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The Yoga mat is a simple object.  Rectangular, cushioned, non-slip:  comfortable for prone positions and capable of leaching sweat away from the working body.  How hard can it be to choose one?

A Yoga mat is the only piece of kit a person needs to buy before they can get started (try doing Yoga without a Yoga mat:  it will quickly become apparent that, spiritual discipline or no, some good hard cash ought to be spent on something that prevents the practitioner from slipping or rubbing his/her spine against the floor):  unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean that buying a Yoga mat is a simple operation.  The practitioner needs to take certain things into consideration when deciding on a Yoga mat:  where is he or she going to be practicing; what discipline of Yoga is involved; and how often is the Yoga mat going to be used?  Obviously, a cheap Yoga mat is good enough to get an infrequently-practicing novice going, but it isn’t going to be good enough for the regular practitioner of hot Yoga, whose rapidly-changing poses and fast motion requires a particular balance of cushioning, responsiveness and stability.  Imagine trying hot Yoga on a Yoga mat that slides all over the place – not a good idea.

The best way to think about a Yoga mat is to treat it like a new running shoe.  Runners require different styles of shoe depending on a variety of factors – their distances, the frequency of their training, the terrain they run on and the objective of the shoe’s use.  A race shoe, for example, is very different from a shoe used in daily training:  it’s lighter, less cushioned and more responsive.  Similarly, a Yoga mat will differ in thickness, cushioning and responsiveness of material according to its intended use.  Practitioners of hot Yoga can’t use a “normal” PVC Yoga mat because they’ll be sweating too much (hot Yoga practitioners tend to use a cotton Yoga mat, which will absorb sweat and allow continued grip for wet hands and feet); practitioners of mixed styles can, like the cross-training runner in an all-round shoe, opt for a PVC (and so easy-clean) Yoga mat of intermediate thickness that grips the floor well and provides cushioning as well as response.

A practitioner’s reasons for doing Yoga ought also to be taken into consideration when purchasing a Yoga mat.  If a person practises Yoga mainly for its relaxing or meditative effects, their perfect Yoga mat is likely to be thicker than the right Yoga mat for a person who wishes to get cardiovascular exercise from their discipline.  Again like the runner:  a gentle jogger isn’t going to get along with the hard feel of a pedigree race shoe any more than a marathon-mad fitness freak will like super-cushioned low-mileage dailies.

Fortunately, there’s advice aplenty for the aspiring Yogi at

http://www.crouchingtiger.co.uk/section.php?xSec=22&xPage=1.  From fast-paced Bikram and Ashtanga to the gentler jogs represented by Hatha or mixed disciplines, there’s invaluable information on everything a person needs to know before they buy a Yoga mat.  Check it out:  it’s like a race-trained shoe-fit guide for the whole body.