balance haven't known each other for a long time, so I can't wholly blame any balance issues on the mat. But it is telling that I can do it better on the floor than a mat I purchased specifically for yoga.
– The mat seems to stay put relatively well for most moves, but I can feel the mat shift and stretch sometimes and it's a little disconcerting. As I said, I have a wood-laminate floor, so I was hoping this squishy, plastic-ish mat would naturally stick to a laminate floor. It seems to stay put if I have most of my weight on it in one spot during basic moves, but when I adjust my weight to two or more spots (e.g. vinyasas involving downward facing dog and planks, warrior poses), the mat stretches and shifts. I have to take a few extra moments to keep readjusting to compensate for the fact that the mat stretched or moved and steady myself. It might just be that the mat needs "breaking in", or perhaps this kind of mat that is good on the knees and hands came at the price of not being able to do some of the more complex moves fluidly.
– Plastic-y mat on a wood laminate floor = squeaky fart noises. I do my yoga at home, alone, but I wouldn't bring this mat with me to practice in a group for this reason.
I'll keep using the mat and update my review in a few weeks.
